Thursday, March 26, 2015

Dogs, Maildrops, Tattoos, OH MY!

The trail has a funny way of preparing you for what's to come even of you're not even out there yet. Over the past two weeks Cori and I went from having nearly everything set to leave to questioning our ability to even do the hike.

Between the two of us we have three beautiful fur babies:


Jasmine, a 13 year old cocker


Hershey, a 10 year old chocolate lab


Dudley a 4.5 year old Pyrenees/Lab mix

We had homes lined up for them a month or more before leaving, then one week before we were suppose to move out of our apartment and deliver all the dogs to said homes, all of our dog sitters bailed out on us. On the same day. Are you kidding me?!!? Needless to say, all of our carefully thought out plans were thrown by the wayside. We had one week to find new homes for them or there would be no PCT hike. All of the money and time already spent on the trail (train tickets, food, gear, etc.) would be pissed away along with our dreams of spending the summer out west. It was time to pull together all our resources, and be as flexible as possible with our schedules. We banned together to get everything worked out. In the end, friends and family came to the rescue; the dogs have been placed in (temporary) great foster homes and we can't begin to thank them enough. Having already completed a thru-hike once before we both understand that our ability to complete the PCT will be the result of all of the support we are receiving from friends and family back home. Thank you.

Once the dogs were settled, we loaded up my car with all our gear and maildrops, and I headed down to my parents in Blue Ridge, GA. I spent part of my time getting all of the maildrops and extra gear organized and ready to go.




I spent some of my time Cafe Ink and added to my AT tattoo. I've been dreaming of getting this done for the past three years and it turned out better than I've ever imagined! I plan on having the PCT and CDT tattoo ed underneath the AT as I complete those trails.



After some family time in Blue Ridge, Cori and I headed back up to South Carolina where we spent the last three days with her family.

Then, on Wednesday morning, at 2:45 am we stepped onto the Crescent Amtrak train to begin our journey westward to hike the PCT.



We will spend the next three and a half days traveling across the country to Del Mar, CA. There, we will be greeted and hosted by trail angel Betty Wheeler who took care of Cori last year when she got the flu. I can't wait to finally meet her in person!

Until then, Happy Trails!

1 comment:

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