Getting It Together

Well, things are falling into place. I got the official OK to take 13 days off in a row and I've started working on a few of the details. The biggest one being where to cache water. I've got one spot in each of the sections in Tim Ernst's Ouachita Trail Guide. I'm not sure of the distance between each water cache, but I don't think it'll be more than 20 miles.

I've started planning the menu as well. Since the majority of my trips are weekend trips I didn't really have 13 different breakfasts, lunches, or dinners in my backpacking food repertoire. I do have a few backpacking food cookbooks that I've dog eared pages in over the years with recipes that sound good. I'm going to start trying some of these at home to see what I really like.

I tried a cinnamon sugar couscous this morning, but didn't really like it. It has potential though so I'll make some adjustments on it tomorrow maybe. I'm doing a chicken and stuffing for lunch, Seems pretty straightforward, but I'm going to try it in a freezer bag which I've never done.

On the subject of food I've got a buddy who may be able to bring a food re-supply on day 8 which beats carrying 13 days worth of food from the start. If he's not able to do it I'll probably ship a re-supply box to the Story, AR post office. I don't really want to hike the five miles into town though so I thought about maybe hanging a bag somewhere near the trail. I would hate to be expecting the food to be there and something happen to the bag. Another option would be to hang a bag and ship a box just in case.

I've started to mentally go through my head what gear I'm going to take as well. Just about the only thing I'm unsure of at this point is the stove. I know I'm not taking the Whipserlite or the Dragonfly, but I'm undecided on whether or not I should take the Jetboil or get a Snow Peak Lite Max stove. If I buy the Lite Max I can use my MSR titanium cook set which would drop the weight a little.

Right now I'm planning on carrying the Osprey Atmos 50 pack, the big kicker being how much space the food takes up. If the food takes up a whole bunch of space or I don't do a re-supply I can always carry the Gregory Baltoro.

I'm going to do some more logistics planning this weekend. I'll try to figure out where I'll be when and try to get a rough idea of the complete menu. Does nybody know where I can get individual packets of peanut butter?