Planning, planning, planning

I've learned a bit by planning my little walk. What I've learned is to plan about two or three weeks and then review and break it down as groups of days and then to break it down to individual days before considering it semi-planned. I say semi-planned because after you plan the whole event, you go out and start walking and throw most of your exact plans out the window. This is based on day to day weather, trail closures, and things like your feet.

Primarily the planning breaks down to a resupply plan. Of course of utmost concern is to know where and when you will be near sources of water, but the resupply lines for food and equipment are fairly darn important as well. So, here's some notes:

1. You need water. Water is critical. Water will be in your backpack. 3 to 6 liters of it most of the time. Water weighs over 2 pounds per liter and thus you will be carrying 6 and a half to 13 pounds of water at any given time.

2. The first 200 miles of the PCT are in desert climates that are often in the triple digit temperature range in the spring. Thus you may need more water than mentioned in number 1.

3. Resupply includes food. This can be shipped ahead when it is dehydrated and purchased at stores along the way. Gaps between resupply points can be 20-45 miles so you will often carry 2-3 days of food. When hiking 20 miles a day you often burn 5-6 thousand calories per day. Resupply should include good amounts of HIGH calorie food. Oh and there's sections where the resupply points are further apart. More on that later.

4. Resupply includes equipment. The hike is 2,660 miles. Shoes last about 400 miles. That's right, I'll be mailing shoes to myself. Also, I will be hiking in the desert and atop snow covered mountains at 12,000 feet. This requires very different types of equipment. Carrying all of this at one time would destroy me. Therefore I'll be planning where I need boots, clothes, jackets, crampons, etc. and shipping them to me.

I sort of feel like I'm planning to invade Canada, not just walk to it.