COUNTDOWN BEGINS

Photo from Vacpacker

Six months from today, I start hiking. Six months from today!!

So I'm going to start preparing in earnest (as if, up till now, I'd just been pretending.) Steve is going to be mailing me a box every two weeks. So, starting now, I'm going to start filling those boxes. If I get a box every two weeks, and spend two weeks filling it (drying food, etc.), that should take me up to Starting Day.

I won't be taking two whole weeks' worth of food at a time; I'll be stopping in (or detouring into) towns every 5 days or so, and I'll pick up replenishables there: cheese (keeps a week unrefrigerated), a few eggs, a little fresh fruit. But I can go more cheaply and nutritiously if I start hoarding pre-purchased shelf-stable things now, like bags of beef jerky and nuts. I figure on needing three 1# bags of frozen vegetables, dehydrated, a week. They'll take up hardly any room or weight when dried. I'll dry up 3 bags now, add a bag of walnuts and a bag of beef jerky, some dried fruit, a cup of olive oil in a plastic squeeze bottle, a couple boxes of instant rice and/or mashed potatoes, a zip-loc of powdered milk, a week's worth of instant coffee, and weigh 'em, along with a block of cheese, and see how much the week's stash will weigh me down, and what size pre-paid priority-mail box it will need. Then I'll modify.

I'm a champion at modifying. I modify way better than I solidify.