The buying is slowing down as the bigger things are in front of us to purchase like a Tent, Sleeping Quilts, and Backpacks. Also, Chantal is in summer mode with working and like any 19-year-old girl… she is nose deep in friends. I’m committed to texting her daily asking if we can meet up to talk about a trip that is a tiny bit over 1000 days away… since I get ghosted a little since she does not have thru-hike brain like I do.
Below are some of the highlights that July has brought us with planning this trip.
Dan Purchased: Smith Optics Survey Sunglasses Matte Camo
(Reg $119CAD – Paid $48CAD)
Dan picked up some sunglasses that I hopefully won’t lose before the trip. Wanted something to add some protection when we get into the snow and will also give eye protection a little when it gets windy. Picked this up at The Last Hunt website that was displaying a 55% off. They have a feature that you can split up the purchase over 4 two week periods so a little each paycheck went to the three purchases below.
Dan Purchased: The North Face – Dryzzle Full Zip Gore-Tex Pants
(Reg. $229CAD – Paid $103CAD)
The last day of the 55% off sale at The Last Hunt made me open the wallet. I was on the fence with adding the weight of these pants. Some hikers hike in shorts in the rain and then put something dry on at night. I think I will appreciate the warmth they will also provide me.
Body:50D 101 G/M² GORE-TEX® Paclite®100% Polyester With Durable Water-Repellent (DWR) Finish.
Avg Weight:295 G (10.4 Oz)
Dan Purchased: The North Face – Flight Better Than Naked Short – Men’s – TNF Black
(Reg $80CAD – Paid $36CAD)
Could not resist picking these up that dry fast and breathable and offers sun protection from The Last Hunt website.
FlashDry™ fabrics are engineered to accelerate the removal of moisture from the skin and speed up evaporative drying. FlashDry™ enables you to stay drier, more comfortable and out performing longer in a wide range of weather conditions and environments. FlashDry™ doesn’t add weight or bulk and never washes or wears out.
Gloves: Sun Protection while holding trekking poles.
Picked up some gloves with padding on sale for $7CAD to protect my hands from the sun and help prevent blisters.
Canadian Flag for the backpack 😉
Not sure which one I will pick. I think I’m leaning towards the military one not to stand out as much.
Nike Pro Therma Long Sleeve
I have the matching tights. Not 100% sure if this will go due to trying not to add weight. It’s a great training shirt and I could mail it forward for the Sierra Mountain section or it might be my sleep shirt to put on.
What a great podcast that sparked me to read again Doug’s tribute to his Son Trevor. Makes you think about safety more and where the accident took place… it makes you think of being safe and carrying microspikes in the desert section due to the elevation and snow & ice near Mt. Laguna and Mt. Jacinta. Hit the link above and listen to the podcast. Very interesting to hear from a member of the rescue team and what they have to deal with in the conditions and terrain.
Going to fire up and use “Lose It” on my phone and I reset the app to start fresh with tracking food, water and other health related things. Starting to focus on my food intake and what my diet is made up of. I’m looking forward to getting to the gym again and will start doing Yoga at home and getting out on the Basketball and Tennis courts and using my new road-bike to get around town to be more active. My first goal is to get to 220 pounds. I’ll probably do a fitness post and track my progress.
With this hike having a total cost of around $17,000 we created a Patreon account to help friends and family support us. Even a $1 per month helps. What’s great about Patreon, is that we can funnel updates of our trip through it so people that help us will unlock that content for those who really want to follow, and to say thank you we will create some rewards. You can view our page and our tiers here. If you hit the support page on this website you can see the financials of our trip and our savings. We want to make this trip transparent.
This old man did start going to the gym. Always hard to build a routine. I’m going to get out the tape measure around the body to see the progress over time. Working from home has made it easier to save money and stop buying stuff to put in my mouth. Excited to head to the gym…. can’t beat the $20 per month membership at Fit4Less. Booking times to workout online due to COVID is no big deal.
As I watch vlogs online as I work (cough) I find that I don’t understand where someone is or what’s around them and also what’s the distance between points… so I mapped out the trail on pieces of paper and I’ve also started using google sheets to record how long someone took to go from point to point for those who explain how far they are and give other information on the vlog. The next part of the planning process will be figuring out roughly how long each leg will take and where good resupply points would be to mail food for certain stretches.
Overall, the sheets help me understand the route and the towns along the way that are on the trail and not far away if we have to get some gear or take a zero. 5 sheets of California, 1 sheet of Oregon, and 1 of Washington.
You can view them here.
Listened to “Sock’s” PCT journey on the Hiking Thru Podcast, Sara was great on the podcast, and I took some notes. I enjoy listening to podcasts at the gym or on walks. I also sent an email to Erin Egan asking her if I could interview her. She is the host of this podcast that I enjoy listening to. She was to hike the PCT this year, but due to COVID, she had to postpone. She is also marking her 50th birthday with this milestone. I’m guessing she is moving it to 2021 and it will be great to follow her journey down the trail.
Worked on the master spreadsheet that we use in Google Sheets that tracks our savings. I also updated the gear we still have to buy on our Lighterpack.com site. These figures get populated from other sheets inside the spreadsheet. It’s interesting how expensive this trip is and how much we have to save each day to meet our goal.
Trying to connect with this thing is hard to do sometimes. I’m sure the phone of a 19 year old is in her hand.
Making ice cream coin for clothes, school and this trip…. so that’s ok. 😉
More updates to follow this fall as our being hyper spending is slowing down and we are saving up for big-ticket items like a light-weight tent and sleeping quilts.
Here are some new blog posts:
