Dwelch - Pacific Crest Trail Journal - 2014

Living the Dream

I really started thinking about doing this trip about a year ago. I spoke with Vicky, my wife, and she gave me solid support and that made me realize this may be a "now or never" moment. The stars have aligned and I am going for it. In May last year I began planning in earnest and began re-evaluating my gear and my previous backpacking mindsets. I took in information from several different resources (backpackinglite,com. Yogi's PCT Handbook, the PCT-L list-serv, etc.) and made several modifications to my gear to get my carried weight down without sacrificing function. That has been an interesting exercise in itself. Overall I have dropped about 8-10 pounds from my carried weight. If you' ve ever backpacked, you know that's a BIG deal.

Now I feel like I'm reaching the end of the preparation phase and ready to GET GOING! About the only thing left to prepare are a series of about 6-8 food re-supply packages.

The snowpack thus far in the California mountains this year is very low. That is good for an early start, but bad for water in the desert and the potential fire season. For all of these reasons, I plan to start well before the normal start date (late April.) I am thinking of starting the first week of April, but I'll need to see a few more weeks of weather to finalize the date.

Anyway, with this first journal entry, I am heading down the path of trying to record the highlights of my trip. We'll see how that works out. For an "older guy" I am fairly tech savvy, but I find the technology can some times be a barrier to being "in the moment". So I am trying to find the right compromise of recording key moments of the trip and also letting it unfold without having the technology get in the way. We'll see how that balance evolves...

For now, the journal is underway and I hope you enjoy it!

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