Three Weeks To Go – The Trek %

Three weeks to go, it’s time to start getting a little nervous. The things I’m worried about are: Water, Food, Injury, and Failure, so let’s take these things one at a time.

Water:

I recently hiked the Appalachian Trail. Water on the AT was never an issue; I didn’t carry more than one liter at a time. I think there was only one time that water was scarce, and that was literally for one day. My concern with the Pacific Crest Trail is that we start with approximately 700 miles of desert. I have seen estimates of water carry form 4 liters to 8 liters, that’s an incredible amount of weight to carry. I guess I’m going to have to wait and see what’s required, but I need to plan for a certain level of carry, and I don’t know what that will be. I guess I’ll start with the ability to carry 4 liters and move up as needed.

Food:

Same problem, on the Appalachian Trail, you didn’t need to worry about food, supplies were available at the most every two days or so. While most of the time I carried way more than two days of food, I knew I could always get food if something happened. On the PCT, not so much, everything I’ve read or seen online tells me that there are much longer stretches between food supplies. Also, I seem to be reading that certain supply stops are lacking, so stock up. I guess I’ll need to lean on the FarOut App more, and be prepared to carry food for a longer distance.

Injury:

I started the AT at this time last year. I’m older today than I was then, and I think about getting hurt. I have to push it to the back of my mind. I did get hurt a couple of times on the AT, just from falling down, I bumped my head once pretty badly in Virginia, fell and broke my phone along with a hip injury, took a big fall in Maine, and had a nasty gash on my leg. But all in all I survived, I’ll survive the PCT as well!

Failure:

It could happen, but it won’t. Put one foot in front of the other from Mexico to Canada!

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