Haven't been on here to post in about a week, due to busy preparations, planning, visiting family and friends, and just being lazy. Within the next hour I'll be leaving Lilburn, and heading for the Atlanta airport. There, I'll be leaving my family and meeting up with my first trail angels, Andrew and Jennifer. Andrew is flying back to the states from Paris after spending the past 24 days traveling Europe. I'm looking forward to his stories. Jennifer lives in Atlanta during in between season time from the park. They are both returning to Yellowstone by April 11th. So Jen has kindly offered to give me a lift as far as Denver on their way to Yellowstone. The three of us will drive through the night tonight, and arrive in Denver by tomorrow evening. Saturday morning Jennifer and Andrew will drop me off in Denver and head to the park for their respected summer jobs. I'll be catching a train in Denver, Colorado that will be taking me to Sacramento, California. I'll jump on another train there to Bakersfield, California. I'll finally arrive in San Diego, California after a bus ride from Bakersfield. Friends in San Diego will pick me up at the station there with some time to relax, grab one last meal from society, and drop me off at the border and the start of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Today I tied up all the lose ends with my final plans and backpack preparation. I'm leaving home with over seven days worth of trail food and supplies. The picture on the right is what seven plus days worth of food looks like. Oatmeal, cereal, pop-tarts and powdered milk for breakfast. Ramen noodles, mac & cheese, tuna, and one Mountain House freeze dried meal for dinner. I think it was Jamaican style chicken and rice. And about 22 snacks for walking lunches consisting of Snickers bars, Power Bars, Cliff Bars, granola bars, beef jerky, dried fruit, and peanut butter. All this food, minus the peanut butter jar, fit into two stuff sacks, seen below. All the food is very high calorie and easy to prepare and pack.

Got to run to the airport now for my first leg across the country. More to come on the rest of my gear and some final photos of preparation by tomorrow night while I'm in Denver. Happy Trails!