Less than three weeks!

Sunday was the first of February, meaning that I leave in less than three weeks! I have so much to do before I leave (plan the menus and package up the food drops), but I know that these couple weeks will fly by and soon I will be on the trail.

Harley's new pack came last Friday. It is definitely an upgrade over the previous model. Originally I bought a Kelty Chuckwagon from REI, but after a couple test hikes, a hole developed where the leash attaches to it because he had been pulling so hard. Luckily REI has a GREAT return policy and gave me a full refund no questions asked. Instead I bought the Ruff Wear Pallisades II pack from geartrade.com for cheaper than the Kelty. It had a broken clip, so they had to sell it at a significant discount. After replacing the clip which cost me one dollar, I had a brand new pack for $35! It seems to fit him better as well and I really like the fact that the bag can be detached from the harness. Hopefully we will get out to Mendon Ponds Park on Thursday for a hike.

Apart from that, I am working hard with mom to come up with the menu plan. I have all of the mail drops planned out, now we just need to package them up with enough food. I'll post the mail drop schedule for all to see. I think that the hardest part is going to be rationing out the food because I have no idea how much food will sustain me on the trail. I know that I will want to eat like crazy because I will be burning 4000+ calories a day. We have the dehydrator going non-stop.