“You’re Dehydrated? Well, Drink Some Water Fer Cryin’ Out Loud!”

“No, no, I’m not dehydrated – I’m dehydrating.  Food, that is.   My dehydrators are going 24 hours a day”  My friend, a park ranger, just looked at me for a second, blinking, and said “For what, exactly?  In case you didn’t get the memo, the end of the world didn’t happen.”  I explained, once again, that I was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and the dehydrated food was part of my resupply plan.

For some reason, people think I am joking when I tell them I am hiking the PCT.  Then they simply forget that I ever mentioned it and when I bring up details, it’s like the first time they have ever heard such a ridiculous idea from me and I have to explain it all over again.

I am asked, quite often, what my resupply plan is and, for those who may not know this, planning food for a trail that is over 2,650 miles can be quite daunting.  Luckily, I have my Yogi guide and I am following her resupply plan, which is to resupply in town when I can, mail food ahead in some locations, and my partner will mail me packages with my food.  I am planning about 25 mail drops and to make it simple of my partner, I am putting one days’ worth of food in a freezer bag so when I call her, I will ask her to place however many days of food I need into a box and mail it to my specified location.

I have a feeling that at some point, I may go hungry for a couple of days, but hey, that’s all part of the experience.

So back to the dehydrating business.  I had never dehydrated food before, so this was a new area for me.  I bought an Excalibur dehydrator (pricey!) and then found a dehydrator at the thrift store for $7 and guess what?  It works just as well as the Excalibur, albeit maybe takes a bit longer, but is less noisy.  I couldn’t find the brand name on it so I call it my generic dehydrator.

I’ve mostly been dehydrating fruits and veggies with occasional one-pot meals, courtesy of “Backpack Gourmet” by Linda Frederick Yaffe – highly recommend if you are interested in dehydrating your own food.

Surprisingly, I have been having fun dehydrating.  I think there is something very satisfying about making your own meals for the trail.  I only hope they will taste as good as they did before I dehydrated them…

I have also been purchasing various foods that I think will be good for my resupplies – stuff I don’t normally get to eat like mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, oh, and Payday bars.  They don’t melt, are full of protein, and get this…it’s a CANDY BAR!  I never get candy bars anymore!  So yeah, I’m a bit excited about that.

I just received a giant box of Backpacker’s Pantry, as well as orders from several other freeze-dried food companies, so my resupplies are coming together well.

I’d also like to shout out to Probar as they are sponsoring my hike by providing me their delicious and nutritious food bars!  Their bars have been a staple of mine for backpacking and other outdoor adventures for years now – if you haven’t tried them, do so, as they are amazingly delicious.

The other company I’d also like to thank is Hyperlite Mountain Gear as a sponsor as well for providing me this cuben fiber deliciousness –

I am truly fortunate to have wonderful and generous sponsors that will help me during my journey.

I had a bit of a scheduling change for my departure – originally, I was heading out mid-April, but I am now departing with the rest of the hordes from the Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kickoff aka ADZPCTKO, April 26 – 28.

EYEBROW UPDATE!  For those of you who read my blog post about my eyebrow tattoo debacle – Flash, my eyebrow tattoo artist, touched up my pink eyebrows and they are now a definite darker shade…of pink.  Mauve maybe?  I don’t know, but I am done getting tattoos, especially on my face.