Louisville

My visit here in Louisville has been a blast. Sarah and I made the most of the weekend - going for walks, watching movies, and eating out. Yesterday was the first nice day in this area in quite a while and we took advantage of it. We went for a walk down by the river which is flooding. I brought along the camera and got some photos of partially submerged park benches. Afterward we went to a nationally known skateboard park. There were kids of all ages and skill levels. I got some great action shot of skateboarders high in the air.

I took apart the signal switch on the VW and feel that I have a good understanding of what the trouble was. I made a phone call to my uncle, Kevin who's understanding of things great and small never ceases to surprise me. He's like having my own hotline to Click And Clack. With his advice I hope that the electrical problem will be fixed and that I'm good to go. I spent the morning tuning the bus and hopefully the mileage will improve.

From Louisville

I'm in Louisville visiting with Sarah. I wasn't sure if I'd be stopping here or not for reasons I won't go into, but as it turned out I'm here for the weekend and expect to be back on the road on Monday. Louisville isn't as warm as I though it would be but that's supposed to improve tomorrow. It's been consistently rainy here for a while apparently because local water ways have been flooding. I went for walk today around a park and saw signs of the water way being 6 feet higher - which represents exponentially more water than what's now flowing.

A possible hitch with the bus which has me worried is an electrical problem with the turn switch. If I turn left the wire starts to smoke. I will look into the problem tomorrow during the day. The last time something like that happened the main wires that connect the starter fried and I was dead in the water. Fortunately that happened while I was still at home. I'm hoping it's just a simple ground and easily fixed.

Leaving Akron (April 3)

It was great spending time with Summers, Allen, and newborn Ellie. Summers and I went for a couple walks for a few miles each and got me to realize I need a little more exercise so I can hit the trail running. I'm a loaf at the moment. Summers fed me well and sent me on my way with more food for the road.

From The Road

I made it 650 miles on my first day out. That may not sound like much, but imagine doing that at 50 mph (or less average). It took a while. I drove til just past midnight. For those of you that know VW's you know that the bus has no heat and it was down to about 48 after dark. I slept in the bus at a truck stop. It was upper 30's when I woke. I slept toasty warm though.

I haven't made time to store things throughout the bus, so all that food I mentioned in a previous post is piled in the way. I'll take care of that soon by tucking it in all the storage places built in the bus.

I'm visiting a friend, Summers, her husband Alan, and her newborn Ellie in Akron, OH. I met Summers on the AT in '98 my second night on the trail. Alan teaches photography at an academy and it's been great talking with him. He's been encouraging and has given me some great advice about how to find more info on photography. I learned that there's places on-line that put together professional looking hard cover books of photos. I'm looking forward to making one of these once I get done hiking.

I'll be back on the road heading west again tomorrow. I'll either swing down to Louisville, or head more toward Colorado from here.

It's Finally Time

I've been looking forward to this date for half a year. It's finally here. The VW is packed and all there's left to do is warm it up and leave. My next post will be from the road or trail.

More Visuals for the PCT

The maps above show the Pacific Crest Trail in greater detail. The green pushpins indicate towns that are significant mile marks along the way. The distance between towns is usually between 70-110 miles.

The Pacific Crest Trail - A Map

For you visual people, I wanted to include a simple map of the PCT in its entirety.

It's Official

I have my framed photos hanging on the wall of a local restaurant. They are out for the public to see and are for sale. This is a first and hopefully it will generate some interest.

August Has Left The Building

I've spent the last two days digging frozen/granular snow from in front of the warehouse where my VW (August West) is stored. I had to clear a path about 60-70 feet long and wide enough for the bus to fit. My back is feeling it, but today I was able to get into the warehouse and start the bus. It started like a champ. I have to run it around town for a bit to make sure that it's still reliable enough to take across the country, but so far so good.

Seeing the bus was like seeing an old friend. I look forward to the travel west.

Food For Thought

One thing I learned from my last hike is that there's more places to buy food along the trail than I originally thought. Sarah had much greater flexibility in her resupply than I did because I was locked into going to certain places to pick up the food I mailed.
That being said, there are certain places where mailing oneself food is still a necessity. This time I have only 9 mail drops spaced out over the entire trail. The total number of days that I'm supplying with mail comes to about 40.
Here's some stats on what I'll carry and consume in that 40 days.
Pop Tarts - 160 which total 21 pounds
Potato Chips - 9 bags @ 6.5 pounds
Peanut Butter - 20.25 pounds total
M&M's - 9 bags @ 12 pounds total
Energy bars - 75 @ 15 pounds total
Lipton Rice meals - 40 @ 11.25 pounds total
Cheddar Crackers - 60 packs of 4 @ 7.9 pounds total
Jerky - 9 bags @ 2.3 pounds total
This total doesn't include other miscellaneous items - some candy bars, trail mix, and granola type bars. The total weight comes to 96.2 pounds. Again, I'll be splitting this up in 9 different packages along the trip.
The total calories for this 40 days comes to 205,765 or 5,144 per day.