Bare Necessities

So today was a day filled with beautiful thunderstorms broken up by blue skies and sunshine & then lots of heavy rain & more thunderstorms. It was especially beautiful because we were inside our cozy house sheltered so easily from the storm outside, watching it from our windows. Oh storms are beautiful from out there, too, but man if we were out hiking in this today, we would've been soaked! So we appreciated that we were dry, safe & warm. And we appreciated that we were able to cook a homemade meal for dinner - Unicroc (first time I've called him that in a while!) made a fresh batch of homemade pierogies and sauce with asparagus and couscous on the side. With some Apothic Red & with my brother Caleb over for dinner, it was a fine last dinner at home.

Homemade pierogies, asparagus & couscous, yummmmm

We are pretty pumped for the food we have for our first leg of the trail. Dehydrated refried beans, black beans, split pea soup, pasta & rice sides, dehydrated potatoes, Justin's peanut butter with honey and tortillas for lunch, oatmeal packets for breakfast, an assortment of bars, primal jerkey strips, stonewall jerky as a treat, cheese, tortillas, trail mix consisting of an assortment of sesame sticks, cashews and dark chocolate m&m's, and jolly rancher chews. No dessert this time, which we might regret while we're out there, but nothing sounded good this time around. It takes a while for us to get into the hiker hunger so I'm not sure we'll even eat all of this during our first leg but we have a lovely assortment to choose from & we can carry over any food we don't eat this time for the next leg.

We are gathering our gear to pack up & so easily does the weight add up! Which reminds me of a song....

A dance-worthy song as we get ready & pack our stuff! Especially when we are preparing ourselves for colder weather & snow in higher elevations. We've decided to bring our ice axes and know that our umbrellas will come in handy in the next few weeks if these afternoon storms keep coming the way they have been. Let's cross our fingers the hail goes easy on us. But man, it's all part of the adventure & we will take it as it comes. The next few days in Denver are sunny & hot so we're hoping that'll bring good weather for since the trail begins semi-close to Denver.

We are weeding through our gear to see what we really can do without but man, it's tough. Unicroc is now bringing the Hive Pocket game (which is not lightweight by any means!) but we love it. We are each bringing a book (Unicroc is considering bringing a field guide for wild edible plants & medicines), plus our journal, a digital camera with battery charger, our phone taken apart & hidden while we are out on trail,

Thanks to our families & to all of you who continue to support us and understand as we take our lives back into the woods for a while. We love you all very much & feel rejuvenated as we head out toward our next adventure.

Much love,
Scat Tracker & Unicroc