Date: 2005-12-31
To: food
Miles today: 0.0

Less than 80 days to go, I¢m pretty sure I have settled on a start date of March 19th ¢ it¢s a Sunday, and while its not my first choice it will work out best ¢ my son Jeffrey will be on Spring break and will go with us to the house in Asheville for a few days, then, on the way back to the airport in Atlanta, he and my husband will drop me off at Springer. I am really itching to go, the weather here in Houston is so unbelievably warm, it feels like spring already with balmy 75* temps. This is somewhat unusual for Houston, but I do remember winters this warm before.I am amazed at what some people eat on the trail, its no wonder that people are starving, they seem to be nutritionally deprived from just eating goldfish, snickers , corn chips, & ¢power bars¢ .   I am also amused at the statement I frequently read about mail drops - ¢most hikers find that their tastes change. Food that looks appealing now loses it's appeal once you are on the trail. So, much of the food drop gets put into hiker boxes, and replaced with groceries bought along the way.¢ This is a quote I took off of Whiteblaze.net. Now, I haven¢t done any long distance hiking as of yet, so there may be some truth to this statement, but I¢m not sure why I would get tired of my own home cooking, (and, I¢ve tried many of these recipes on backpacking trips before) here is a list of some of then dinner items I have made; (all cooked and dehydrated) Split pea soup, Hash brown potatoes and lentils, spicy peanut soup, teriyaki noodles, Thai noodles, sweet & sour pasta, potato quiche, cheese quiche, black bean soup, vegetable stew (potatoes and lentils again) falafel, sweet potato ¢pumpkin soup, to name a few, Lunch items will range form hummus, to tuna fish/pinto bean pate¢ these too have been dehydrated and just need cold water for re-hydration.   I also have lots of apple sauce dehydrated ¢ just add one cup of cold water, walk on for 30 min and a delicious snack is ready. So far I have about 15 different dinner items (for a total of about 100 dinners made) and 7 different lunches. I also have 2 gallon size bags of pineapple dried and am working on 2 bags of banana chips, 2 of apple bits and a few peaches and mangos, this will get mixed up together along with a large bag of pinenuts I found at Sam¢s, some almonds, raisins and whatever else I want to throw in for trail mix. Oh, and tonight, I was at my favorite Indian restaurant, I took home the left-overs and you guessed it ¢ they are in the dehydrator right now, my son thinks I have flipped my lid!Other preparations are going well, my ¢training¢ got off to a slower start than I had planned, but I had a nasty cold/virus that had me in bed for 4 days, so now its catch up, I¢m increasing the distance I run from a normal 2 miles daily to a minimum of 3 miles and at least once a week Marianne (my transcriber, running buddy and twin sister in a former life) and I will do a 6 mile run. A golf course that is practically in my back yard closed last month, so we go run on the course now ¢ all 18 holes comes to about 6 miles! I¢m also getting on the stair master with my pack on, I have about 25 lbs in it right now, and its very comfortable.Equipment is slowly taking shape, the only major thing missing is my tent, it¢s still on back order at REI. I updated my ¢gear¢ list so take a look at what I have. I made up a first aid kit ¢ now remember, I¢m a nurse practitioner, and have spent most of the last 30 yrs working in emergency rooms, so the contents; 6 band aids, 2 cravats (triangular bandages) one safety pin, 3 things of mole skin, and a small roll of foam tape (this stuff is great for toe blisters) that¢s it ¢ I have soap and water elsewhere. I also have a small roll of duct tape, the rest of my ¢emergency¢ kit is a straight edge razor with a sewing needle taped on it, and a tiny spool of nymo thread (this is a very strong nylon thread for beading and will hold anything together.