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[pct-l] Count down time!

Your "3 day trial" was too short!  I sentence you to "Go Take A Hike" and 
the length of time is 4-5 months! 

Seriously, it sounds like you had to experience some hardships to tests your 
equipment, comfort level and attitude and worked through them very well! I'd 
still stay with the tent in buggy terrain and the tarp until the bugs get 
bad everywhere else as you mentioned.

Glad your food was so satistying!  For a long trip it is great not to load 
up too much, especially in the S. CA area where you can buy so much -- you 
get pretty tired of whatever is in your pack.  Shopping allows you lots of 
flexibility so you eat can buy what your body is for asking for -- those 
food fantasies make for great trail conversations.  I craved baked potatoes, 
although potato chips, potato products were ok, I had to wait for a town to 
hopefully get a bake potato (mashed, etc wasn't the same) -- I even carried 
out some raw potatoes to munch on like an apple for the first two days out -
- heavy but they really helped.  Fresh veggies to cook that first day or so 
were also good.  Diced and bagged in zips were handy -- even great as 
munching food.  Our Cracker Keeper suggestion:  Walt cut an oblong piece of 
semi hard plastic (he used a jerky cannister that we got with our jerky)  
and rounded the corners -- size ? -I'll guess because he has it with him --
26 inches long and the heighth of a ritz cracker roll.  He wraps the plastic 
around a stack of cracker roll 3-4.  It is held securely with a rubber band.  
As the crackers are eaten, the diameter becomes smaller and less bulky in 
his pack -- crackers are hardly ever broken but round ones work best.  We 
have done square crackers without too many getting broken.  We keep a couple 
of spare rubber bands in the pack and a bag in our drift box (only a couple 
of ones broke -- more were misplaced!)    Walt carries our food in separate 
mesh or nylon stuff sacks -- one color for breakfast, another for lunch, and 
another color for dinner -- easy to spot. I carry the snacks!  We have also 
used this technique for other items in our pack -- we lost/misplaced a sock 
for a week -- finally found it between the pack and trashbag liner!  It is 
really amazing how you can loose/misplace items when you are carrying so 
little!  By the second week we were carrrying an extra piece of tarp so we 
could empty out EVERYTHING on it to find what we were looking for -- it 
works too. Good luck, hope this will help you and Deb some.

Have you tried the new SealSocks?  Our friend Bob bought some and has been 
training in them and says they are great! They keep his feet dry and 
comfortable and are suppose to be wonderful for fording, etc.  Walt and I 
couldn't afford to spend the $30 per pair since we had already gotten the 
CoolMax socks and are also carrying GorTex and AquaSocks last year.  These 
work great in those icy cold fordings!

Bald is beautiful!! Walt and I are having a race -- at this point it's a 
tie!  We do carry Nice N Clean towellettes and use them on our feet and 
private parts every night.  I carry a "dirty" bag for the used towellettes 
(instead of TP) and dispose of it town,  I carry these on the outside of my 
pack so they are easy to get too and the smell isn't so bad!   

Hope you are getting all the fantastic trail reports Charlie Jones is 
putting out about conditions he and Cher have hiked this last month -- I 
have sent Walt a copy so people on the trail can read them!  Walt and Ron 
got chased off the mountain going to Idyllwild yesterday -- heavy rain with 
lots of wind and deminishing temperatures.  They have hiked with Bob and his 
"girlfriend"  and they all three guys came off and made it to Idyllwild -- 
Ron was getting hypothermic!  The Ranger suggested that they take the Jeep 
trail out around Fuller Ridge -- a bowl of remaining snow is making hiking 
safely impossible.  Even then, there is a stretch of snow that is 3 feet 
deep on the Jeep trail.  They haven't had to walk in snow yet -- we'll see 
how long that lasts!  A retired man named Pete is doing a fantastic job of 
being a Trail Angle at the Anza Campground, giving rides, etc.    
 
Happy Trails and hope to see you out there!  Less than 7 days before I am 
free again!

Pat -- #:>)  Happy Trail Couple

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