Date: 2004-08-31
To: Now That It's Over
Miles today: 0.0

Since I've gotten back to the 'real world' I've been asked a few common questions. Let me try to answer some of them.What's 'next', PCT, CDT?? If I was asked this question two weeks ago I would have said that I had no interest in hiking the Pacific Crest Trail or the Continental Divide Trails. Now I'm not so sure. I have to admit that adjusting to life off the trail hasn't been as easy as I thought. I do miss that life and am currently considering another long distance hike. Right now it's 'a maybe'.What was your typical day like? I would generally wake up at first light. If I was sleeping in my tent I would ask LuLu if she was awake as she generally would be tented near by. I would get up and get our food bags down and drop LuLu's by her tent. On cool mornings I would get back inside my tent for breakfast. I almost always had a 'cold' breakfast which was generally a zip-loc bag of granola with powdered milk already added. Just add water and it is an easy 'breakfast in bed'. After breakfast I would start to pack up. I tried to always pack everything in the same way each and everyday. In this way it was easy to know if I had everything and hopefully no items were left behind. LuLu and I were almost always ready to hike at the same time which was at or a little before 7:00am. Once in a while we would sleep in but that wasn't too often. Sometimes we knew what our planned destination was before we ever started hiking for the day. Other times we didn't even decide where we were going to stop for the day, until late afternoon or early evening. We would however set points where were would meet during the day, such as a shelter, a spring or stream, or a particular summit with a view. This way we could hike our own hike, and let the other catch up on our breaks. There were times and places that I wanted to hike closer to LuLu because of weather, or difficult terrain. This wasn't because LuLu was not capable of doing this herself, it was more for my 'peace of mind'. One thing we started to do differently was to eat our main meal of the day at lunch. This was LuLu's idea, and it was a good one. This way we got a more substantial meal when we were working the hardest. It also allowed us to hike longer into early evening and then not have to leave time to cook at the end of the day. We would have something light at the end of the day like peanut butter and crackers or an energy bar to keep us from waking up hungry. This worked very good for us. Where we decided to stop for the day was a decision we made together. How we decided was; current weather, tomorrow's forecast, food supply vs. next resupply location, and sometimes just a couple of flat spots to put our tents.   If we stayed in a shelter or camped near by we would hang our food bags in the shelter. If we weren't near a shelter then I would put up a 'bear bag' to keep our food safe for the night. We never did have a problem keeping our food safe except one time in the hostel in Glencliff NH, we were doing a slack pack that day, and had left our resupply at the hostel for the day. While we were gone, a enterprising chipmunk found a ziploc bag of LuLu's nuts and helped himself.What would I do different? Not much. As you know I used mail drops for 99% of my trail meals. For me, it worked well, and I wouldn't change it. I think I would switch to an alcohol stove, only because of the lighter weight. My MSR Dragonfly worked flawlessly, but it is quite a bit heavier than the alcohol stoves. Should I decide to do another long distance hike I would replace my pack. It served me well but it's took a beating and I would like to replace it with a lighter one. I also used a water filter. I would take a clorine based water treatment next time. Again, only because of the weight.If you have a specific question you would like to ask, you can e-mail me at: adk46er4295@yahoo.com