March 29, 2010
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Today is the three week marker until we set off on our journey of a lifetime!

We have been two busy bees, working on finishing all of our preparation, some last weeks of work, visiting family & friends, and tying up loose ends before we leave “civilization” for a five months of walking. The butterflies have been a fluttering and we are so excited to set out.

This past week, we stopped at our favorite store for bulk food, WINCO, and stocked up on over 90lbs of food which we will be sending ourselves in re-supplies. It took lots of brain juice and many calculations to figure out density of calories per ounce of different foods and how many calories we have supplied for each of us at each re-supply. Check out our photo album below to see pictures from our food sorting.

We have also been blessed with an Iphone for our journey in order to have easy access to our website and keep you all posted! We will be posting pictures and videos from our iphone (once we get a tutorial on all the cool gadgets)! But how will we charge our amazing new device? Well, with our new solar charger! Woo hoo! Our new powerfilm USB charger only weighs 4.9 oz!

Our gear “shake down” hike this weekend went great. We hiked the skyline to sea trail which winds through Big Basin State Park (the first state park in california) with to great friends, Tumbleweed and Turner. I learned:

1. Liners actually do serve a purpose (I was testing to see if I could drop some ounces and lose the liners)
2. My Granite Gear Vapor Trail pack is a tad too small, so I am going with the GoLite woman’s Pinnacle pack instead.
3. ramen, dehydrated mash potatoes, dehydrated onion soup, three packets of chili powder, parmesan cheese, and dehydrated lentil soup creates some mysterious sweet taste and is not so good.
4. Justin & I both agree our z-lite sleeping pads are too thin… and make us have a lite sleep.
5. Big Basin, CA is gorgeous – and the California Newts are out in force!

Presently, we are working with kids from Holy Spirit and St. Martin Elementary school (both located in San Jose) in lovely Aptos, CA with the WOLF school. We are enjoying the beautiful flowers and showers of spring while playing in the Redwoods with terrific children.

Thank you so much for the on going support and love.

~ Melissa

March 24, 2010

Zone Perfect is here, we arrived in Jackson to 32 cases of Zone Perfect Bars. Nearly 100 bars of both Strawberry Yogurt and Chocolate Peanut Butter.  I prefer the latter but imagine it won’t make a ton of difference when push comes to shove.  We are debating whether or not to put them in our first resupply in fear it might be a gooey mess eating them in the dessert heat, but I suppose that is part of the fun.  Thanks again Zone Perfect for your generous supply and don’t fret we’ll share.

In all the midst of final preparations and logistical considerations we have not forgotten about our mission behind inspireout and a contributing motivation to accomplishing this trek.  Yesterday at my 6-month dental checkup I updated my dentist with my upcoming plans for the next 6 months and his jaw nearly fell on my shoulder as I relaxed in the reclined position.  He was definitely curious and by the end of my check-up Melissa had peaked the interest of the women behind the front desk and we shared a business card with them as well.  We are hoping that people continue to share about inspireout as we embark on the trail and hope that we inspire a few along the way.  Speaking of being inspired, second time PCT (2009) thru-hiker Avo motivated me to donate a few bucks to his cause HikeStrong and in exchange he has placed a few words on his backpack; I chose to recognize my mother for her courageous battle (see photo below.)  Thank you all for your support, be well and see you out there.

~Justin