Lucky Dog: Food

In as much as we have to get ourselves put together and have everything prepped for us to leave on the trail, I also have to do the same for Lucky. In some cases, it is even more important that I have everything prepped for him, as he is dependent upon us.

So when are you going to get married?

This is a question I feel like we have answered quite a bit from family and friends over the past who knows how long. I guess it just is something where we don't feel like it must be done now, nor are we both really ready for us to make that commitment.

Probably should back up.

Garage Sale!

Garage sales are a lot of work. I mean, A LOT of work. I don't think we would have been able to do this garage sale without Damon's mom, Diana. She does a lot of garage sale shopping during the season and can find some of the best deals out there. She also has a house, with the requisite garage, to hold a sale. That meant, though, that we had to get all of the stuff up to her house. I did a bunch of purging of my stuff, and we had two different friends offer up stuff as donations to sell. One of those friends had been planning their own garage sale, it just never happened. That means, there was a lot of stuff to get to a town a half an hour away.

Canadian Entry Visa!!

A second excited post from me this week! I got my entry visa today. It was somewhat of a surprise, just a response to my email submission. It has the magic stamp that is the only thing that changed from when I sent it.

And like that, I can get into Canada once I get there.... Now I just have to walk the 2,645 miles to get there. 

Schedule done!

So, I just finished our plan of the trail. I know that is something that a lot of people say don't worry about, it's going to change. I definitely plan on it changing, but for right now, it has set a huge portion of my anxiety aside. I've set up 21 mail drops/family drops along the way, as I am having to ship most of Lucky's food along the way. I'll have up to 10 pounds that we will have to ship at one time for him to eat between mail drops. He will be able to carry some of it, but not all of it. When we are in town, we will get kibble and he can eat his heart out. Anything left will go into the hiker boxes in case there are other dogs coming through or to a local shelter if possible. Thankfully, we will only have to carry two days worth of water at the height of the desert.

This feels really good. If you want to see our plans, go here.

Lucky Dog

One of the key points of our hike is that we are taking Lucky, my six year old mixed breed dog. Many people have their opinions about taking a dog on the trail. When I have searched about long distance hiking with dogs, there is not a lot of information out there.

Planning the PCT

Everything I have read says "planning is really a waste of time, it will change." I hear that, but the anxiety ridden side of me says that I should plan. At least, I will have a basic idea. There is some flexibility, but my major concern is water. There are some days that we will have to carry two complete days of water with us, which isn't light. I'll go more into water in a different post, but needless to say, knowing how much water we need might be the difference in making it to the next campsite or not. This is especially important for when we are in the dry parts of California. The further north we go, the better the water availability becomes, especially as we get into the northern states.

Pre Trail Hair cut

I've never really liked long hair for being active. It's just something that is me. I have had waist length hair before and, while I liked how I could style it, I really didn't do much more with it beyond a braid, messy bun, or clip twist.

Permits!!!

On Wednesday, we both got our permits. It means everything is actually happening. There is this anxiety and excitement that just keeps buzzing around. I have a lot that I have to do and the list keeps growing. It just is getting bigger, better, and crazier!