One week!

This time next week I'll be in a tent on my first night on the John Muir Trail! Well, not technically the JMT on that first night, since I have to do a little detour. But still!

Planning's going well. I did a couple of dry-runs on the packing this weekend. I need to come up with a way to strap my water bottles to the new pack -- the side pockets I'd usually use won't work when the pack is fully stuffed -- but I've got some ideas that should work. Otherwise, I've been able to get everything in there just fine, with some creative arrangements. I'm rolling my jacket and sleep clothes into the Thermarest to make more room in the central pack, and I can strap down clothes on the outside during the day when I want them to dry after a wash. The pack is coming in at about 38 pounds. With water that should put me at around 40, which is the goal.

A couple of weeks ago Liana did me the huge favor of making all of my trail mix and dividing it into snack bags. SO MUCH TRAIL MIX. That will be the bulk of my snacks. The food planning has been the most complicated, just because I had to divvy it up among several resupplies -- a bag for Tuolumne Meadows, mailed buckets for Red's Meadow and Muir Trail Ranch, a bag for Michael to bring to me at Charlotte Lake. But it's going to be so convenient to split the food up like that and alleviate a lot of the weight issues. The resupply buckets have both gone out (fingers crossed they actually make it to their destination!). Aside from one or two dinners in the first three days with Liana and Robb, and a "fresh" lunch for the first day, all of my meals are packed and ready to go.

I've done one more thorough check of the itinerary and marked all of my planned camping spots, using GPS coordinates and the go-to JMT manual. I still want to do one last check to confirm the mileage and get a sense of what each day will look like in terms of elevation gain.

The planning's honestly been fun, but I'm super excited to just be out there. I feel really ready to go. Nervous, yes, but just an unspecified kind of anxiousness. I feel really prepared and confident I've covered my bases. Which -- one week. I'd better be ready!