After committing to this hike I was met with a stream of questions (and several looks of concern) by family and friends. Here are some of the more common questions I have gotten.

Are you crazy?

  • Great question! Which I attempted to answer here.

Are you doing it alone?

  • Yep! I’m setting out without knowing anyone else on the trail. This is what most people do. The trail is actually so popular enough that they limit the number of hikers who can start on any given day. So when I start on May 4th, I’ll start with 49 other hikers. 50 hikers will start the next day, and the next day, and the next day… So I’ll meet plenty of people. Whether or not I end up as part of a group that spends most of the trail hiking together remains to be seen, but even if that doesn’t happen the experience will be more social than most people think.

How long is it going to take you?

  • Four to five months - highly dependent on how fast I walk and how many rest days (“zeroes”) I end up taking. My current (conservative) guess is that I’ll take 21 zeroes and finish on October 4th. But this is just a guess - I expect this plan to go out the window as soon as I get on the trail. There is so much unknown that I just have to be ready to roll with the punches. That said, here is my itinerary, which I'll continue to update as I find out what trail life is really like.

How much is it going to cost?

  • Roughly $7,000. About $2,500 for gear (I was pretty much starting from scratch), with the remainder being food and money spent in towns (restaurants, motels, grocery stores) on my rest/resupply days.

Is this some sort of soul-searching journey?

  • Nope. I’m not expecting to arrive in Canada having had some sort of epiphany as to what I want to do with my life, or how to best live it. Not that I won’t be thinking about those questions, but I know I’ll continue to wrestle with those for the rest of my life. This is, first and foremost, an adventure.

What are you bringing with you?

  • Another question better answered more in-depth. I have a detailed list here. 

How much does all that weigh? 

  • Pack Base Weight: 16.5 pounds
  • Total Base Weight: 19.9 pounds
  • Average Total Pack Weight: 34.5 pounds
  • See the previous link for an explanation of these terms

What about bears?

  • I feel kinda bad for them - I think they get a bad rep. There are plenty of things I am way more concerned about; Giardia, the weather, and lightening, to name a few. Smokey doesn’t have shit on Zeus.

What do you do about food?

  • There are potential resupply points and towns along the trail. Some are less than 10 miles apart, and others are more than 100 miles apart. Some are literally right along the trail, others are a 1-3 mile hike off the trail, and still others are a 5-30 mile hitchhike. I’ll resupply at roughly 30 of these spots, sometimes having two days in between resupply points, other times having seven or eight days. About half the time I will either have my parents mail me packages stuffed with food and other necessities (snow gear, new shoes, etc.) or I will mail packages ahead to myself from the trail. The other half of the time I will just buy enough food in town to get me to the next resupply point.

Ummmmm, you are going to hitchhike?!?

  • Yes. Don’t worry, I’ll be smart about it.

What exactly are you going to eat?

  • When you have to pack three to seven days of food on your back, you start caring a lot about caloric density. And you start thinking about foods in terms of calories per ounce. A general rule of thumb is that foods having more than 100 calories per packaged ounce are favorable. This includes foods like olive oil (255 cal/oz), almonds and cashews (170 cal/oz), shelled sunflower seeds (165 cal/oz), granola/energy bars of pretty much any variety (120+ cal/oz), almond/peanut butter, chocolate/candy, and most dehydrated meals. These definitely aren’t the only foods that I’ll eat, and I have no idea what my appetite will be after walking 20+ miles per day for weeks on end, but a typical day after the first few weeks might be along the lines of:
    • 6am: powdered coconut milk and granola cereal
    • 8am: handful of trail mix (almonds, cashews, raisins, chocolate chips) and a granola bar
    • 10am: Snickers and/or Peanut M&M’s
    • 12pm: almond butter on whole-wheat pita bread/tortillas, handful of plantain/banana chips
    • 2pm: chocolate-covered raisins
    • 4pm: handful of dried dates and more trail mix
    • 6pm: dehydrated meal (this is the favorite one I have tried thus far)
    • 8pm: handful of trail mix before crawling into bed

What do you do about water?

  • Know where the next water source is, and pack enough with you to get you there. There are a handful of 20+ mile stretches without water, a couple of 30-mile stretches, and one 40-mile stretch in the Mojave, which require extra attention. I’ll have the capacity to carry up to seven liters of water, and a water filter to purify the sources I come across on the trial.

Are you going to blog/journal?

  • Yes and yes. I’ll be posting an update and photos every two to seven days, and will try to post a “shot of the century” to IG/FB every 100 miles along the trail. I’ll also have an old-fashioned paper journal for my personal thoughts/reflections, which may or may not get electronically transcribed at the end of the trail.

Okay, I guess that sounds pretty cool! How can I follow along?

  • If you enter your email address in the box below and click "Subscribe", you will automatically get an email whenever I post an update.

If you still have a burning question that I didn't answer here, just drop me a line!