Final preparations

With less than 3 days before I start my hike on the PCT, I have been busy making all the final preparations. On Monday I went to the grocery store to get together my first few days of food. I walked through the aisles checking food labels and calculating caloric density, thinking, “would it be more efficient to carry loaded mashed potatoes or homestyle?” There’s a surprising amount of science that goes into backpacking food, with a common ratio being kcal/gram. If a 65 gram serving of food has 300 calories for example, it is considered to be a quite good option (4.61 kcal/g). Anything above 4 is considered to be “good” backpacking food. That being said, there is a very important, less measurable variable in the equation- happiness. This will often outweigh the kcal/g ratio. If you are curious about the science of backpacking food, this video series has an incredible amount of information: https://youtu.be/iqgayipoNWA


4-5 days of food

Over the last few days, it seems like my pack weight has gone up at least 2 pounds. While I’ve had all my main gear items figured out for a while, I keep finding something where I think “this might be helpful, and its only 2 oz so it’ll be fine.” These little items really do add up. 


One thing that I was scrambling to figure out the other day is power banks for charging all my electronics. I purchased a power bank several weeks ago to only just realize that it has some kind of defect that prevents it from holding its charge. Thanks to the magic of same day shipping, I was able to get a different kind that’s even lighter than the old one. 


My pack all loaded up! 



My dad and I are currently driving down to Campo CA, the beginning of the PCT! We will arrive on Thursday, stay at the CLEEF campground and start the trail on Friday!

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 5, 2023 at 10:54 AM

    Is your Dad doing the trail as well?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. IanApril 5, 2023 at 1:34 PM

      No he is just driving me there. He will hike the first few miles with me

      Delete
  2. AnonymousApril 5, 2023 at 3:31 PM

    We believe this will be an awesome adventure for you. Looking forward to reading your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Eric BellApril 5, 2023 at 5:57 PM

    Good luck out there. Yeah, those last few days of randomly grabbing stuff “just in case” are tough. I’m sure it will all shake out after a few days on the trail! By the way, did you bring a scale to get your official pack weight on day 1?

    ReplyDelete

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