Preparing for the PCT

We plan to hike from Crater Lake to the Washington Border on the PCT.  We leave on Sunday.  I put our first resupply package in the mail today so now it feels real.  I had to drive to Olympia and it cost me $22 to send a 20 pound package with 6 days worth of food in it.  1.6 pound of food per day, I think I did well.

I had not expected postage to be quite so high.  I wonder how anyone can afford to do the entire trail?

We also stopped at REI to get new superfeet insoles.  My super feet are totally shot with hundred's of miles and several years on  them.  My daughter has never had a pair of superfeet.  She says that her arch hurts after long hikes and I think green superfeet will help with that.

We got our new shoes in the mail on Monday, Brooks Cascadia brand.  I got mine 1/2 size to big and hers 1 size too big.  I figure my feet are already pretty big from hiking and I already wear huge shoes so I only got mine 1/2 size bigger.  Her feet are not so big from hiking plus she is still growing so I got her 1 full size too big. 

They say that your feet grow from 1/2 to 11/2 sizes larger when you do a through hike, that is why I got large shoes.  My old superfeet did not fit in such large shoes, so I had to get a bigger set.  That's okay though because I can trim them down after the trip to fit my normal shoe size.

They just hoisted a hiker up out of the canyon below the high steel bridge, reports say he has a broken leg.  The high bridges are very popular this year and I am not surprised that stuff like this is happening.  Someone needs to be rescued from under the high steel bridge about every other year anyway.

I had to take money out of savings to buy all of this stuff.  I figure it's better to spend some of the money now while I am young enough to do these kind of things and while my daughter is still willing.  Our monthly income still puts us at the poverty level thanks to my spouse only getting $245 a month in Social security retirement income.

At least my arsehole father can rest easy now knowing that his obligation as a sponsor is over.  Once a person has earned enough to get social security in this country they no longer need a sponsor.