Thursday, February 27, 2014

Couch Potato


My best friend Amy came over a few days ago and we, like any self-respecting women our age, split our time between watching Thor 2 in the theatre and watching Too Cute on Netflix. And besides that, we also bagged dehydrated potatoes. Lots and lots of them. 46 ziplocks, to be precise. These are, of course, some of the meals that Zachary and I will be eating when we’re on the trail. Amy and I measured potato flakes into bags along with powdered milk, salt and pepper— I’ll add seasoning and vegetables later, and we’re going to bag the meat separately. 

When we had finished, polishing off almost a dozen family-size boxes of potato flakes, we piled the bags on the couch to show off to Zach when he got home from work.


“It’s a couch full of potatoes,” she said.

“A potato couch,” I said.

“A COUCH POTATO!” we yelled in unison. And then we hugged. Because sometimes a huge pile of backpacking food is the best reminder of why you are best friends with your best friend.

~~~

Monday, February 24, 2014

FAQ about the PCT, Part Two


If you don’t know what the PCT is, or even if you do, you should check out FAQ about the PCT, Part One! I’ll wait.

There. Did you enjoy it? Do you think I’m crazy? You’re in good company. There’s no way I would undertake something like this on my own, but I would follow my husband to the ends of the earth, and if the ends of the earth include an awesome hiking trail that winds through 2,600 miles of breathtaking wilderness, that ain’t too bad.

Now, without further ado, here’s another round of questions that I often get…

Q: When are you leaving and when will you come back?
A: We have a flight booked for April 19th, but we’re going to spend Easter and a couple days with my sister in San Diego before hitting the trail. We’re hoping to attend the official kick-off date on April 25th. We should finish the trail in mid to late September, and then we’ll find our way to Portland and stay for a few weeks, leaving our return to land somewhere in mid to late October.

Q: What will you be eating and how will you carry it?
A: We will be eating mostly meals that we’ve dehydrated and packaged ourselves, which (hopefully) will include pasta, mashed potatoes, chili, rice, hummus, chicken, and beef, supplemented with lots of olive oil, peanut butter, parmesan cheese, and Snickers bars. We’re currently working on packing our resupply boxes, which we will leave with my parents, who will send them to general delivery at post offices along the trail as we go. This way we’ll always have a supply of staple food, plus whatever we want to buy when we’re in town.

Q: Will you be able to keep your townhouse?
Buford Mountain, MO— I wish we could hike here more often.
A: Sadly, no. There’s no possible way we could afford to pay rent on a house we aren’t living in. We’ll be moving out pretty soon.

Q: Are you quitting your jobs?
A: Nope, but neither of us will be working during that time. Zach just got approved for a leave of absence, and I will be able to jump right back into my editing job when we get home.

Q: What are you doing to train for this?
A: We walk a lot, although we should walk more. We’ve been carrying our backpacks lately. However, there aren’t any big hills or rugged terrain in our town (or anywhere close), so there’s no a whole lot we can do. Our best shot is to keep our bodies in shape and prepare our minds for dealing with the pain and soreness of hiking day in and day out.

Q: Is the trail safe?
A: Well, that depends on your definition of “safe.” I wasn’t able to find info about casualties on the PCT, but I know there have been some— a couple times caused by hikers getting caught unprepared in unexpected weather, but mostly from hikers getting hit by cars when they try to cross a road. To my knowledge, no one has died of crime or animal attacks on the PCT. We will be in constant danger of blisters, shin splints, turned ankles, rabid mosquitoes, and scrapes and bumps— but all in all, it’s not much more dangerous than going for a walk where you cross busy streets, as Zach and I do every day. 

Q: You’re going to take a bunch of photos, right?
A: We’ll try! We have a camera that isn’t terribly good, but it’s waterproof and shock-proof and Zach already owned it, so we’re gonna call it good enough.
Washington, 2010: this is how I looked after working eight
hours a day on a farm and not showering for two weeks.
It's really not as bad as you think.

Q: How will you afford to stay in hotels along the way?
A: This is generally asked by people who don’t seem to grasp the concept of a backpacking trail. Yes, we will be stopping by towns here and there, and I’m hoping we’ll have enough money to get a hotel once in a while (though that is a dim hope at this point), but we are going to be sleeping in our tent every night. 

Q: How will you shower?
A: We won’t.

Q: Ew! How can you go without a shower for that long?
A: Because we’re expecting not to. I’ve heard that you can count the hot showers on the PCT on one hand. We’ll wash up once in a while, but we will have to be at peace with our level of griminess. I’ve done this short-term while working on a farm. Once your standard of cleanliness goes down, you hardly miss the shower!

Did I forget any? Is there anything else you’d like to know?
~~~


Monday, February 17, 2014

We'll Call This Entry "Poetry" So I Don't Feel So Self-Centered


How have I not blogged in over a week? This is ridiculous.

