end of the year status update:

Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015!

As I sit here and think about the past year of my life, I am pretty damn happy.  It was a good year.  

2015, well... should be an Epic year!

Am I ready for my hike? Heck no! I still have a couple things to buy, and I have to start saving money! I will admit that I am starting to get slightly nervous that I will not be able to afford to do this trip.  One thing is for certain, I will start! April 15th I will step on to the trail in Campo California and start walking North. The things I worry about: the pain I get in my knees and hips when hiking may not "work itself out" and could cut this trip short or I may run out of money and not be able to continue, either of those things are a possibility, but I'm not going to dwell on them.  I will start.

As far as my gear list goes, I have 2 of my "big three" items. I got great deals on both my backpack and my tent, and am very pleased with them. I have gone back and forth on what sleeping bag to get, I think I have come to a decision!  Unless there is some great sale on a similar bag (which has been my luck for most of my gear) I have decided to go with one of the top rated, most popular bags on the trail and will be getting a zpacks 10 degree down bag, cost $420, weight 19.5 ounces! Yes, just 1 lb 3 ounces! So light! I Guess I am starting to get nervous about the total weight of my pack and just don't want to add any more weight. This will be my most expensive piece of gear, but it will be so worth it! Other than that all I have left to buy are my Trekking poles, a bear canister (to be used in the Sierras), a GPS locator, depending on the weather probably micro spikes and a ice axe for the sierras, for comfort from the weather but not necessary: a trekking umbrella for the desert portions and waterproof socks for the Sierras and Washington. I would also like to get a different rain coat and different pants, but for now I will use what I have. As much as I would love to have all the perfect gear for this, that just isn't going to happen.

All I know is I have to seriously bust my butt getting work in the next 3 months! Do the kind of jobs I don't like doing! Hustle Hustle Hustle to get work! I know I can do this!

Here is a quick pic of everything I have so far... minus some socks and my base layer (thermals) which are in the mail.

All the items in the row down the center are items that I will be wearing and will not be in my pack. So much better than all the items Cheryl Strayed put in her pack! I'm so thankful for all the information online about ultralight hiking! This gear will make me much more likely to succeed!

Now it is really time to do all the other planning.. paperwork.. food.. money the gear  was the fun part!

Happy New Year to all my friends, family and followers!

The WILD Effect

I will admit that I only recently heard about the Pacific Crest Trail.  A few months ago a friend of mine that I work with posted something on Facebook about her son hiking the PCT.  I was like, What? he's doing what? I checked out all the pictures that he had posted on fb and then I think I googled it, which led to hours, I mean days of watching you tube videos! In the back of my mind the entire time I was thinking, I could do this. I joined facebook groups, I started researching gear, I figured that by 2016 I could do this!

Then I found out about the book "Wild".

I think it was my mom that first asked me if I had read it. "No", I answered, but I'll add it to the growing list of books, websites, databases and fb pages I will need to read and study. I kept noticing people talking about "Wild", and not in a good way from hikers anyway, and not just any hikers, but pct thru hikers.  I knew nothing about the book, but read the comments and was pretty turned off by the negative things said about the book, the author, and the movie.  Yes, the Oprah approved book, loved by millions was made into a movie, with none other than Reese Witherspoon playing the main character (and writer) Cheryl Strayed, how could you not love it?

One day some troll posted a link to the trailer along with some comment meant to insight reaction.. and it did. from me. I still had not read the book. I'm not sure why he was so hateful about some women who wrote a book about her journey.  Maybe it was jealousy, maybe hate towards women, maybe he was just one unhappy man, whatever, it left a bad taste in my mouth.  One thing was for sure, and it seems to be the biggest complaint about the "wild effect", is that the trail will become more popular.  Is that a good or a bad thing?  Should something so magical be kept a secret for only the "serious" hikers to know about? I heard that in 2013 about 700 people stopped by one of the trail angels houses near the beginning of the trail, in 2014 they reported about 1400 people, in just 1 year the amount of people doubled. Who knows how many people there will be in 2015, 2016 and beyond. When I first heard about the "wild effect" I decided to move my hike up from 2016, to 2015, hoping to hike the trail before it becomes to busy and maybe a little touristy.  The concerns are legitimate, will there be enough water at the water caches left in the middle of the desert for the hikers by trail angels? Will the small stores in town run out of food and supplies that people buying along the way depend on? Will the trail angels that let people stay at their homes be overwhelmed? Can you imagine 1400 people staying at your house during a couple month time period? They truly are angels!

