Date: 2008-01-24
To: Getting geared up
Miles today: 0.0

Going from one to two people on the trail has us adjusting gear. Last week, we made trips to Wenatchee and Seattle checking out our traditional sources. Out of the pack is the alcohol stove and small pot for one person. In the pack goes a MSR Simmer Lite and titanium cook pot sized for two. This requires an adjustment of fuel bottles to serve the new set up. And the list goes on. Since Carla decided to thru hike, she has been busy working out her clothes scheme. We are hoping we can finish up all the purchasing this week and have all the stuff we need except for the consumables, food-fuel-water.It is time to update the TJ with all our new toys and some photos. This will probably go on a few weeks as we check the performance of the new stuff before we add it to the ¢goes in the pack¢ list. The menu has been updated and many of the groceries have been purchased. Fortunately, very little of the vacuum packing was done before the switch from one to two hikers. The dehydrator has been loaded up and is working overtime. We are down to the last couple loads. Still need to pick up a few more items, but the bulk of the purchasing is done. We are doing a mixture of mailed boxes and town stops for supplies. Most of the mail boxes are for the very south and north end of the hike due to the limited selection at some of the towns. During the middle of the hike (and during the larger town stops on north and south ends), it is much easier to use local stores.   Responding to a question in the trail journal, a couple comments about the BioSports (sports trainers) knees and feet check up mentioned in previous udpdate. First they don¢t have any solution to make hiking the AT easier. It¢s a long walk and they would not volunteer to carry my pack--so much for my idea. Most of the help they provided was stretching, balance and strengthening exercises that I can do both before and during the hike. The exercise program I was doing was focused too much on the walking, endurance, packing aspects. For example, I was climbing stairs with my pack, but not doing any balancing exercise. It was obvious from my evaluation that I needed to be able to balance myself better. So we added some different exercises to improve balance. I had not considered the significance of balance and hiking. Knock on wood, I have yet to fall on any of my AT attempts and since that had not happened then why should I worry about balance (my rationalization). On a personal note, I have not been in a focused training program for the better part of 40 years and like all other things around, a lot has changed. Many of my ¢old exercises¢ have been replaced with body friendly exercises. The older I get, the learning curve keeps getting steeper.BioSports found another significant bit of data about my plantar fasciitis (Pf).   Pf was not totally corrected even though I am able to walk around without any pain. My foot was still rolling over and the orthotics needed what is called a ¢post¢ on the inside so that as my foot strikes the ground it is full contact. We also upgraded my boots to a pair with stronger motion control and lighter weight. I expected to be dealing with heavier boots so that was a pleasant surprise. I know others who have Pf are maybe reading this and trying to sort out what they might do. It seems everyone I talk too has a different twist on what to do and there seem to be a variety of treatments that work. One thing that no one seems to have is a quick recovery-it always seems like the often quoted 2 to 6 week cure timeframe for soft tissue injury is very optimistic (my experience). I was initially told by one of the Doctors (and it seems to be coming true) that since each Pf case is based entirely on the individual there are no easier answers, just a lot of trying to determine what works best for your case. Based upon TJ posts, it seems there are a fair number of people hiking with Pf. Some do nothing and deal with daily pain, some get by with off- the-shelf inserts for their boots and some are like me and have a difficult time with it. But we all figure it out and just hike on¢¦¢¦¢¦.So in sum, the BioSports visit was a very positive experience that helped develop an individualized training package. If you would like to know more about it, we can talk about it at a shelter around the fire, or you could send me an e-mail and I¢ll be happy to respond to questions. I was whining about the minus 8 degrees here yesterday and then noticed it was minus 30 in Montana.   So I figured there was no sense in whining and I ought to be glad it was so warm¢happy cold me. So I built a large fire in fire place, found interesting book and made warm drink¢the little pleasures of retirement.         We are down to 40 days¢yes!