Imagine how Lewis and Clark felt while preparing for their months-long expedition; making arrangements for manpower, horsepower, and the food to fuel them all. What a headache! What overwhelming pressure to successfully anticipate all possible outcomes!

Speaking of feelings, I’m having some.

As with any long-anticipated event, when the day finally approaches, preparations and anxieties intensify. Lists are checked and re-checked, and written over again. Completed items are revisited for possible revision. Emotions run high, while jitters dance freely and peck away at the lining of visceral organs.

Speaking of Oregons, I’m crossing one.

Months in the making, we’ve finally reached Day T-minus 2 for our interstate trek via the Pacific Crest Trail. Starting at the California-Oregon border, we’ll head north (but not really, because the trail bends easterly at the border) toward Washington. I’ve logged training miles under my backpack on roadways, trailways, and treadmills. I’ve done gear check after gear check, whittling away to what I think to be the bare necessities, then going through the items again. I’ve spent hours prepping and dehydrating food, then hours more with my hiking partner these past two days making grocery runs and buying ridiculous amounts of food with all the weighty moisture sucked/boiled/frozen out of it; dried fruit and various powdered forms of sustenance – cheese, soup, hummus, brownies, milk, drinks…

We’ve made piles and piles of foodstuffs on the floor of the family room, packing away our fruits and powders into bags and boxes, to be mailed ahead of us and eagerly ripped into by ravenous hikers (hopefully us).

I’m exhausted, and we’ve logged zero PCT miles. 😉

We’d better get on the trail soon; I keep finding more things to add to our packs. Another day, another handful of Snickers…

😁🥾🎒🏕️