Thought I should create a couple updates before I start the PCT around the prep. 

At work, I have been transitioning teams and responsibilities over to various folks.   This is been going on directly or indirectly since I decided, and convinced Alice to let me,  do this hike at the end of 2014.   I feel our Knowledge Advance cloud product is finally getting over the hump and reaching maturity.    So I can take off with a clear conscience.

On the home front, we made a few decisions.   We will put our house up for rent in April.   Alice and I will move in with her parents for a month or so, after which she will stay/roam around with her sisters and cousins on various trips while I head into the wilderness.   Our lives are going through a mid-life cleansing 🙂    She is an amazing partner.                    

It is getting pretty busy here at the soon-to-be-rented Baum household.   I generated a short list of things to fix around the house then Alice turned it into a long list.    Put in some new gutters a couple weeks ago, replaced drywall over the infamous kitchen crack with plywood and patched.   Working on the patio now.  

Meanwhile Alice got us a storage place and we are boxing up stuff.   The last 2 weeks has been going through file cabinets and shredding all the financial crap we have been saving for the last 20 years.   Every time I open a cabinet to pack, I find another 20 pounds of “important papers”.   Last week I completely filled a 75 gallon garbage can with shredded paper.   It is amazing how complex modern life can be.

Buying a house, paper.   Need car insurance?  More paper.  How about some property insurance?  Here is a 70 page document describing….I have no idea….seems like mostly reasons why they won’t pay a claim.    Old Tax returns, bank statements, proxy votes, vehicle emission tests, car warranties, recall notices, and on and on and on.   

A special treat was re-skimming through a couple of  investments that went into bankruptcy/reorg.   What an amazing pile of paper that was.   Page after page of sentences beginning with “WHEREAS” and a few “NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED”.   They could have summarized it on a post card…..40 cents on the dollar per bond.  

WHEREAS there is a pile of paper sitting on the floor, NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that it will be placed into the shredder.   

If I was going to hang around longer, I’d probably try to compost this stuff and get some real use out of it.

 

Was a big online party when the PCTA opened up their PCT application page on their website at 10:30am on Tuesday.    By 10:35 it was unresponsive and by 11:30, all the good dates had been snapped up.   There was panic on the /r/PacificCrestTrail subreddit and the PCT facebook page.    2,000 applications by days end from what I read.    I managed to get my preferred date, so put that in your pipe and smoke it.  

I have been exchanging $$ for pounds off my pack weight.   New zpacks bag, lighter thermarest pad, some cuben fiber stuff sacks, and a few other knick knacks.   Dropped base pack weight down from 30.5 lbs to 23.  That worked out to $94.66 per pound.   I could lose 2 more by switching to a ULA pack, but I think Alice is reaching her limit. 

Bought a bunch of freeze dried food and trail mix which got distributed into 8 resupply boxes.   Packing about 10,000 calories each.   I figure I’ll sort out where to ship them while on the trail.