POW POW POW!!! FIRST SPONSOR!!!

tired of taking those super close headshots of yourself when you are hiking? the ones where you can see your arm sticking way off to the side snapping the pic, and not much of the background itself? or have you ever wanted to make your own videos? your own version of  les stroud survivor man? well there is a simple, cheap solution ..... STICKPIC! it clips to the end of you hiking pole, and allows you to attatch any camera with a screw on mount. the possibilites are endless!!!

Rod-the inventor of the stick pic has graciously donated a Stick Pic to me for my PCT hike!! i cant wait to get it in the mail and start taking pics....

thanks again Rod.
check them out and order them here!!!  STICK PIC

itinerary....

well i spent all day planning my stops, and getting an idea of where i am going to be stopping and resupplying....
now that i know where i will be stopping along the way, and the mileage in between, i can start preparring my resupply boxes and planning how many meals and snacks will go in each....
there is so much planning still to be done, but i am taking my time so that i don't become overwhelmed. i know once the holidays pass it will be full force food planning and gathering....

there are some really great tools online to help with the process of planning. i found that a past thru-hiker named 'eric the black' has a really simple to use spreadsheet. you just input the info specific to you and it does the rest. i was less worried about the dates and my hiking speed for now, and more interested in finding my resupply points and the mileage between them.... i do however think the dates should be pretty close to what i plan on doing. i def would love to be at echo lake BEFORE july 4th to spend the holiday with family... and i hope to finish in the last ten days of september, so this itinerary works out pretty well....of course, this could all be changed and have to be re-figured due to the snow level at the beginning of the hiking season....

soon i will have specific details about where care packages can be sent, and the best methods for the best locations. some places only accept UPS or FedEX, some places i have to pay money to pick up packages....all this info is coming soon enough...

you can now check 'THE PLAN' tab at the top of the page to get an idea of where i will be and approximate dates....

thanks folks.
kristo

dreamin....

I had a dream last night I was playing cribbage against an 'older' gentleman while in a trail town....
This was the first dream I have had about the PCT since I decided to make 2k12 my year...
Funny how I have been processing so much info and strategizing about my first 'thru'  hike, and the first thing I dream about is playing crib against some old gentleman that resembles my grandfather (who taught me how to play cribbage, and was no doubt my most worthy adversary).

Even though planning or mentally preparing can leave your mind spinning out of control at a million miles a second, I can honestly say since deciding to hike this coming year, i have never felt so free, and at ease. I know this hike will lead me to a place I want to be in my life and prepare me for the next challenges life throws at me....

Yogi Handbooks....

well i just received my 'Yogi's PCT Handbooks' in the mail today! and i thought i was excited before....

for those of you unfamiliar with thru-hiking, Yogi Handbooks are pretty amazing. Basically, a lady by the trail name of Yogi has been hiking the PCT and CDT (continental divide trail) over and over taking new notes every year on the trail towns and collecting information. she is part of a tight knit hiking community that helps her answer questions about their experiences on the PCT, she then updates the handbook every year as far as i can tell, and it has literally EVERYTHING you could want to know about hiking the PCT. all the information for EVERY town you come across. the best places to rent a room, where to find internet, the best stores and restaurants for supplies and hot, greasy, fattening carb-heavy meals that you are dreaming of on the trail. it shows how far  these places are from the trail, it is pretty amazing all the info she has crammed into these amazing books.

the second handbook is all about planning your hike. Yogi draws on several different hikers experiences and lays out their responses from a near 100 response questionnaire to help you understand how they went about almost EVERY aspect of their thru-hike. extremely helpful for some of those decisions you just aren't quite sure about....
anyhow, needless to say, it just made me that much more excited, stressed, overwhelmed with how much really goes into preparing for a thru-hike.

i cant wait to start walking.....

here is the link to those handbooks....
Yogi's PCT Handbooks.......

custom Nor*Cal Hikers stickers !!!

i have been giving these out since i got them, but i have about 50-60 left that i am gonna try and use as a 'donation incentive'. if you donate 5 dollars to my hikers fund (via paypal) i will send you 2 stickers in the mail. you can email me if you are interested so i can get your mailing address....

thanks for your support!!!!

also, a huge THANKS to Erica LeSaint for designing the NCH logo and having the stickers printed for me!!!

magic!!!

well, it is just under 6 months until the actual hiking part of the adventure begins. i have read a lot about trail magic, and trail angels and am realizing this is one of the truly great things about thru-hiking. so many people are excited and willing to help, and lend support and be part of this adventure. whatever their reasons for helping are, it is truly a blessing. folks who have always dreamt of hiking for an extended period, or have had dreams of the PCT themselves always seem eager to lend a hand, or want more info, as if storing it as fuel for their own attempt one day. it really gets me excited. others, want to help simply because they are kind-hearted people, excited for me. my friends and family want to see me succeed and want to make my trip as enjoyable and seamless as necessary and i am truly grateful...

i just returned from washington where i was visiting my mother and aunt tresa, and a little time with a couple of my super cool cousins (only leland and danielle this time). as well as the coyote sisters (patti and geri) and a few other people i have began to consider friends of mine from the  great northwest. i love it up there in western washington along the coast. almost every time i am up there now, the coyote sisters take me out to a place we call 'serenity cove' up on the tahola indian reservation. it is a section of beach that nearly no one ever walks on. everything is so green, and the short hike is through the forest is so awesome and dense with greenery and shrubs and trees. it is a truly magical place. you need special permission from the indian reservation just to be on the land, and thankfully the coyote sisters have a great friend that is a tahola native and lives there as well, granting us basically free access. we see eagles soaring every time we hike in and every once in a while we even find a few beach treasures.

my trip to washington was short. i plan to spend another couple weeks up there before i take off on my hike. i plan on doing some training hikes up there maybe in early march to do some good testing for heavy weather gear. my mom lives only about an hour and a half from lake quinault and the hoh rainforest. always good for a cold,wet and damp hike anytime of year....

i have to give a huge shout out to Patti and Geri for hooking me up with my biggest 'trail magic' score thus far for my trip..

a 2 month supply of candy bars for me to plan into my resupply packages, with another months worth that they held onto to send me in their own personal packages to be sent along the way! that was so nice! i have enough Mars bars now to keep me going on the trail...the twix they send me will be awesome as well, as i am sure everything they send me will be just as amazing and well thought out...

the most awesome thing they gave me though:
a food dehydrator. with like 10 shelves. old, durable, amazing. now i can get crackin' with making my own meals and dehydrating them into daily portions and meal plans. i am so thankful. this was just one more expense i figured i would have to buy out of my own pocket as part of the overall hiking plan. now that i have one for free to use, i am gonna look into investing into a vacuum sealer for packaging meals to cut down on weight and space the food will take up in my backpack....

so as you can see, trail magic is in full force, and i am still almost half a year away from taking off.....man 2012 is gonna be an awesome year!!