CDT

Ask the Tree-Volume #1

“Do you take a cell phone? Phone charger? How does all that work?”

A friend recently proposed I answer questions people have regarding my upcoming 3000 mile thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail. What a great idea! My trail name is Tree, so we’re going to roll with Ask the Tree for the time being.

Two questions for today:

  • Do you take a cell phone? Phone charger? How does all that work?
  • Are you taking a gun? Or a knife?

Electronic Devices

I’m going to tackle question number one by addressing all my electronic devices and how I plan to keep them powered during my walk. I’ll be carrying an iPhone 6s, a Garmin inReach Explorer with Satellite Communicator, an Anker PowerCore 10000, and an Anker 3 Port USB Charger.

The iPhone is my key device. It does my normal phone stuff. I protect it by having it in a Lifeproof case supplemented by a ziplock bag in wet weather. Lots of times up high in a mountain pass with a clear view, you can get cell reception. Otherwise, I’ll have it when I land in town to resupply. I also use my phone as a camera and recording device. I pay for an iCloud subscription to get those photos off the device when I get into town. I also have an app by Guthook’s Guides that has trail maps and satellite tracking capability. From what I’ve read from other hikers, the app is priceless in keeping yourself found. By placing the phone in airplane mode during the day and by powering it down at night, I should be able to make a full charge last three days or more.

The Explorer is a pricey little device, but it is a concession to my advancing age and new found wisdom. I wouldn’t have carried one in my early days of hiking, but it’s a requirement for me now. The device is programmable to send an email notification out every four hours with my current location. You can click on a link in the email and zoom right on in to where the device was when it sent out the notification. Michelle, my wife, will know right where I am without me doing anything other than carrying the unit. Pretty cool. It also has the capability to send out unlimited pre-set messages. Additionally, I can send or receive 20 text messages in a month with the subscription I’ve paid for. It’s a pain to send them because there isn’t a keyboard, but I could if I needed to. More importantly, Michelle could send me a text about any critical thing that might happen back home. Last but certainly not least, there’s an SOS button on the Garmin that is monitored 24/7. In an emergency, I could communicate my location and current conditions and help could find me. Obviously, it does all the other standard GPS things a GPS unit does. 


The PowerCore 10000 is a battery unit about the size of a deck of cards. It will give me about four charges for the iPhone, and is the size of a deck of cards. Quite a bit heavier than a deck of cards, but exceedingly compact for the punch it delivers.


I bought an Anker three-port charger, so that anytime I find a single outlet, I can charge all three devices at the same time. Restaurants, stores, any place I can find to juice my devices up to speed.

“Are you taking a gun? Or a knife?”

Gun or Knife

Simply put, no. I don’t own a pistol and wouldn’t want to carry the weight even if somebody wanted to loan me one. Yes, there are grizzly and black bears around the Continental Divide, but my brains are my best weapon. I’ll be smart about not sleeping where I cook, so there’s not lingering scents. My food will be in a scent-lock bag to minimize smells. I’ll try to sleep off the trail by 200 feet or more because animals use it just as much if not more than humans. I will carry a can of bear spray to use if I get myself into an unfortunate situation where a bear decides to charge at me. The spray is a high powered pepper spray designed to put out blast 30 feet in front of the sprayer. I’m much more concerned about any negative confrontation occurring with a two-legged animal than one with four legs. But once again, even with humans, my best defense is using my head.

I do carry a knife, but it’s a Leatherman Squirt. It gives me a pair of pliers, a small blade, screwdrivers, a file, and a pair of scissors. It’s tiny, but it will do what I need.


Thanks for the questions! I’m looking forward to having a few more asked before I take off for Montana.

Truckin’ on.

Tree

 

 

T minus 20 days. What am I doing?

Packing Resupply Boxes

Leaving home and job aside, the hardest prep part of getting ready for the Continental Divide Trail is having an exceedingly limited sense of how long any section of the trail is going to take me to walk. Because of that conundrum, planning any mail drops takes awhile, and even then I’m not sure whether I’m even close to what I need.

