Have You Ever...?

We've entered the ring, I think, of the biggest challenge we've faced so far: planning 6 months in advance. Ever played that party game where the players go around in the circle and eliminate others by asking "Have you ever _____?" The players that have done that thing are out. Now it's my turn.

Have you ever planned every possible detail of the next 6 months?

or 

Have you ever bought food for the next 6 months and organized it meal by meal?

We've been grocery shopping for this trip for a while now. Jess posted some of the awesome recipes and resources that we'll be relying on to eliminate repetitive eating (as much as possible). But trying to buy food ahead of a 6 month span is expensive! We're certainly not buying everything now, we'll be relying on grocery stores and resupplies for most, but still. Also, since we've moved everything out of our house the food has moved in and absolutely covered the floors.

A small portion of what we've gathered so far, mainly snacks and breakfasts for the first month, or so. 

The other challenge of packing the food ahead of time, is how much should we be packing? Without being familiar with the area's grocery and general stores it's difficult to judge how much this stuff is going to cost. It's the shipping that's causing these questions. Our parents (with a huge ahead of time thank you!) have agreed to ship us mail drops that we're going to set up.

The question is, will it be cheaper to buy these things at a store like Costco or Sam's Club and then pay the additional price to have them shipped; or will it be cheaper just to buy them on the trail? I'm not sure that the answer to this question is anything more than a judgement call.

Next, we're starting our hike on what's arguably the most difficult part of the Appalachian Trail. Once we summit Mount Katahdin, we enter a section of the trail known as the 100 mile wilderness. This is the longest point on the trail that a hike will go without having access to a town/resupply point. Thankfully we've found an awesome place that will help us with this section. The Appalachian Trail Lodge (www.appalachiantraillodge.com) is picking us up from the bus stop after we get off our plane in Maine, giving us a room for the night, breakfast in the morning, and delivering a resupply of food and fuel to us about halfway through the 100 mile wilderness section. All this for a very affordable price, too.

This has been probably the most fun part of planning, though, too. It is a very interesting and revealing thing to try and plan out 6 months of food meal by meal. To be able to truly see what I actually need to make it for 6 months comes with a lot of insight. Come to think of it, I could probably start one of those super popular weight loss programs this way: "Have those extra pounds to lose? Buy Andy's Ultimate Weight-Loss Plan and shed 'em before you get 'em! All you have to do is follow these two easy steps: Go grocery shopping once in the next six months, no matter what happens AND no tap water allowed! From this point on, you can only drink what you can find naturally and filter!"


Problem solved ;)

Banzai Trail 4 of 4

This is the last in the series. Near the end of the movie, it will seem to get a little choppy. At the end of the hike Scotty thought he might have been running out of memory and decided to switch from taking videos to taking pictures on a 2 second interval. Also keep in mind that it took us an hour and a half to get from Bright Angel Campground to the Utah Flats, and about an hour to get back. These videos seriously abbreviate what our experience, but they're good for the basic idea. I truly recommend taking this trail, but make sure your in good physical form and carry tons of water.

Oh and...
It's really a shame that Scotty didn't make any of the footage because of his attire. Nobody managed to get a picture, but I'll do my best to describe it. Hiking down and into the canyon, Scotty and Jeremy each had two 32 oz gatorades, and Jess and I had one each. We also found a big plastic water bottle and another 32 oz gatorade bottle up on the Flats. On our way back to the rim from camp, they were all empty, so Scotty decided to puncture the eight of them and string them onto the back of his pack. It truly looked like he was a gatorade hunter displaying his trophies. That or he was making wings out of gatorade bottles. Either way, the whole way out we were trying to get him to tell people he was sponsored by gatorade, or just didn't drink water. Hilarious.

Banzai Trail 3 of 4

Unfortunately, we forgot to keep rolling through the part of the hike that would have come between videos 3 and 4. We got off trail at the end of this clip, sort of swerving to the right and heading down what seemed to be a creek bed. Except for the piano sized rocks we kept climbing down. Our trail actually veered off to our left, and we spent about 5 minutes after realizing our mistake, traipsing back up to reconnect with it. Sure was fun, though.

Banzai Trail 2 of 4

Over the music, you may hear some whistling. We did this so that anything that may be hiding in one of the cracks or crevices would know we were coming. We were pretty close to Bright Angel Campground, so we were pretty sure that there wouldn't be any cougars near. We still felt it was worth a few whistles, and the next morning I ran into a family of deer, so there was food up there other than us.

Over all, the climb to the flats took us about an hour and a half almost straight up the canyon wall. At any point in these films, the person that's in the lead is always above the trailing person's head. Epic.

Banzai Trail 1 of 4

We've had a lot of folks asking about the Grand Canyon and what it was like, so we're inviting you to hike with us! This is part 1 of the 4 videos we've decided to post on our spring break hike of the "Banzai Trail," the route up to the Utah Flats. Each video is approximately 10 minutes long. The first two are heading up the trail, and the second two are coming down. Apologies for the camera shake, but it's rough out there!

Oh and hitting full screen makes the quality go way down, so try control + just to make the window a little bigger. Seems to work better.