July 31st
Today’s miles: 6
My total mileage: 1325
PCT mile: 1507
Goal #4 has been reached! I’ve now hiked 1,325 of the 2,650 miles. It is an estimated 3 million steps. My cumulative total ascent is 244,782 feet. My cumulative total descent is 240,471 feet.
I had my first post office pickup today of the entire trail, and the little building didn’t open until 11 am. My brother had kindly ordered some Darn Tough socks for me; I was well overdue. I did the truly tacky thing of putting my old unwashed socks into an envelope and mailing them back to the manufacturer. (They are known for an excellent lifetime warranty.) By the time I could get my delivery, everyone else had blown out of Dodge.
I climbed up a service road for a couple of miles to the ridge above Castella, but felt very fatigued in the heat and decided to take some time off. I returned to ‘town’ (the Chevron and post office) and managed a hitch soon after to the real town of Shasta just 10 miles north. My hitch generously dropped me off at Roundtable Pizza, where I ordered a pitcher of beer and an extra-large pizza just for myself, hah! I met a terrific local who offered to house me with her family for the night. We’ve rented several Redbox movies and are having a grand time. This is absolutely what I needed.
Think I’m gonna return to Portland tomorrow and reassess and try to fatten up a bit!
These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago. At the time, I was still 180 miles short of the midpoint, due to the 8 days I missed from Sonora Pass to Sierra City. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much of a vibe of jubilation there. More sobering than anything.
Hi IronHusk,
Not sure if you remember us….you provided trail magic to us in August 2014 in WA during our PCT thru-hike. We’ve been following your exciting adventure. Looks like you have been having a blast! Just thought we’d pass on what we learned about maintaining body weight while on a long hike. We took the carb/fat/protein ratio idea of 50-40-10 from the articles posted on the web by Brenda Braatan, Ph.D., R.D., nutritionist and avid long distance hiker. It worked like a charm for us on our PCT thru-hike in 2014 – we both lost just a few pounds. The key is the 40% fat! Our sample menu can be found here http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=477520. Wish you the best and keep us posted as to your plans!
Hi guys! I do remember you. We met just south of Snoqualmie Pass. Mangos and Mountain Dew were your choice of the day, hehe. As I recall, you ate orange crackers on a daily basis! š I had skimmed Braatan’s articles previously. I should have done a number of diet-related things differently. For one, I would give serious consideration to going stoveless if I were to do it again. I found that I quickly tired of the vegetarian chili I carried, and managed to carry some foods for 500 miles without discarding or eating them. In the end, my food bag still weighed 2.7 lbs. Dumb to carry that weight! (I got very good at managing my water, always reaching a water source with only 1/4- to 1-liter of water, but I didn’t do so well managing my excess food.) Thanks for your words of encouragement and advice!
Wow Tim. What an amazing adventure. Your effort has been incredible. Here is to good health and good spirits!! š
Thanks for the support of the two of you! Wishing you the best on your own big adventure in the month ahead! š
You look great! I am really loving the photos. Keep up the hard work. I am impressed by how much you are able to post while just surviving out there…. Show them how it’s done Mac… š
Glad to hear that you’re listening to your body and playing it safe. Dinner and pints at Stillhouse on me. I wonder if you could get a side of, maybe, a stick of butter? More fats!
Ohh Husk don’t give up! The trail is better with you hiking it !
Vi vil ikke se pĆ„ det som at holde op, men snarere som pause! Hehe. Glad to see you’re still out there! Drop me an email when you get a chance and let me know your mile number! Gonna try and do some trail magic in the weeks ahead.
Congrats on hitting the halfway mark, man! That’s an awful lot of work!
A good idea – go fatten up, Portland a good venue for that; assume that is where you are at present given no postings for a week; we are VERY impressed with your accomplishment (but you are SKINNY!!). Assume that you will be with wifey – the best to you both, Ole and Ane
Thanks for all your warm words of encouragement during this adventure, Ole! Hard to believe how much weight I dropped since Vietnam. Don’t worry, I’m working hard to put a little back on right now.