As I returned to the trail after the hiatus at home, I thought it would be fun to share my ‘typical’ on trail day:
Most mornings I’m up around 5:30, usually crashing by 10 or earlier depending on how much I pounded the previous day. It’s generally light now by then, but only rarely do I get up and go as is common among many thru hikers. Some like the 10 miles by 10am style, but I prefer to wake early but enjoy camp for a couple hours. That includes a 20 minute routine of planks, push-ups, and yoga poses to keep upper body strength up and stay as limber as possible. Despite the massive caloric consumption of these long days and powerful legs, the upper body needs deliberate daily work to stave off muscle atrophy.
The rest of my camp morning involves firing up the stove, sitting in my precious chair that I devote 1 pound of my base backpack weight to. This is typically one packet of instant oatmeal and a Starbucks via coffee. Maybe once a week a break open the 2 salmon packets I try to have in each resupply.
If the view is particularly stunning and the sun is out, I let me sleeping bag, pillow, and disassembled tent dry out for another 20 minutes, then I pack it all up in about 10 minutes. This leg has me with a new long-distance hiking ultra light pack that weighs about a pound and has a 40 liter capacity (down from the 68 liter bag I’ve used for years and started the trail with). I cinch up the hip belt and now carry my sipping water in a tailor-made pocket on my right shoulder strap. My Garmin Satellite communicator and my iPhone go on my left shoulder strap and I kick off my Apple Watch hiking workout and hit the satellite for Ashley that marks time and location when I start my hiking day.
The Bible of the trail is the FarOut app. Its so important that I have to have redundancy in the form of my Apple Watch and my 2 battery packs (now that I’ve left the solar panel at home). It brings in comments with detail trail updates when online and then only needs the sky when offline to pinpoint exactly where the trail is. Given the damage from fires and huge snow year, the trail is often invisible for miles at a time and the app keeps us all going in the right direction, while making visible adjustments for the terrain. I also use it to pinpoint where the next water source is to carry as little water as possible to stay hydrated but not waste energy toting water. Except on the hottest desert days I’ve been able to carry only 1 to 2 liters at a time.
FarOut also gives me a goal of where to shoot for lunch. Some like the walking lunch but I prefer a pretty spot and a 30 to 60 minute break. Usually I like to hit 10 miles by this point, easily doable with an average elevation day by 1pm. My lunch staple is something I picked up in PCT prep and Ashley actually inspired, also my cheapest calories by far. Before I leave camp, I take half a block of top ramen, put it in an old gelato ice cream container and pour cold water on it. After at least 4 hours, boom: lunch is ready via the Cold Soak and now fuel from the stove is needed. I top this off with dried mash potatoes when I sit down, letting that hang out for 10 minutes. A hearty meal of good calories, even if not particularly nutritious! I usually mix in something else, maybe some dried fruit, maybe a tortilla with peanut butter. Depends on what happened at the last resupply!
After lunch I look for the approx campsite on Far Out and shoot for another 3 to 10 miles. I average about 15 miles day and enjoy that ‘slower’ PCT pace to take in views, absorb the magic, and sometimes literally, smell the flowers. I also usually have a minimum target for the day and after I pass that, snag a campsite that looks empty and pretty, or stop if my feet hurt. Or like the last night of this past section, grab the first flat spot as the clouds that looked threatening ejected a lightning bolt and the heavy rain drops start to pound. In that case, I had my tent up with less than 5 minutes before the torrential down pour.
When it’s NOT raining, which is most of the time on this trail, my camp set up ritual starts with 5 minutes on the chair and shoes off (which I also do at lunch to air the socks). Then it’s setting up my Durston X Mid Pro 2 tent, weighing a pound and supported by just my two hiking pools (another mission critical item that I CANNOT damage or break as I have no redundancy). These tents are amazing and a PCT staple, but have a critical requirement: they must be staked firmly in 8 positions to provide the tension needed to stay upright. Where there is hard soil, grapefruit sized rocks are needed to hold the tent up or it’s no dice. If it’s not raining; the tent can be a ground cover for a cowboy camp. If it is raining? You’ve got a painful period of darkness ahead.
With the tent up, it only takes me another 5 minutes to set my sleep gear out as I have just my 1 pound sleeping bag, inflatable pillow and 58” long closed cell sleeping pad, after leaving the air mattress at home. Then it’s dinner time. Despite the relative expense, 5 out of 6 nights on the trail, I have a backpacker freeze dried dinner, the 2 person meal almost enough calories to top off the day. I have a couple protein bars while walking too and with this, I don’t go to bed hungry. I’m usually in my tent by 8pm and have an hour of recording trail stats and writing about the day in my paper journal. When I can spare the battery power, I also have a set of 30 minute shows downloaded to the iPhone and enjoy that cap on a long day of exertion. For the first month, the show was then brilliant documentary Welcome to Wrexham.
While walking, I generally split my auditory time in thirds: among listening to music, open ears to the sounds of nature, and podcast/audio books (I started with ‘Spare’ by Prince Harry and now am fittingly listen to the tragic tale of the Donner Party of 1846 – The Indifferent Stars Above’). No specific order or rhythm, just as feels right.
As is probably evident from any pictures, I wear the same clothes every day out, with the twin goals to protect me from the sun with minimal sunblock and stay reasonably cool, most of the time. My Fjall Raven sun hoodie and trekking tights, Black Clover hat, Altra Lone Peak shoes, and OR sun gloves are my uniform, the latter added after mile 350 and really brilliant.
If there is anything I’ve missed that you think would be worthy to share, let me know and happy to answer!
– Black Hole, signing off among booming Hat Creek Thunderstorms