Willamette Pass to Elk Lake on the PCT

[ghsmith76]

I have recently resigned my job as a CIO in Higher Education with plans to fulfill dreams of serious backpacking while I still can. My immediate plans are to backpack as much of the Oregon and Washington Pacific Crest Trail as possible over the next 2 months. The reality of my semi-retirement will probably end up committing to only working 50% and living life to the fullest the other 50%. My blog post, http://higheredtechtalk.org/2015/06/30/ ... ns-learned, will give you details and photos of this segment of the PCT. My quick tips are that the Cascades are dry and this heat wave in the PNW is not helping. I fear that my goals will be interrupted by fires this year. The stretch of PCT that I chose was rich with lakes, which was good because I only crossed one trickling creek.

[LostTexan]

I read the story on your blog and now I am looking forward to retiring even more! I am 34 so I guess I will have to wait. What all did you eat while you were out there all those days?

[ghsmith76]

What all did you eat while you were out there all those days?

I will sacrifice some weight for hot food, coffee, oatmeal. I use a JetBoil and rely on dehydrated meals which I split since they serve 2. The through hiker folks tend to go with cold food which works for them, but I enjoy some of the benefits of added weight. After the heat knocked me down my Teriyaki Jerky from the http://www.tcsjerky.com sure did hit the spot.

[bushwhacker]

Hope you enjoy retirement as much as I have. Something everyone should try. I retired last year about this time with the goal of getting all the major house stuff done last year so I could goof off this year and it's worked out great so far. The goal this year was to get 1000 miles of hiking in and with summer starting in February this year so far I am close to 700 miles. May need to adjust my goal.

Good luck on the rest of the PCT.

[ghsmith76]

Hope you enjoy retirement as much as I have. Something everyone should try.

Congratulations on your wise decision and backpacking accomplishments. I'm still grappling with whether I am fully retired or not, but I am enjoying the process of figuring that out. Gonna do Timberline to the Gorge this week.