In less than 10 weeks, I will be back on the Pacific Crest Trail. And guess what? It is snowing in the Sierra like crazy. Not 2017 levels, but well above average. Man, can I pick them!
So, given that this will be my second crack at this trail, I do get asked just what it is that I will do differently this time around. I need to preface the answer to that question with the proviso that I am very proud that I was able to complete over 1350 trail miles in one of the most challenging hiking years on the PCT in recent memory. What I am trying to say is that I don't believe that I have to make gigantic adjustments, but several tweeks are in order.
First, there is food consumption. I lost about 28 pounds over the course of 73 days on trail. While it was nice to revisit my high school weight, it was obvious that I could not continue loosing at that rate.
This was me on Day 1 at 186 pounds
This was me on the second to last day of my 2017 hike at 158 pounds
So this time around, I simply must make a bigger effort to eat more. Unfortunately food weighs a lot. But c'est la vie. I will just have to suck it up. Also, taking town food like a burger or sub out will help. And I have to quit being so conservative on the consumption. Several times I ended up packing food into the next trail town because I was always lording over the calorie budget.
Next up - gear. I really liked the vast majority of the gear I carried. But minor upgrades are good. I have gone out and bought a very lightweight closed foam sleeping pad. This will serve two purposes. First, it will make a first rate seating pad. But it will hopefully also protect my inflatable sleep pad. I had lots of issues with small holes in the pad last time. My theory is that if I put the foam pad under the inflatable one it will reduce the incidence of punctures.
This time, I am going to carry a cell phone right from the start. Seriously, these new portable telephones are incredible. Everyone should try one.
The other item that falls under gear is footwear. Simply put, I asked too much of my trail runners. I will have to figure out a way to replace these shoes on the fly more frequently.
Yeah, maybe 850 miles on a pair of trail runners was too much
Another change I want to strive for is on the mental side. Simply stated, I want to be more flexible regarding the duration of my hiking day. Rather than arbitrarily setting a distance goal each day, I want to just hike each day until it feels like I should stop. Oddly this will likely mean more mileage rather than less most days.
Also on the mental side of the ledger, I know I will have to be cognoscente of the fact that the social side of the hike will be different this go round. I was extremely fortunate to fall in with a group on the trail in 2017 that was amazing. The chances of recapturing that lightening in a bottle are slim.
The group I hiked with in 2017. We were known simply as "The Big Group"
Finally, I want to take more photos and video. So many times on the trail, I would get past an outstanding feature, person or event and then wonder why I did not immortalize it at the time. In my defense I am of the generation where a photo had to be developed and printed at substantial cost. OK that is a poor excuse but it is the best I can do.
So there are the tweeks I think are necessary for my PCT 2019 adventure. Now it is back to the couch for some more training.
