The pack out process has begun in the Wagner Casorso household and thus, the adventure. The success of this journey will greatly be impacted by these eight boxes and our ability to plan and pack them correctly. We are spending the next month prepping for the trail, while simultaneously closing out and cashing out on city livin' and the traditional 9-5, which also inspired the name for this blog. What does trail prep look like, you may be asking? Well it is summed up with lots of logistical planning: calendars and spreadsheets and budgets and food prep. Currently, we are dehydrating all of our own food and the dogs food for the entire 486 (or so) mile journey, so this means that we are making all the food first then placing it in a dehydrator and letting it do it's thing for about 12 hours, then repeat until we have 3 meals a day for me and Mike and 2 meals a day for the dogs, we are also making them all their dog treats and many of our own fruits and bars as well. Yum trail food that is vegetarian (for the human folk) and actually home cooked! We got this idea from a great documentary called "Mile,Mile and a Half".
To back up a bit, for those who aren't fully informed, Mike and I are moving out of our apartment in Denver at the end of July for an adventure to make into reality, a long time dream of ours. We are planning a through hike of the Colorado Trail, which means, we are planning on taking 7 weeks to walk the entire length of this trail along with our dog children Joey and Lil' Britches. Along the way, in different towns (sometimes miles off from a trail head) and mountain passes, we will meet friends and family and sometimes local postmen at general delivery who will have with them a resupply box (seen getting filled above).These boxes will have food resupply, fresh undies and socks, and other treats to help satisfy us on our long walk; you can now see the reason I said these boxes will impact our success during our adventure. Throughout our kitchen and hallway we have dry foods, boxes, and gear starting to make a long trail and mountain of their own.
I am beginning to realize that stress and tension are also a part of this journey, as Mike and I work together to make this dream a reality. For me it feels like there are so many unknowns, and yet I feel I am supposed to be able to plan for them all. We both have individual things we want from this experience and there are things we want to gain for us as a couple as well. There is of course conflict and learning to get through and continue is all part of the process and the reward of this experience. Lucky for me I have the perfect (for me) man alongside me as a team mate in all of this. Also the internet is a big place, and many other people have done this kind of thing and this exact thing (minus a Chihuahua) before, so advice isn't hard to come by, my struggle is that I don't know what advice to always take, and when it comes to certain specifics, for example through hiking with a seven pound Chihuahua, go figure there isn't much info out there about it...(nervous laughter). It's a struggle knowing what to buy in terms of gear, oh man those helpful folks at REI sure want you to load up on all sorts of stuff, that in the end I won't want to carry and for Pete's sake, the socks they recommend to me are $20 a pair, and this illustrates another reason why I want to get on the trail and out of our culture for a while.
Day by day we get closer and closer to our goal... we are going to through hike the Colorado Trail with our 2 dog children.
Denver to Durango or Bust!
There are nerves and excitement and so much hope...
and for us that is the reason to do it!
