Route and menu – here’s the details

I know what you are thinking: “Two updates in two days?!? Madness! Has Tim lost his mind?”

No, I just had to finalize all this at some point, and so it was already done, and since I’m essentially packed right now, I have time for details. So here we go…

Route
Click through to get an updated .kmz file of the 75-miler route. If you haven’t installed Google Earth yet, now is the time. Once it is installed, click the link above and tell it to open it in Google Earth.

Start at the north end. The numbers are miles since Mexico along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), so they go up as you go north. Most people who hike the entire PCT do it northbound (NOBO) and my data source for a lot of the data here (Halfmile, freely downloadable) is organized for their benefit. However, I am hiking southbound through Oregon section E only, so I’m a section-hiker who benefits from thru-hiker maps. I’m hiking from milepost 1989.5 at the north end to milepost 1914 at the south. The mileposts are virtual of course. Half the trails aren’t even all that well marked out there.

I included all the projected campsites and other important points. It looks like the new plan is that instead of staying a day at East McFarland, I’ll just hike back out the next morning and move down the trail to Brahma Lake. That’ll be an easy day and the next day will be much relieved as well. After that the hike should be easy work.

The path I will attempt to negotiate from the PCT to East McFarland is included too. And all the potential water sources along the way. I’ll have all of this on my GPS and on paper maps I printed and marked up. I don’t need to know much more.

Menu
Here is my menu. I wanted to include it directly, but it was a lot of extra work that way. So I’m just linking you to it. I never got the details on the “Munchie from Winco”, so it has no numbers or even a proper name. They were some kind of honey cracker I found in the bulk foods section. That will not affect the overall numbers much though.

I’m hovering at about 4000 calories a day. I know that sounds like a lot, but hiking burns energy. Depending on the level of exercise involved, the right number could be anywhere from 3,000 caries per day to as high as 7,000 per day. Diet menus are inappropriate for on the trail. I have some fat reserves to burn, for sure. But that won’t keep me from bonking. Bonking is where you just ‘crash’. It can be anything from being lethargic to passing out or worse, but it means there aren’t enough calories available. Your body cannot suddenly convert fat into energy fast enough to make up for a low-calorie diet with the level of exertion required for hiking like this. You need fuel. In that light, 4,000 seems right reasonable.

There are some things not even included there, like energy jellybeans. I even have a 12 oz can of beer waiting at my resupply. Beer is good calories. :)

I’ll admit it’s a simple menu and somewhat repetitive, but it will work for me. I wanted to make my own food with the dehydrator instead of the freeze dried stuff (mostly – I really like the scrambled eggs) but I didn’t get far with that. It’s hard when you are lactose-intolerant and you’re a picky eater. I’ll be fine with this menu for now. I actually like ramen and everything else here. I do still plan to work on a better menu for future trips though.

– Tim