Presidents Day Weekend

I was able to arrange a four day weekend around the Presidents Day holiday in order to head to Anchorage to visit my parents.  In addition to celebrating my mom’s birthday, squeezing in a long run, and waiting outside while the fire department ventilated our house after snow clogged the vents and caused a carbon monoxide problem, I managed to fit in some quality PCT planning time.  Organization was the name of the game! 

One of my first projects was to sort out my maps and route beta.  On the trail, I plan to carry Halfmile’s PCT maps (http://www.pctmap.net/), Yogi’s Town Guide, and The Pacific Crest Trail Databook, by Benedict Go.  I’ll also have the Wilderness Press PCT guidebooks, but I have a feeling these will be overkill and ditched along the way.  Rather than starting with everything I need for the entire journey (too heavy!), my parents are going to send me what I’ll need for each subsequent section in my resupply packages.  Therefore, I spent a lot of time over the weekend dividing up my maps and tearing apart my books.  This was a super tedious process, and I’m happy to have it behind me. 

Since I’m not going to make it back to Anchorage before I hit the trail, I wanted to get as organized as possible for my shipments.  Before leaving Seattle, I’d made tentative contents lists for each resupply box.  Over the weekend, my mom and I made a trip to the post office where we picked up a stack of flat rate boxes.  Our next stops were Costco and Fred Meyers.  Though my parents are planning to do a lot of shopping for me throughout my trip, I wanted to have some non-perishable items on hand to get started.  We also talked about how to repackage the food, as they won’t have space to ship everything in its original packaging and it would be too heavy for me to carry anyways.  While Costco and Freddie’s were a bit overwhelming and I wound up making a few changes to my lists, it was fun to think about the heaps of guilt-free goodies I’ll be eating this summer!   

My parents are going to be working overtime to make my resupply shipments the tastiest on the trail, and I owe them big time.  By doing most of the shopping for me, they’re allowing me to consume more fresh food.  They’ll be sending bagels, English muffins, and homemade treats that I couldn’t possibly purchase or make before the start of my adventure.  Thank you!   

The rest of my weekend was spent on smaller projects like activating my SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger (see the Where’s Kristy? tab for information about this nifty device), figuring out my solar charger, which I’ll use to charge my cell phone and batteries for my headlamp, SPOT, and radio, and showing my parents how to update my blog (most of my entries will be handwritten and mailed to Anchorage from pit stops).  My dad was also kind enough to seam-seal my new tent.

Back in Seattle, I just bought a one-way ticket to San Diego!   Big thanks go to my grandparents for donating their Delta miles!  I’m planning to leave Seattle on Wednesday, April 25th, and I hope to start hiking from the Mexico border on Thursday, the 26^th.  I’ll spend the 27^th and 28^th at the Kick-Off in Lake Morena, about 20 miles from the trailhead, and then mosey north from there.  I can hardly believe it!  It was great to get so many logistics taken care of over the weekend, and for the first time, I feel like this trip is actually going to happen!