18 Days till PCT Liftoff

T-Minus 18 days and counting. I'm currently refusing to panic, be stressed, or fret too much.  It doesn't make sense, and if anything, I'm logic over emotion.  We have a giant list though.  It has each day planned with tasks that need to be finished before head out.  We appear to be on track, though things are being crossed out every which way and not really in any order.

Around here Jules' spring break centered around the Pacific Crest Trail.  He also built many sand castles out on the flat with The Barracuda.  Packing and prepping have really caused the whole idea of us leaving for 60 solid days to sink in.  A lot of Daddy Time has been happening around here.


The last few days have looked a bit like this:

This picture was taking on day one of Spring Break.  See that clean floor behind me?  Yeah, that doesn't exist anymore!


I got a swanky new sun hat in periwinkle.  I about fainted when Jules had us buy it.  New gear is expensive and when we purchase darn near everything from Goodwill and Goodwill Outlet bins a 40 dollar price tag is shocking.  However, dreadlocks make hat purchasing a bit more complicated.  Since none of your hair is ever discarded with dreadlocks (it gets locked in as your hair felts) you wind up with quite a bit of it to jam into a hat.  It was one thing I never really factored into the whole dreadlock equation.  I also never foresaw myself wearing a giant sunhat.

I made these a tad bit long so they can hopefully last through next years Summer of Summits.  They will make the Sierras so much nicer!


If youth ascent pants exist, we have been completely unable to find them. All we have been able to find are snowboard, motorcycle/snowmobile, or ski pants.  They are all overbuilt and heavy, even ones called ascent pants.  Normally they are also insulated which doesn't work for mountaineering (you overheat).  So, we have been using kid's riding pants, as in horseback riding.  They are awesome for daily or weekend ascents, but not a full 2 weeks in the Sierras.  Enter the pants above.  They began as a $2.00 pair of women's size 10 Athletica ascent pants found at Goodwill.  After an hour with me and my Bernina, they are now a kids size 8/10.  Two dollar ascent pants are much more my style.

Jules informed me that these look like urine samples.  At 600 calories a vial, I don't I will much care when it comes time to eat our hummus on our lunch break!  Optimus is being very helpful in the background.  That is his industrious face.


Much of the last few days has been about food prep.  We have been slowly purchasing all the necessary food for the last 5 months each grocery visit.  The extra 100 dollars on the bill wasn't all that much fun, but it means we won't have to purchase much of anything (even for Jules here at home) over the next 5 months.  It seems like a good trade-off.

Since The Barracuda is growing like crazy and consuming monstrous calories anyway, I'm having to calorie count even more than I normally would.  Hummus is one of the major lunch selections for us when we backpack.  Each town stop which has a grocery store provides us with two days of fresh fruits and veggies to eat our hummus with.  Each of these vials (from testtubes.com) are waterproof, sterile, and food safe. They have screwtop lids and hold enough olive oil for two lunches.  We can mix up the hummus and snack on our veggies/fruits as we walk. 

All in all things are coming along.  With less than 3 weeks to go, I'm feeling pretty good about it.  The dehydrator is still going full tilt, but by next week, that should all be done too! 


Here's hoping it all works out.