Date: 2011-03-22
To: 10 Days to Go
Miles today: 0.0

With the help of my husband and children, I¢ve prepared about 16 mail-drop boxes. I expect to pick one up about once each week. I¢ll address the first one to myself for pick-up at Unicoi Gap in Helen, GA. Lots of thru-hikers arrange for regular mail drops from home. Others find it more of a hassle than it¢s worth and just buy whatever they can find near the trail, even if it¢s just junk like Snickers bars and chips. I¢m amazed at how many folks actually live on this sort of stuff on the trail. I guess they get their ¢real¢ food on town stops. For me, I¢ve decided to give drop boxes a go. I bought a bunch of freeze-dried meals from this survivalist website for folks who want to prepare themselves for the end of the world, EarthWave Living (http://www.earthwaveliving.com/). Any other hikers looking to save some serious money on the Mountain House freeze-dried foods should check it out. Their prices are TONS better than REI, but you do have to purchase them in large quantities.Here is a sample of a typical day¢s rations on the trail:Breakfast: Hot cider (80 cal.), two packets of instant oatmeal (Quaker Apple Spice, 356 calories), 1 package of Myoplex Nutrition Shake (190 calories); breakfast total: 626 caloriesLunch: I¢ll be grazing on almonds, dried fruit, trail mix, maybe bagels with peanut butter¢¦believe it or not, this is one time in my life where I¢ll actually need the fat and carbs! I expect to consume about 500 or more calories by this midday grazing, plus another nutrition shake to fill in any nutritional gaps, for a lunch total of about 700 calories.Dinner: A double serving of one of the Mountain House freeze-dried meals (they offer such culinary masterpieces as Beef Stroganoff, Wild Rice and Mushroom Pilaf, Grilled Chicken Breast w/ Mashed Potatoes) (about 650 calories), plus a cup of Chai tea (120 calories), for a dinner total of 770 calories. With a menu like this, my daily calorie intake is a whopping 2096, minimum. Sounds like a lot, but I¢ll bet I¢ll need even more calories than that once my ¢hiker appetite¢ kicks in. I¢ve read in numerous books and online sources that a hiker burns an average of 6000 calories a day, so I really do hope and expect to shed a few pounds on the trail. No hiker is inclined to carry enough food to get 6000 calories each day, so it¢s my understanding that town days are feast days. I look forward to that! Unfortunately, I love food. When I married my husband I weighed 98 pounds and I could eat whatever I wanted. I am embarrassed to admit, but I will anyway, that I now weigh 150 pounds. That is TERRIBLE for a woman of my short stature. I really hope to leave at least 40 of those pounds somewhere between Georgia and Maine. (Pat once told me to never weigh 98 again. I think 110 would be perfect!) In addition to hiking in Aiden¢s honor, I am hiking to make some positive changes in my life, my weight and fitness level being two of the most significant of those changes. The trail will be my own ¢Biggest Loser¢ challenge. I¢ll be leaving as a frumpy middle-aged woman, but I hope to be one hot grandma upon my return (am I still a grandma if I don¢t have a grandson? In my heart I will always be Aiden¢s Nana.)My family has been awesome about my upcoming departure. Their support and enthusiasm for my endeavour really makes me feel happy. How I will miss them! They are the best!