Weekend of Dehydrating

You would not believe how many bananas you can fit into a plastic bag once they have been dehydrated! Lets just say that 5 bananas and counting and the bag is not even filled up yet.

So Kaci has been hard at work this weekend (thanks to her for letting me use her kitchen as A.T. Hike 2010 preparation station) dehydrating tasty meals for my through hike that is coming up quicker than I realized, she is a life saver at helping me get motivated and busy with preparations. My current plan is to start my journey from Springer Mountain on March 13th, but with the 4 inches of snow that we had this weekend that date is subject to change especially if we continue to get unsouthernly inter weather.

So far we have made and dehydrated red beans and rice, taco soup, bananas, strawberry, blueberries, chili, some ground beef and plans for guacamole, salsa, and apple sauce.

I have also started planning where to get mail drops sent to me for resupply along the way which Kaci will be in charge of sending to me on regular basis, maybe she will put some yummy treats in too.

Then next step for my preparations is to narrow down exactly what gear I want to take eliminating all extra and non essential gear that adds up to some major weight. Right now I am shooting for a base pack weight of 20 to 25 lbs for winter and 15 to 20 for summer. That does seem a little ambitious for me as I am very used to carrying everything including the kitchen sink when working in an Outdoor Education Program setting.

So stay tuned for the total pack weight coming hopefully next weekend.