no plan, no problem, Part Two

Once I got going, I realized I had more post than anybody would want to read in one sitting, so I split it in two.  Here's the rest of my loosely-ordered "plan."

Food
Yes, I could get lots of those pre-packed freeze-dried backpacker meals and have them every night, and similar offerings for breakfast, but I simply can't afford to eat like that.  On my trips this year, I've tended to have a bigger dinner (often with a snack before and something sweet after) and spent the rest of the day snacking compulsively.  For the Maryland trip, I even made a very detailed food plan that gave me over 4,000 calories a day (normal--even a little low--for a long-term backpacker) and dutifully stuck to it, but for the recent trip to McAfee Knob, I used the rough framework still in my mind from the MD trip and guessed at what I needed--and never felt like I wasn't getting enough.  I made some trail mix with lots of nuts, dried fruit, and chocolate and peanut butter chips, and packed M&Ms, Newtons, Pop-Tarts (high calorie and so trashy they have to pack them with vitamins to be allowed to market them to kids), a little beef jerky (I appreciate this as a treat and a break from all the sugar), Triscuits (I like salty, crunchy foods. These are fairly durable, and I usually had them as a snack before dinner.  When I finish eating the whole crackers, I can dump the broken crumbs into my dinner and pretend it's a high-falutin' topping), and granola bars.  For dinner, I sometimes use the freeze-dried meals, but next year I plan to use them as treat meals maybe once a week.  Usually I cook something like Knorr rice or pasta sides and eat the entire package as a main course.  On the overlook hike, I tried adding a packet of salmon to the teriyaki noodles, and it was great.  That's a two-dollar meal, compared to about seven dollars for a freeze-dried option.  I'm sure the nutritional content is different, but I can also get things like freeze-dried vegetables when available and add them to dinner.  And of course, every time I get into a town, I plan to take the opportunity to stuff myself silly and eat produce.

Much like the underlying principle behind the Clothing mentioned last week, I have a general purpose in a most of my food choices, and I've been sticking to next year's plan on my training hikes to get used to the idea.  If something needs to be cooked, I have to be able to cook it in my single small pot in under ten minutes.  Everything I take on training hikes has to be something I can get pretty much anywhere; then the calorie math I practice in my head on all those little trips will already be programmed by the time I start the big trip.  And I constantly experiment with my cooking so that I'll be able to improvise on the trail as easily as I can in my own kitchen.

Shelter
I love my tent.  I'll get a lot of use out of it, but I most of the governing bodies along the AT don't want you camping anywhere except at the designated shelter/tent sites.  I'm ok with that--those are usually places where I can get more water, and they often have privies and some provision for keeping my food safe.  The shelters also add to the sense of community along the trail; hikers will leave notes for each other in the log books, and there's always good conversation to be had with the other occupants.  However, I hope to be in my tent for the coldest nights, because it will be much warmer there.

Resupply
There are about a dozen towns directly on the Trail--not enough to keep me fully stocked for the entire hike.  there are many more near the trail, and thru-hikers will often travel together into town, hiking or hitching rides in groups for safety.  Sometimes, Trail Magic comes in the form of supportive locals who park near the trail and offer hikers rides into town.  I'll probably end up trying all options at one time or another, and I want to, to get the full trail experience.  However, news of my plans has gotten my family and at least a couple friends very excited.  One aunt in particular is thrilled at the prospect of using her long weekends to drive out with her daughter and grandkids to visit me on the trail and help me get groceries and stove fuel.  I feel bad that she would drive that much next summer, but they like doing little adventures together, and who am I to argue if they want to use those trips to my advantage?  The Girl's mom wants to visit at Harpers Ferry, and a long-time friend of our family has pointed out two or three times that since his retirement, he has nothing but time for driving long distances (though the recent arrival of his first grandkid might change his plans).  I also hope that my brother and my dad will join me at least a couple times, for obvious reasons.  With all the options available to me, I'm not worried about resupply--I'm only worried about getting the efforts coordinated.  For instance, I'm going to need new shoes along the way, and I know that a very particular pair of trail runners is very good for me.  I want to make sure I can get those shoes when I need them.

Navigation
Go north.

That may be over-simplified, but it's the truth.  The AT is famous, popular, and well-marked.  It is almost impossible to get lost along it.  While skilled with a map and compass, I don't plan to take either, but I have spent a lot of time with a trail guide, and plan to buy a different one for the hike itself.  I also nailed a map of the entire trail to the wall beside our front door; granted, it won't do me any good next year, but I spend a lot of time staring at it, and it often reminds me of things I still need to research.  When I actually start hiking, I really only need to know a few things:

1. how far to water
2. how far to the next shelter
3. how far to the next potential resupply point
4. (to a much smaller degree) how far to the Katahdin summit.

In the grand scheme of things, where I actually am at any given time isn't important--what matters is making it to the next thing that I need (food, water, shelter--it's the Maslowe approach to navigation).

First Aid/ Repairs

I recently read a book that made an excellent suggestion: never carry anything in your first aid kit that you don't know how to use.  My knowledge of first aid is pretty good, in my opinion, though I have thankfully had almost no need to ever practice it in real life.  I hope to keep it that way.  On the Maryland trip, I revised my kit to a much simpler version of itself, removing the one or two things I wasn't immediately familiar with, and took out most of the redundant items.  My theory was that I didn't have to expect to repair Humpty Dumpty, or patch an entire human back to fully functioning form, but fix things enough to get the unhappy victim to the next place where a more trained professional could assist them.  I also included a couple small things like safety pins and a bit of tape; another tip I picked up long ago was that in backpacking, "repair" to either your gear or yourself could often be accomplished with the same materials.  At least in the short term.

Summary

When a buddy and I had originally (rashly) considered making the trek this year, we declared the motto of the hike to be "no planning, no training, no problem."  That hasn't changed much, now that I think about it.  I'm certainly getting all the training I can manage, and lately I've rededicated myself to running, since any improvement there should translate well to backpacking, but what I've laid out here isn't really a plan--but it is a pretty thorough strategy.  I may not know exactly when I'll arrive anywhere, or know just what will be in my pack when I get there, but I have a solid framework I can use to guide all of my decisions along the way, and in my mind, it's better to be prepared to adapt to conditions as they present themselves than to have a concrete plan and expect it to weather the storm intact.