This Is It

Never would I have thought that I’d spend my whole last week busy from the time I woke up until I went to bed. I haven’t had to rush to do anything but the list of little things to do was so long that I needed a second piece of paper. You know, the kind of things that aren’t a huge deal if they don’t get done and are insignificant enough that you’ll forget if you don’t write them down. Yet those are tasks that are the difference between leaving the house, and Kristin, in the best (easiest, and most stress free) shape possible and just leaving.

For instance, last night we found the stopper to our main bathroom sink broken. The lever that moves it up and down broke off so the stopper would no longer stay open. I can’t remember the last time we filled that sink up with water so I could have left it broken while I’m gone. Though, that would mean removing the stopper from the sink entirely so the water can drain.  It also means you have to view the nasty inside of the pipe and the water makes a strange belch/beer tap pour sound when you run it. Would Kristin be just fine like that? Sure. But I’m fixing it, just because I can, because I know she would prefer not to have the sink belch at her for the next five months and it’s the sink we use every day to brush our teeth, etc.

Most of the time intensive tasks have been knocked out. Cut a path through the corn on our 18 acres so Kristin can get to the top of the hill and have a camp fire if she wants? Check. Buy all my hiking food and get accurate calorie counts? Check. I’m coming down the home stretch at this point, though I still need to clean the car out and wash it so that it’s ready to sit at mom’s house for five months. From where I’m sitting now, I’m very glad that I decided not to work a week after our Jamaica vacation. That would have meant squeezing everything I’ve done in the last two weeks into one. Some things inevitably would have been missed, and I would have been rushed, and pissed because I was rushed, the entire time. Hmm, missed and pissed. Sounds like a rock song or something.

8 days of sustenance.

Here are my food choices for my journey through the 100 mile wilderness. All things considered I think I have a fairly healthy mix. The Carnation Instant Breakfast, brownie mix, oats, and coffee are going to be mixed together. Just add water and you have a chocolatey breakfast slurry you can enjoy while you’re breaking camp and getting started for the day. I also have ingredients for trail mix. Oh! I just realized the cheese isn’t in the picture. Hard cheeses hold up very well without being refrigerated. So I have peanut butter and crackers, cheese and crackers, pepperoni/salami and crackers, and tuna and crackers combinations I can munch on. The beef jerky adds some protein to either the ramen or the honey buns and oatmeal cream pies so that the meal isn’t so lop sided.

In all, you’re looking at 24,000 calories. I planned for 3,000 calories a day for 8 days. I strongly believe I’ll be in Monson by the end of day 7 so this gives me an extra day at full rations. If I’m slower I can stretch what’s here to a ninth day or even half of a tenth day. If I’m not in Monson by the end of the 10th day we have a serious problem, like I’m injured. I also plan to start the first morning off with an MRE, courtesy of a buddy of mine, so that gives me another 1,000 calorie buffer.

Sadly, the Samsung Galaxy S5 that I bought to take better pictures didn’t work out. It was an AT&T phone and I don’t think it was unlocked so even though Cricket is owned by AT&T and uses their network I was having intermittent network problems. In the two days that I had the phone I also became reacquainted with how giant all these new phones are. It was so big it wouldn’t have fit in my hip belt pocket so every time I did want to take a picture I would have had to take my pack off since I’m not walking with a phone in my shorts pocket. Lame. So I resold it. At least I didn’t have to feel bad about dropping $100 on a phone and then having it sit at home. My Moto E takes decent pictures as long as there is adequate sunlight. I’m considering it a positive. In the age where super sharp pictures are a dime a dozen, most of my pictures will be less than perfect, like they were in the old days. Back then pictures weren’t snapped every time our heart beat so they feel more special when you look at them. Maybe I’ll one day view the photos of my thru-hike that way.

Hair cut? Check. Clothes sprayed with an insecticide designed by the military to kill them on contact? Check. The list is almost finished. One more day of preparation and then I’m off to chase this Dream I’ve been thinking about for so long. I’ll post an update once I reach civilization after the 100 mile wilderness. With any luck that will be July 10th.

Happy Independence Day everyone!