I just keep making the best guess I can and throwing beans and rice or noodles into a box. Really, I worked a bit harder at it than that. Bags of dinners are set up for four days (beans and rice), three days (Thai noodles) or two days (curried couscous). Beans and rice has dried jalepenos, onions, kale, tomatoes, and Fritos with it. Thai noodles have soy sauce, sriracha sauce, peanut butter, dried vegetables, dried cherries, oil, and peanuts. The couscous contains curry, onion, and garlic powders along with oil and dried vegetables. The number of days in the meals was established by the retail packaging of the beans and noodles. I didn’t want to break that packaging apart, so I’m rolling with it. Couscous comes in a 16oz box and it can be broken apart anyway I want. Most of the time using 4, 3, and 2 I can hit the right number of dinners I’m guessing at for the resupply.

After I get the dinners set, I throw in three-day bags of oatmeal or Grapenuts. Whole powdered milk and dried cranberries round breakfast out. I like to start the day with a bar of some kind, so I’m not waiting around. Getting miles early in the day works best for me. Larabars are my favorite right now because they contain just a few ingredients. Eat one of those along with a Carnation instant breakfast, and I’m good to go for the first 90 minutes. If I’m eating oats, I’ll soak them along with the dried berries for an hour in a plastic peanut butter jar. Cold soaked oats with powdered whole milk are pretty good. Soaked oats without the milk are only pretty good when you’re really hungry.

Lunch is almost always a tortilla with peanut butter or humus. I like chips, trail mix, hard candy, cookies, pretzel pieces, and almost anything else for snacks. Just have to make it fir in the box. Seriously, though. How do I plan for a 120 mile walk without knowing much about the terrain or how my body is going to react to the miles? I’m not sure. Guess high and the pack is heavy. Guess low and I’ll be hungry coming into town. 

T -22 days. Getting my head straight. 

With just 22 days till go time, the emotional side of preparing to leave my family and my job is a constant rub. I’ll share with anybody that I see a social worker every month or so for a precious 50 minutes. It’s one slot during the month that’s all about me. Well sort of. Because me really is how I relate and interact with others. It’s a chance to talk about those relationships; how to sustain and cultivate the good ones, and how to diminish and minimize the destructive ones. It’s not mamby pamby stuff. It’s about being a good human being in search of continual improvement. 

The next five months are all going to be inside my head. Resetting my head is a big part of why I need this journey. I’m tapped out. The last six years as a superintendent/principal with some side gigs doing anything else imaginable within a small school district has left me physically and mentally exhausted. I’m constantly in a survival mode these days. Allostatic overload. I need a break to steady out my head.  

Therapy has helped prepare me as much as possible to work with my wife, Michelle, as together we take on this event of me voluntarily going away. She’s giving me a gift, so I can come back stronger with my brain reset. That’s love. That’s the strength of our love. 

Is it time yet?-Continental Divide Trail SOBO

The days until June 20 and my start on the Continental Divide Trail are crawling by despite being crushed with finishing work related responsibilities and the myriad of last month planning details. I’ve jealously watched the blog posts flow by on The Trek while packing my maps, fine-tuning my gear, and getting maildrops ready to go. Reading posts by Stubbs and watching Rhys star in trail video has kept me sane, but I’m absolutely ready to go myself.

Check out the rest of my post at The Trek.

 

 

T -37. 9 miles. Althea told me

IMG_6238.JPGNice hard 9 miles with Althea in the early morning. Everything is feeling good. Pack, shoes, legs. Seems like it is all coming together.

Spent the dark hours before walking putting together some dinner bags for maildrops. 8oz of dehydrated beans, 6oz of Minute Rice, four packets of olive oil, and small bags of onions, jalapeños, kale, and tomatoes. Just need to add Fritos and some cheese. I’ll add Fritos to some of the boxes. At other stops I’ll just look to add the chips and cheese. I can eat this dinner hot or cold by soaking it for an hour in a peanut butter jar. Each day gets 2oz of beans and 1.5oz of the rice with a portion of everything else.

IMG_6242.JPGSlow progress on my organization of maildrops. It’s a puzzle that doesn’t  have a picture. I’m going to have to make some hard decisions soon. Maybe some divine intervention will occur, and I’ll be blessed with fantastic insight.