A Day in the Life

So we're sort of in limbo here in Chester. Julia's foot is getting better and it looks like we'll try to leave tomorrow unless it really seems like a bad idea. We spent a night at the Seneca Motel, then upgraded for two nights at Antlers Motel and for tonight we'll be at Best Western. I have some time to kill here so I thought it'd be interesting to write down a typical day in our "trail life". It has changed a bit over the time we've been out here, but we have a pretty concrete routine that we tend to stick to.

I'm always first to open my eyes. Typically around 5:45AM. There was a long stretch where my internal clock had me waking up at that exact time each morning. The first thing I do is start the process of waking Julia up. I'm rarely successful the first time around, so I just keep at it until she's sufficiently awake that I can go get our food bags or bear vaults for breakfast. Once I've retrieved them I climb back in and we have breakfast and then SLOWLY start to change into our hiking clothes and put away our sleeping stuff. I get out and pack up my things and then wait for her to clear out and then I'll take down the tent and put away the ground sheet. Once packed up we set out for the all important morning session. The morning session really sets the tone for the whole day. If you cover good distance then it gets you on a roll and you have a pretty solid day, but if it's tough going and you're interrupted by frequent stops for this or that, it can set up a tedious, slow day. My goal is always to get in a minimum of 10 miles before lunch (which is typically around noon). That's not uncommon. Two hours after we start for the day, we'll have a scheduled snack break. We normally try to schedule these around water and shade, as it can be pretty warm by 9AM. Breaks are normally 10 - 20 minutes. After that we'll go for a while and if another break opportunity presents itself before lunch, we'll take it. Lunch time is about an hour or so (used to be MUCH longer in the desert) and we eat and relax, hopefully near water and shade. I've been reading a book lately. The afternoon session is typically accompanied by music or podcasts. We each go into our own little worlds and enjoy the walk while listening to something. Again, we look to the next water source and decide if we need some and we start to look forward to where we're going to have dinner and camp for the night. The afternoon often becomes a bit of a blur. You get in this zone of just hiking and hiking and if there's nothing spectacular to catch your attention, you just stare at the ground for what seems to be forever. For a long while now, we've been having dinner about 4 or 5 miles before we camp. We'll stop around 5PM and cook up dinner and leave within an hour and then hike until 7:15 - 8:00PM, and sometimes later. Once we get to our camp site for the night, we operate like surgeons. We've set up camp so many times that we know our roles and we start straight away. We throw down our packs and we set out the ground sheet. I unroll the tent and go to the back and put in the one pole and the rear stake while Julia adjusts the hiking poles to the correct height and sets those up. I then come around set up the three tent pegs at the front of the tent and then we each do a side one and we're done. Then we start unpacking our packs. I hand things to Julia that go in the tent and she throws them in (often times the mosquitos are bad so we have to unzip, throw in and zip up). Once our stuff is separated from what goes in and what stays out, we take care of cleaning up. We have a bandanna that we use strictly for cleaning limbs (mostly legs and feet) and so we'll do that, brush our teeth etc and then jump in! Once in we get changed into our sleeping clothes (merino base layer) and blow up our mattresses and set out our sleeping bags. I'll often then look at the maps and what's coming up the next day and Julia will read the data book pages and pages from Yogi's book about the next town we'll be in. We discuss the plan for the next day and pass out. If we plan it right, by the time we're in the tent and settled, it's dark, but it doesn't get dark while we're setting up. So if we start our set-up by 8PM we have enough time to get it done without dilly dallying, but if we're at camp earlier, we may have a fire, or clean clothes in a river or creek or something.

That's really it. It's pretty routine at this point, pretty similar each day.... except for the fact that we never sleep in the same place twice (unless we're in town ;) ) and we're constantly moving forward and seeing different places. It's been awesome.