Cajolley - Pacific Crest Trail Journal - 2008

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Life-savers for my knees

Waiting to start.

Well, here I am, starting my year away from college, and starting to prepare for my PCT thru-hike. I figured that today would be an appropriate day to start journaling because it's the first day when school is starting back at college, and therefore today is the first day I'm officially on my year off! But I've been doing lots of planning in the past few months- and there's still more to come.

Today was a pretty exciting day for trail stuff because my grandmother brought over a pair of trekking poles for me to use (see picture). As some of you know, I've been a little worried about my knee pain slowing me down on the trail, and trekking poles are supposed to decrease pressure on the knees by a lot. I've never hiked with them before, but I'm sure I'll get used to them- I'll take them on a test run this coming weekend. One of my orthopedists told, "Trekking poles will become your best friends," and I intend to make it so.

Another excellent find (Thanks, Jane!): a silk sleeping bag liner. Silk liners lower the temperature rating of a sleeping bag by about 10 degrees Fahrenheit, so this liner makes me a lot happier about the sleeping bag of my dreams- the Sub-Kilo by R.E.I. It fits me well (short enough) and comes in a women's option with more down in places where women get colder than men. As a cold-sleeper, I was still a little worried that its temperature rating wouldn't be low enough for some of the higher altitude nights on the trail- it's rated for +15 degrees F. The silk liner gets it down to +5 degrees F, which should be enough warmth even for my cold feet!

Back to planning for me- right now I'm working on figuring out how fast I think I can hike & when/where I can stop for food and water...these logistics are keeping me busy!

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