Packing

Hello friends and lovers, Ville here!

After arriving to Bend, Oregon we've been planning the rest of our gear and buying/ packing food like the end of the world is coming. The Mayans said it should be around December 2012.

Tuesday we walked into Costco to shop food in bulk, to our Finnish readers: Costco is a whole sale place where you buy stuff like toothpaste in 6 liter bottles. As you can see from the photo we were shopping with following criteria : Has to be light in weight, needs to have a lot of calories and tons of fat. Usually people shop the opposite stuff.

Wednesday we spent shopping for the rest of our camping and hiking gear at REI. I acquired a really cool looking desert hat that makes me look like Indiana Jones... an alcoholic Indy. We spent quite a decent amount of money on feet care so that we improve our odds of our feet not quitting their jobs and calling us idiots.

The rest of the time we've packing the food in boxes, calculating calories per day and realizing that when you shop for 4 months worth of food you get a pile of food that is bigger than the Mt. Everest. We also tested our gear by camping outside in a tent with our new sleeping quilt. That night was record low temperatures, it went down to 19 Fahrenheit so - 7 Celsius degrees.
The quilt kept us warm and ultra light tent protected us from the freezing wind.

Today is easter so we have been stuffing ourselves with food and dishes that we won't be getting any time soon on the trail. On Wednesday 27th we fly down to San Diego and we'll start the hike on 29th. We will write to this blog as often as we can, depending on how many places that we stop buy will have access to internet.

Happy Easter!

The Calm Before the Storm

Hello folks!

Still in the thick of planning and we can hear the countdown till our plane leaves Helsinki, Finland and we arrive in Bend, Oregon (U.S.A.) in only 5 days! Ready? Well, that's a funny question. I guess as ready as one can be to change 10 time zones, move at warp speed to buy, pack, and label resupply boxes (there are about 10 for just our California stretch so far), buy all the "last minute" items to complete our gear, "see" all the family and friends, pick up ice axes and bear canister in Eugene, get over jet-lag, try not to forget anything, and try to remain cool, calm, and collected. Did I also mention we have 8 days to do all this in Bend? :)

Well, after that mess, tickets are booked for our departure to San Diego on Wed. afternoon (April 27th) and we will stay with friends for all of a day before departing on Friday the 29th for the beginning of what all this craziness is for! Then it's one foot in front of the other, and repeat. A few times. Seems easy enough! After the first post, we have had an amazing response from family and friends to help mail us our boxes (since we cannot get into every town out in the wilds, we must mail ourselves food, sections of our maps, and odds and ends), meet us on trail, bring us boxes in person, see us for a day or two (where I am sure they will beg us to bathe and eat), or even hike sections. (Dad, age is just a number, and Lisa, this is your chance to really show us that you CAN be with nature for 5 months and love it. Jordan aka J-Lo, we have you already penciled in for the whole hike.

Thanks everyone for all the support. Still positions open for a sherpa to carry my gear, fan me while I walk, and feed me grapes and chocolate. If you are interested, e-mail me. Until next time, enjoy our wild adventures!