Gear List

We have posted our gear list. We are constantly adjusting our packs and our list, but we think we are pretty close! Here's a pic of our gear all laid out: Kristin's pack and gear on the left, Seth's on the right.

Some like it HOT!

Hello, my name is Kristin and I am a HOT-SAUCE-AHOLIC

I put hot sauce on just about everything. I have even been known to carry a bottle of hot sauce in my purse for emergency situations.  I also have successfully converted Seth into a spicy-food loving, hot sauce fanatic.

While planning our resupply strategy, I began to worry about trail life without my most favorite condiment. Thankfully, I have found a solution: I recently purchased a case of 500 packets of Tapatio hot sauce! Problem solved.

Gearly There!

Thanks to our wonderful family (a.k.a. Santa), we are closer than ever to finally nailing down all of our gear selections for the trail.

From going with us to try on clothes, to throwing generous "donations" our way, the support we have received from our family has really made this trip possible for us. And just in case we haven't said it enough......
"THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!"

So after countless hours of research, reading hundreds of reviews, navigating website after website and coming to know a few delivery men by their first name, the final pieces of gear for our thru-hike are on their way. We will be sure to post a FULL gear list including weights and costs of everything we'll be taking soon. In the meantime, we've posted some funny pictures of one of our first large deliveries (needless to say, we were excited)!

 See Mom, everything will be OK.

Gear and cheap champagne - Best New Year's Eve ever!

Getting in Trail Shape

Check out our Training page! We posted our training program that we developed to get into trail shape. We both are pretty sore after the first week, but we'll keep you updated with our progress.

Home Cookin'

Well it was a busy weekend for us as we decided to set out and decide the best stove option for our thru hike of the PCT.  We had done some research previously and decided that an alcohol stove would be best for us, so now all we needed to do was to sit down and come up with some designs to try out here at home.

Before I talk too much about how our various designs and tests came out, we would like to put out a BIG thank you to the #1 reference for us during this process, Zen Backpacking Stoves!  You can visit the site here. If you are looking for a great place to learn how to construct an alcohol stove for your next backpacking trip you can poke around and find a HUGE selection of templates and explanations of the different designs out there.  It was a great resource for us, and we're going to use their template for a windscreen/pot holder once our order of titanium foil arrives.

So after a lot of research, we decided to sit down and start to construct 5 to 6 variations of the classic Pepsi Can stove (using Miller Light cans we decided to utilize since we HAPPENED to have a 20 pack in the fridge).  These stoves are lightweight, dependable and you can find fuel for them in pretty much any store along the way.  For our purposes we used 90% isopropyl (not recommended as it does not burn very clean) and  95% Denatured Alcohol which worked great for our at home tests.  Here are some pics of the construction process:

Needless to say, Kristin wasn't too happy I set up shop on her Christmas themed dining room table.

This is an extremely high tech can cutting machine (razor blade/ cook book) and should not be operated without a license.

 Again, I am a certified technician.

 Ah, the push pin drill bit....a tool no stove maker should be without!

 As you can see, each cutting tool has its place.

Because we've already settled on a pot to use (a $7 grease strainer from Wal-Mart) we came up with the following versions of stoves to try and boil water and cook simple noodle meals on.

After multiple tests, we narrowed it down to (from left to right), stove #1, #3 and #4.  Stoves #1 and #4 are basically the same design, however instead of using a push pin for the jets as we did on #1, we used a #9 sewing needle on stove #4.  We haven't narrowed it down any further from there as the stoves are all comparable with their boil times, fuel efficiency, etc. so we will decide on which design we will take on our hike as we begin to try more trail recipes in the coming weeks.  We chose these designs because they were the best fit for us, and it will be that way for every hiker I imagine.  We liked that we could design a simmer adapter for these stoves to control heat output and create longer burn times, and they just worked really well with the size of our pot.

Here's some pics of one of the versions we like in action, pay no attention to the temporary pot holder, as it is a candle holder that just happen to hold our pot 1.75" from our stove, which is the distance that seems to work the best.  Once our shipment of aluminum foil arrives we will ditch the candle holder and build a windscreen/pot holder for our system.

 Jets firing right up!

Note the uncontrollable boil, and the addition of a simmer adapter (not pictured).

This last picture is a modification/addition to the pot lid that came with our stove.  We are still playing around with it, but basically it acts as a frying pan that can sit on top of the pot while other food cooks, or can sit directly over the stove.  Again, still playing with this "invention" and seeing what works and what doesn't.

We ate off our stove and temporary pot holder all weekend cooking Ramen Noodles, Mac & Cheese and some Knorr Noodle meals.  All worked GREAT!  Needless to say we are getting more excited by the day for our thru hike!

Gearing Up!

A big thanks to Moosejaw for the awesome t-shirts!

Free to Walk!

Last Friday was my (Seth's) last day of work!  So this has been the first week I've been free to begin planning and training for the PCT!  So far I've been able to do 11 miles a day (while still taking care of other responsibilies) mixing hiking, running, stairs and walking the dogs.  Just wanted to update any followers out there as we haven't been able to post for a while.  Look for many more posts soon!