Date: 2014-02-11
To: How
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light snow

The next question that people are asking me is, How? How do you properly prepare for a 5 month hike? How do you leave your family for that length of time? How do you finance a trip of that magnitude? How do you pack enough food to sustain your hike? Those are all great questions and I could come a lot closer to answering them next winter. Right now all that I can honestly tell you is read the journals of past through hikers,you won't find the answers here in mine. To prepare for this hike I have read books from successful thru hikers and read lots and lots of trail journals. I have studied their gear lists and followed their hikes in hopes that I learn more from their mistakes and less from my own stupidity. Thanks, and congratulations to all of you that successfully followed your dreams and recorded it for others to enjoy. I think that the key words in the first question is properly prepare. I know from day one that this hike will be remembered for the successes as well as the failures. As long as they don't end my hike prematurely the unpredictable aspects can be a good thing. I have had a lot of support from my wife and kids and that makes being gone a lot easier. I think more of their concern is that something might happen to me out on the trail, than the fact that I will be gone so long. My wife is absolutely convinced that I will become bear scat and never be found again. The kids are more worried about age related problems,"You know how it is with people your age, one slip and you just might break your hip". They know that this has been a dream of mine for quite awhile though and they are behind me 100 per cent. If it helps alleviate any of your concerns kids, you are all included in my will. But you probably don't want to give up your jobs just yet, I plan to return and bore you to death talking about my great adventure. As far as finances go I can tell you that the gear has already been more expensive than I ever imagined. I am pretty much done with purchasing the gear that I will need and I have spent about $1200 this year. If you count what people have bought for me and things that I already had the total goes up to over $2700. I only upgraded from gear I already had if there were significant changes in pack weight. Light weight gear is not cheap but neither are visits to the chiropractor. I am sure that people have hiked with a lot less but I am afraid that if I am not successful this year I don't know if I will get another chance. As my son Carson says," Go big or go home!" I just hope that there is a enough left over in the budget for food. I am thinking of putting $2500 in a separate account with a debit card to use for daily purchases. This will break down to $500 per month and I will have an accurate total of what the hike costs when I am finished. That leads to the next question, How do you pack enough food? Thankfully there are plenty of resources addressing this question. You can figure out how many meals that you will need to complete each section of the trail. There are also lots of trail towns or hostels nearby that you can either ship yourself food drops or buy the food in stores. The key is to buy foods that are light or dehydrated and also supply lots of calories per ounce. The Trail Angels and their awesome Trail Magic also give you some variety of foods that you can't put in your pack as well as the other places where you can eat on occasion. All you can eat buffets are surprisingly popular in trail towns. The water sources are plentiful and you can usually rehydrate close to the trail so that you don't have to carry large quantities of water. This leaves more room in your pack for the one item that becomes the biggest question out on the trail, How many different ways can you eat Ramen noodles?   The key to a successful completion of the Appalachian Trail is probably not how well that you plan, but how well can you handle the missteps that you didn't plan for along the way. There are going to be highs and lows emotionally during the hike just as the trail is also full of peaks and valleys geographically. If you like roller coasters than just hang on and enjoy the ride!