I remember a man in the fb post I was talking about before saying to the guy, if we are worried about a movie bringing light to the PCT then we must also worry about all the blogs, and the independent films and the you tube videos and the facebook posts, they all introduce the trail to people who have never heard of it. In this day and age, where technology and sharing our lives with others has become so common place, there is no way to keep this private. By the end of the post I felt like I needed to write on the back of my backpack "I HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK !" I feel as though, because I am a women, I am immediately put in that group.  I am nothing like Cheryl Strayed, I exclaim!

The movie came out to select theaters this week, and there are already talks about an Oscar nomination for Reese Witherspoon. I've noticed no more negative talk in the groups, still concern for the effects it will have, but no negative comments directed at the writer. I'm starting to believe that it was just that one guy posting in different groups.

So the other day I did it, I downloaded "Wild" into my Nook app on my phone and began reading it and I'm glad I did. Not because it's some great novel that everyone must read, but because it is about one women's journey to find herself and she just so happened to do it on the the Pacific Crest Trail.  A trail I will be hiking in 4 months and 1 week (but who's counting). I winced when reading about all the gear she took and the weight of her pack! I enjoy hearing her story.  Just as I enjoy reading blogs from other female hikers.  She Hiked her own hike, and she did that when not that many women did it solo, good for her!

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 4 months. I'm sure that friends of mine that have shown no interest what so ever in my plans to hike the pct will now be interested.  I'm sure I will be tagged in lots of articles about the movie and I will have to get use to saying "yes, I've heard of the movie Wild".

I will finish reading Wild.

I will go see the movie.

Then I will go "Hike my own Hike"

p.s.
my trowel from "Duece of spades" arrived in the mail this week.
:D

Are you hiking alone?

Yes.

What? your hiking alone!!!

Yes.

Well... kind of.

technically - yes, but actually - no.

let me explain....

Yes I am hiking by myself, and by that I mean that I have not made any plans with another hiker to start and finish with them. Will I be by myself on the trail, probably not. I'm not the only one going on this crazy adventure, there are others! Last year aprox 1300 people started at the Southern Terminus in Campo California.  Most of those people will start in April, with some in March and May, that is a lot of people starting every day! All these people will hike at different speeds, but after awhile you will fall into a group of people that hike similarly to you. Most people tend to camp at water sources, I may be by myself during parts of the day, but most likely will not be at night (which is ok with me). I'm kinda looking forward to meeting the total strangers that will become my family in 5 short months...

Speaking of 5 months... OMG I leave in 5 months! (4 1/2 months actually)

So what have I been up to since my last post, a month ago? A lot of researching gear... struggling with decisions... Buying stuff... working my butt off and sadly, very little hiking. Thankfully I am pretty much done with buying gear so I can move on to other things... like my food plan.

Oh! Remember the shirt that took me forever to decided on? yeah, I'm second guessing it again. haha.  After I bought the shirt and wrote the blog post I had to laugh at myself at the struggle I had with shorts!  I found some that I liked a lot, but they were way too expensive! But thanks to a 50% black friday weekend sale, I decided to splurge and I bought them!

  

I did manage to get a little hike in at the Grand Canyon on Thanksgiving day.  Life is good.

OMG, IT'S JUST A SHIRT!!!

