Are we ready yet? – The walk

Now that we’re counting our time for the tour in weeks instead of months, every time I see someone they ask me something like «are you ready?» to which I answer no, absolutely not. Lihat juga A8iskX. I’ve realized that just as there will never be a perfect time to hit the trail, I will never feel 100% prepared. Despite that, our house is a frenzy of “getting ready.” Here’s a look at our strategy for leaving it all behind and walking for 5 months:

Getting our shit together

Team preparation has been one of our biggest undertakings. There were several updates that we’ve been putting off until now, when we really need light gear. Sarah is a genius when it comes to researching the equipment we want and finding the best model. She will tell me what to buy and we spend time searching the shelves and resale sites for the best deal. With this method we managed to get our new tent and several high-priced items at great discounts. Our gear list is basically complete, but we’re still constantly testing, waterproofing, and weighing everything, trying to get the weight of our pack down before we start.

Replenishment preparation

After equipment, our next major effort has been resupply preparation. We’ve read a lot about not prepping too much or mailing boxes ahead of time, but we both enjoy a high-fiber, high-protein diet with lots of vegetables. We bought a secondhand dehydrator and have been making our own backpacking meals for the past few months. While it’s not even half the amount of food we’ll consume on the road, most of the resupplies we mail out will contain home-cooked meals we know we’ll enjoy. We’ve also figured out where we want boxes sent and are packing meals and gear to mail from home when we’re on the road.

Physical preparation

Physical preparation has consumed a lot of time in recent months. We’re strength athletes and rugby players, so we’re no strangers to a gym. However, the workouts we’ve been doing have been quite different to the usual ones and I dare say we’re both a little bored. For a long-distance hike, spending time in the gym means strengthening the small muscles in your feet, working on imbalances we already have, and of course, exercising religiously. I hate to say it, but being consistent and doing those boring little exercises really works. Our feet feel strong, ankle mobility has improved, and my knee progress has been excellent.

We have also been training, hiking, running and practicing yoga. We try to go out with a heavy backpack several times a week, slowly increasing our mileage over the past few months. Yoga has helped us be more flexible and greatly improve mobility. Sarah can touch her toes now!

home affairs

The longest we have been away from the house and our cats has been a couple of weeks at a time. Five months is a long time and preparing for this absence is a task in itself. We’ve been trying to set up our home with automatic shipping, automatic bill pay, and automatic transfers as much as possible. There are also things that need to get done in the next five months that we’ve been trying to take care of, like paying our taxes, doing car maintenance, and home maintenance that was never really urgent before but now feels like it shouldn’t go undone for five months. We know that if we can take care of these things ahead of time, it will be one less thing to worry about down the road. Needless to say, our cats have realized something is up and are not happy about it.

mental preparation

Finally, we have been preparing our brains. We’ve been working on doing things when they’re hard, like going for a walk on tired legs. We’ve picked up habits like stretching and journaling, and just waking up and going for a walk.

With everything we have to do to prepare, it seems like preparing for the trial is quite a journey in itself. On top of all this, we continue to work, travel for work, and try to be part of our community. It seems like every part of our lives right now is preparing for the journey. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves to be present: go out to dinner with friends, take a break, and hang out on the couch with the cats.

Within all the preparations and anxieties, there is a growing excitement and anticipation for the first day when all of this falls into the background noise and we just walk. To say we know what to expect would be a lie, to say we are ready is wishful thinking, and to say we are excited is an understatement.

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