Notes from the Trail - April 27th

I received my first letter from Matt from the Trail this afternoon. His note reads as follows:

Trail Journal, 4/27/2012

From Helen, GA

James and I arrived in Helen, GA yesterday after we made it off Blue Mountain.

We've spent the past two days re-supplying our food and cutting our pack weight. Pack weight is an interesting topic for conversation on the Trail. You typically want to carry less than 1/4 of your body weight. As we have learned from our experience on the Trail so far, minimizing pack weight is essential to making the miles and keeping morale up.

We have heard of a thru-hiker before us who started with a 97 pound pack! And we have seen everything on the Trail from 60+ pound packs to "slack packers" who only carry their food and water for a day. James and I are carrying roughly the same weight - between 35-45 pound packs.

We will be carrying roughly 3-5 days worth of food. The closer we get to towns to re-supply, the lighter our packs become and the going gets easier. To carry minimal weight in our packs, James and I have condensed and re-packaged everything. Food has been removed from boxes, de-labeled and repackaged in zip lock bags.

Something I have been thinking about a lot as we have condensed our packs is just how little you really need to survive, how little you need in life. Food, warmth, shelter and water are all you truly need to survive on a mountain trail. If an item we carry does not serve the purpose of these four most basic elements in life, it has probably been cut. The only luxury we carry is paper, pens and a deck of playing cards.

As we plan our departure from Helen, we carry 1 tent, 1 1st aid kit, and 1 cooking kit between the two of us. We will send more news from Franklin, NC, our next stop!