New adventure, new blog

Chris in the pecan orchard in January

   To make some money to finance our adventures (and to get out of the cold, cold Northwest and colder Michigan) Chris and I are living and working at my dad's ranch south of San Antonio.

   What people call a ranch around here has little to do with cattle anymore, but is more a big plot of mesquite brush, cactus, and pretty much anything else that could possibly have thorns. We're lucky because dad owns what he calls a pecan ranch. I realize this might bring to mind cowboy boots, horses, and wrangling ornery pecan trees into a corral, but fortunately the pecan trees are fairly well behaved and usually stick to the spot they were planted. The "ranch" we live on has a pecan orchard, an olive orchard, and some wild land, and no cattle whatsoever.

   Anyway, about seven or eight years ago, my dad planted about eight hundred pecan trees in a big pasture. Two years ago, he also planted a few hundred olive trees in another pasture. He did all of this on his days off from being a more-than-full-time emergency room doctor. Needless to say, he never has enough time or enough sleep to get done the things he needs to get done to keep this place in tip-top shape, so that's where Chris and I come in. We do odd jobs to keep the pecans and olives getting the water and lovin' they need. We also get free rent, a lot of land to roam in, a hot tub, two ridiculous cats, a garden, and all the deer and wild hog meat we can eat.

Tweedle Dee, half of the ridiculous cat duo

   So for the next few months, updates will be about our preparations for starting the Pacific Crest Trail in April, and living at the ranch. Probably mostly about living at the ranch, since most of our preparations are done. I'll put the PCT news at the bottom, as so:

PCT news:

The only gear we still need is a tent, maps, and shoes. We (read: Chris) have done a lot of research into which would be the best ultralight tent for us. We can't decide between the Lunar Duo and the Double Rainbow. They're so neck in neck that the Double Rainbow may win out just because if we make it to Canada, we'll be able to say "Double Rainbow all the way!"

My new pack!

After that, we need to buy food to send to ourselves in places where all we'll be able to get are Twinkies and Snickers bars, talk about when we'll need to send ourselves things like iceaxes and crampons, and then figure out how we're getting to Campo. But most of that has already been discussed a little bit.

One exciting thing: I bought my backpack last night! I decided on a ULA Circuit. I feel like it's a good mix between function and weight, and no thru-hiker seems to have anything bad to say about it. The company is pretty cool, too.