All the Joys of Tyvek

There are tons of resources out there about how ultralight backpackers have used Tyvek. It's actually a super awesome product, and many people have found ways to utilize it. It's light weight, it's cheap, it provides a decent vapor barrier, and it allows vaporized moisture out, but not in. Super important features when you are making your own gear. At the same time, they really don't give a ton of information about the small details that you have to learn by experience. And there are quite a few.

Lucky Dog: Protecting Our Gear

We have put a lot of money into our gear, even with prodeals we both have. We have made it a point to get quality gear that is lightweight and usable. One of the factors that effects the weight of items is the thickness of the materials used. This is especially true in tents and sleeping bags. Here is where the problem arises.

Food Prep Round 2

I know I have said this before, but I don't think anyone who hasn't done food prep for a hike like this can grasp the breath of what you need to do to get all of this food ready, especially if you are choosing to make your own food. It's exhausting and overwhelming and feels like it's never going to end.

I know I have talked about the amount of food prep we have going so far. What I want to talk about now is the difficulties that arise in making your own food for the trail and wonderful lessons learned.

Saying Goodbye

***Side Note: I know this is my second post today. I just wanted to say that I have scheduled info, teacheresque posts and then there is the life is going on posts. There will probably be fewer scheduled posts as we get on the trail, but it is how things are going to be for a while. I am perfectly fine with it. ****

Tonight I had to say goodbye to my DBT group. Wow. This is the hardest goodbye I really am having so far. I didn't realize just how pivotal a group of previous strangers would be to my world. I have only been in this specific group for two months, since there was a schedule change and it meant I had to go to a different time and a different group of people. I am so thankful I made that decision.

Mail Stops

I have had quite a few people who asked about where they could send us packages. I'm all on board for this, but please be aware that some of the places we have chosen to pick up mail from do charge for holding packages. Also, please be cognizant of the fact that we have to carry everything you send us. Food is great, notes are also lovely, but please keep other things to a minimum. We can provide you with our shipping addresses of where our mail is going if you need to send us something that you don't mind us not getting until we get home. We really appreciate all of your care and support!

Food Prep Round 1

Remember all of that math I was doing in my post about our food plans? Yep. There really is no way to prepare yourself for the amount of food that is. Remember, it is highly suggested that we eat 5,000-6,000 calories a day for the amount of exercise we are doing. It is physically impossible to do more than a day or two of carrying and consuming that many calories while hiking that much. That said, I'm trying to prep as many calories as is possible, in the form of meals.

And that leads to lots and lots of food prep!

At Home Trail Angels: Part 2

I decided to divide these up, instead of making a huge long list of all of our pre-trail trail angels. You can read about the first installment here.