Logical? Logistics ...... Logically!



 Oh boy, the fun has finally started! The resupply boxes are about to be filled!

 

Lego helping with the resupply boxes

I am now off work for good, the next three weeks are going to be hectic. I have a whole list of chores that I hadn't been able to get to because I was too tired after working all day to really concentrate on doing anything. 

Fortunately for me, I have most of the food already packaged. It now just has to be divided in to resupply boxes and put back into the freezer, waiting to be sent to post offices along the way. 

 

The food from 2013 has been sitting in the freezer

I have decided to take the hybrid approach this year for resupply logistics. In the past, we have had all our food mailed to us. This time I am mailing my dinners and the majority of my snacks, then will shop for breakfasts and lunches along with the rest of my snacks as I get into town. This way I will have my yummy dinners, but can shake up my snacks and breakfasts a little, thus having more variety. I still haven't settled on what my breakfasts will consist of, but I have three more weeks to figure it out. (The trail mix and bars are still very fresh, I know, I have been eating them at work for the last three months)



This is about half the food from the freezer, the other half is on the other side of the bed

 

Work also gave me the opportunity to try out various ways to deal with the Plantar Fasciitis in my feet. I had to stand 10 hours a day, and it really took the whole three months to figure out how to deal with the pain. I had mostly very painful days, but a few pain free days. I would come home hardly able to walk, and near tears some times. Despair would raise it's head occasionally, but I wouldn't let it defeat me. Through it all, I was able to try out various combinations of shoes, insoles, and taping of my feet. This series of pictures show the way I tape my feet with athletic tape. I use 6 pieces per foot, and it seems to work very well. I wear this for about 3-4 days, then let my foot breathe for a little bit. I keep watch for the health of my skin, but so far, everything is healthy and not sloughing off. I will be taping my feet like this on the trail for as long as I need to.  I will be using three different insoles which include my Good Feet insoles, my doctor's insoles, and Blue Super Feet insoles, trading them off as I need to during the day. I know it seems like a lot, but I have to do what I have to do to keep heading north.





One other note on logistics. Being a Seventh-Day Adventist, I have been thinking a lot about our day of rest, Saturday. Just before our 2013 hike, we started wondering if we should take a rest day every Sabbath. The logistics were such that it didn't work out to be able to take a full rest day every Saturday. We couldn't always be in town, and to take a full rest day between towns would require a bit more food that would just make our packs that much heavier. Not a good idea! A friend advised that hiking was a Sabbath activity that a lot of people participated in, and thus it would be o.k. to go ahead and hike. But they don't know that a full day of hiking during a thru hike is a lot of work, not just a pleasure hike in the woods for the afternoon.  

 

So I wanted to see if it would be possible to honor the Sabbath, and still get my miles in to complete my thru hike sometime in September. I decided many months ago to figure out mileages that would accommodate this. What I decided to do, is hike half of what I would normally do each Saturday. Really, just trying to take a Nero. (That is mileages under about 10 miles) And what do you know? My miles doing that will allow me to finish by mid September. Perfect!! There are 3 Saturdays that I will be hiking over 20 miles, but the rest of the time, come Sabbath, I will be hiking anywhere between 8 miles and 15 miles. This all depends if I keep on my schedule though, which I think I can, it is a good schedule. I am the kind of person that needs a schedule, just getting up and hiking until the evening is not for me. I need to have a goal each day.

I'll keep you up to date and let you know how this is working for me. Keeping to a schedule may not work, but I'll sure give it a good try!