Time to get serious about Blogging...

(If you are serious about following my journey, my advice to you is check out the PCTA website. It will clarify a lot of jargon and references my writings will contain and make it easier to understand my blogs)

Three months away and counting! My date with destiny is May 16th; the departure date on my permit. I originally planned on April 22nd but Mother Nature had something to say about that:) The Sierra Nevada's, in California, where the highest elevation point on the trail is located, has received 214% of a normal year's snowfall as of Feb. 18th. I am soooo... glad I was patient and did not apply on Jan. 24th, when the U.S. Forest Service first opened up the 2017 PCT permit application process. Had I applied for April 22nd I would have sat at Kennedy Meadows for weeks, waiting for the snow to melt or would have missed that part of the trail by bypassing that section of the trail.(I don't want to miss a step and especially want to see and touch a Bristlecone Pine Tree; the oldest trees in the world. One can only do that in the Sierra Nevada's and nowhere else in the world!:)

Training in New Mexico is going well. Working at higher elevations is really teaching me a lot about hydrating my body. It's going to be tough carrying the extra weight but I am going to be ready! Currently doing 15 miles a day with a 50 lb. pack at 7,500 - 8,000 feet. Still have a ways to go with mileage and weight but I feel confident I will reach my goal of 20 miles at 10,000 ft. with a 60 lb. pack with time to spare:) MORE TOMORROW:).......Namaste.