A couple of days ago I happened to be working near an REI, so naturally I had stop and check the clearance racks, just in case there was some piece of gear I needed! I am still in need of several pieces of clothing on my gear list, and way too much research and scanning the internet for prices has been going on lately! After trying on a bunch of shorts and having the REI sales women try and push pants with the detachable legs (I had a pair of these and have no idea what I did with them!) I found my way to the clearance rack with shirts.
One of the first ones I see is Orange (my favorite color) and a size Medium (my size), is a style I like but it is made of 50% cotton. ExOfficio Java tech

The next shirt I found was an REI brand shirt, (I can't find a pic of it) it had the special "cooling fabric" thing going for it, it was purple and was the cheapest option, also was a size small.

Shirt #3 Was an Outdoor Research t-shirt.  Great Brand, made of polyester and merino wool, but it was a size L. (shown bellow in pink, and will be referred to below)

I headed to the fitting room with 3 shirts, all different sizes, this shouldn't be too hard, right? Well They all fit, wait, what? yeah somehow all 3 shirts fit nicely and were all comfy tees.  so I hung all 3 up next to each other and stared at them. I weighed all my options, read all the tag info, even compared the original prices, you know because maybe the more expensive one was the best one right? Well the most expensive one was the one made with cotton.  Hiking and cotton = bad, but the sales lady said it was specially designed and is great for hiking and I would love it!! Should I listen to her?? I don't want to tell you how long I stood in the changing room starring at all 3 shirts trying to make this decision, but the length of time was not normal, lets just leave it at that.

Why am I having such a hard time picking a shirt? I guess the main reason is that I will have to wear this shirt for pretty much 6 months straight.  I will only be carrying 1 short sleeve shirt. My other shirt will be a long sleeve shirt that can be worn in the desert to shade my skin from the sun, and when its cold. I will also have a long sleeve "thermal" shirt.  that is all. I must love this shirt.

I finally decided on the Outdoor Research shirt, size L, in Blue, made of Polyester and merino wool.  It was originally priced at $49 and I got it for $27.73

Congratulations Colleen, you made a decision!!

Well... kind of.

So I get home and am all eager to update my gear list and add my shirt, so I look it up on REI's website and.... dammit.... it is not only available in another color (the pink one shown above), but another style.  and the other style with a v-neck is available in a size Medium.  OMG! why?

I have spent the 3 days since trying to decide what to do.  Should I order the one online and return the one I bought or just keep the one I bought? 

So I decided to sit down and share my insanity with you! I went and got the shirt and put it on (tags still attached) you know, to be in the spirit of it all while typing.  A few minutes into this post, I grabbed the tags and ripped them off.  Decision made.  

Now what should I do about shorts?....

Up and Running!

Yeah I finally got this blog up and running!

In exactly 6 months I will be at the PCT Kickoff event, ADZPCTKO 2015 (annual day zero pacific crest trail kick off) in Lake Morena California.  I will have been hiking for 11 days by then and will get a ride back to lake Morena for the event, then get a ride back to where I left off on the trail.

It is amazing how quickly time is flying by! I have so much to plan for yet! I have to admit that I have been pretty obsessed over the planning so far.  I have done a ton of research on gear, food, the trail ect.

When will I leave? I am planning on starting the trail on April 14th from Campo California at the Mexican boarder.  Although I live in LA I will be heading to WI to prep for my resupply and visit with family.

When will I finish? I should finish somewhere between Sept 15 and Oct 1 (well that's my goal anyhow)

How will I get food? My mom will be sending me resupply boxes containing what I will need for the next leg of my hike.  When I can I will resupply in town, but the boxes will probably save me $$ and I will eat better food.  I will also have some backup gear that she will send when requested.

Why? Why not? I'm not doing this to "find myself", or because I read the book "wild".  I heard about the PCT from a friend who's son was hiking it.  I immediately wanted to do it too.  The more I researched it, the more I wanted to do it! easy as that.

What will I take with me? I am trying to hike as light as possible! Ultralight hikers typically have a pack (minus water, food and fuel) that weighs under 10 lbs.  I am shooting for 12 lbs. Money is the obstacle. Check out my gear list to see what will be in my pack.

6 months to go.. can't wait!

Please bear with me while my page is under construction.  Feel free to return soon and share my crazy adventure of hiking the PCT.  Hoping for 2015!