Nine weeks and four days to the Pacific Crest Trail.

That came up fast.

I’m almost done dehydrating the hummus. I hope I didn’t add too much lemon.

We’d better keep the beef separate from the potatoes and pasta in case it goes bad.

Sheesh, we haven’t bought the beef yet, have we?

My ankles were sore from that eight-mile walk on Saturday. Yeah, eight miles. And my ankles were sore. 

I need to get back in shape! And start planking again, too. 

Ugh. Planking. Core strength. Who needs core strength, anyway? Other than, y’know, backpackers. 

We need to figure out our pillow system.

And I should fill out and print my application for entry in Canada. I wonder how long that will take?

And I need to get new passport photos so I can get a card.

Wow, I need to be writing this stuff down. Where did I file that PCT list?

I’m going to miss everyone so much. 

I bet it’ll be like a time warp, though. I’ll bet I’ll feel like I’ve dropped into a different dimension.

Why has it been so hard to blog lately? I mean, yeah, I’ve been full of words, but every time I’ve sat down to write a blog, I just get four pages of stream-of-consciousness garble that nobody but me would want to read.

I need to buy my hiking shoes. I wonder how few pairs I can get away with?

I really hope this works out.

I can’t wait for spring.

~~~

Friday, February 7, 2014

100-Word Memoir: Snow Days, or Lack Thereof


Since my siblings and I were homeschooled, we almost never got snow days. We had to complete our schoolwork, watching our private-schooled neighbors wrecking our sledding hill into a track of grassy mud, until noon. The anticipation was awful.

Still, when it lasted beyond noon, snow was one of the great highlights of my childhood. We’d spend all afternoon sledding, fighting, and playing various versions of snowball fights, demolition derbies, and “tackle Eric off his sled.” 

I swore that I’d be an old geezer if I ever said I didn’t like snow. 

I guess I’m an old geezer now.

~~~

Thursday, February 6, 2014

A Blog Post About Pennsylvania

"It's 10 degrees and my fingers are falling off!"

Every time I’ve sat down at the computer to write about our trip to Pennsylvania, I don’t know the words to start. This isn’t because it was a particularly unusual or difficult to describe trip, but a simple fact of feeling pretty drained lately. Zachary and I returned to town with two teenagers in tow— Francis and George, the oldest of his set of six youngest siblings— and between hanging out with them and editing my student papers and trying to keep the house from imploding, I haven’t felt terribly eloquent. And now it’s been a solid week and a half since the wedding, and five days since I started writing this post, and a full day since the boys left to go back to Portland, and I need to put something on my blog before I fall out of the habit entirely!

Let’s see, where to begin? I went to two new states. Ohio was one, and since we listened to Tommy on the way there and Who’s Next on the way back, I will forever associate the half-flat, half-mountainous state with The Who. The second state was Pennsylvania, which also marked my first brief foray into New England. I had certain positive sterotypes about what New England was like… and they were all true! From the  houses with 12-foot ceilings, richly-colored interiors, and front porches to the wooded mountains drenched in snow, it was something right out of a picture post card. (Also, the “Obama hates coal!” signs and amusing accents.)

The Pinnacle
Zach and I set up camp in his brother Dustin’s (the groom) livingroom. The bride, Tessa, was living out her last few single days in her parents’ house, along with about 20 other out-of-town family members. On any given day there were 30 of us (all immediate family!) running around that house, and Tessa’s family fed us all— from a complete Thanksgiving dinner (with two turkeys) to enough pork tacos to feed an army!

We got to see eight out of nine of Zach’s siblings, and meet a slew of new people, all of whom are now related to us. We got to spend a lot of time with Zach’s family, and got some time to ourselves, too, when we spent an afternoon hiking to the Pinnacle, one of the most famous points on the Appalachian Trail. We played video games, shared drinks, visited the largest Cabela’s in the US (where Dustin works), talked politics, tried to stay out of the way, tried to catch up with out-of-town relatives, ate candy, shopped at Weis Market, ate pierogies for breakfast, felt sorry for ducks walking on an icy pond, and froze our butts off in the often-sub-zero temperatures. Oh yeah, and we attended a wedding, too. A beautiful wedding with beautiful people. But somehow a public blog doesn’t seem like the best place to tell about it.

Look for an upcoming post or two about our trip— definitely one about the hike to the Pinnacle. But other than that, suffice it to say that it was a good trip, and we had a good time, and I have been rushing to catch up on my normal life ever since.

~~~