We’ve now filled 23 resupply boxes with stuff for the trail.  It’s been interesting to watch the “cycle” through our house.  First came the lists (that was me), then the shopping (me) and ordering stuff online (me and also Fixit).

Once the stuff started arriving, our living room became the receiving dock.  Soon there were bags and boxes of trail stuff, roughly categorized into things like “freezedried dinners”,  “dried veges”, “granola”, “nuts”, etc.  Our living room is small, so it got to the point where we could hardly walk around.

Once we had everything, came step 2:  Measure and count.  (That was my job).  I spent countless hours measuring and counting so that our supplies ended up as individual daily “baggies” of everything.  When we first started backpacking, I didn’t bother with this step–just threw all the granola into one bag, all the dried veges into another, all the powdered milk into another, etc.   Problem:  out on the trail, I never could get it right and at the end of the trip we either had stuff left over or were running on short rations.  So when we did the PCT in 2005, I bit the bullet and disciplined myself to measure and count everything for each separate day.  Wow, on the trail it was great!  No measuring, no counting, no worries.

Once all was measured and counted, came step 3:  collate.   This was also my job.  I assembled a “dinner bag” for each day, containing a freezedried meal (I repackage so it’s lighter and less bulky), extra carbs (rice/noodles/potato), dried veges, and some cookies.  “Breakfast bags” contain vacuum-sealed granola (Fixit did the sealing), freeze dried fruit, nuts and powdered milk.  “Lunch bags” have crackers, peanut butter or freeze-dried refried beans & cheese, and dried fruit.   Then because we are old, there were the “vitamin bags” with our daily vitamin rations.  And the “drink bags” with Emergen-C, Crystallite, and electrolytes.  Oh, and every one of those bags was labeled as to which resupply box it belonged in.  And there were various other small things, too.

Meanwhile, out in our garage, Fixit was laying out boxes, making his best guess as to which size for which destination.  We use ordinary brown cardboard boxes, and scrounge them from all over the place, including out in back of a nearby large office building.  Once I was done collating, he and I started making lots of trips out to the garage and dropping things into their destination boxes.   Finally our living room was cleared out!   We could walk through it without feeling like it was an agility obstacle course!

At that point, Fixit took over.  He likes the challenge of seeing how small of a box he can make stuff fit into, and he is really good at it.  Once all the supplies are into a box, on the top he lays the maps, town guides and journal pages.  Then with the prayer, “Oh Lord, hope we have everything here!”  he seals the box and tapes on labels (address, “CDT Hiker, ETA______”) and  “ORM-d” because there are Esbits inside and another note on some of the boxes that says “Liquid not over 4 oz, double sealed” (those boxes have tiny bottles of Purell or shampoo in them).  Last of all, every side of the box gets a green stripe that says “CHIPMAN” (our last name).

Once a box is sealed up and finished, it goes back to our living room, stacked in towers based on what mailing date the box should go out.   We mail everything USPS ground, except for 3 boxes that HAVE to go UPS.

The one box we have not sealed up yet is the one for Chama–we are still hesitating about whether to send snowshoes.  We go snow backpacking every year and know how awesome snowshoes are, but they are heavy and they are a hassle to mail.  Reports of this new storm in Colorado have us a bit concerned. Will there be piles of snow, or will it be pretty much melting down by the time we get there?  We are going to wait till the last minute to decide, and are watching reports on Colorado snow in the meantime.

Yesterday we enjoyed looking at pics of the  “CDTKO” in Silver City.  Looked chilly.  Looked like awesome fun!  Both times we did the PCT, we went to the PCTADZKO and it was a blast.  We were sorry to miss Silver City, but there is no way for us to leave till after April 27, when our Awana Club kids all get their final awards and the big Awards party!