Great Divide Trail – Planning andPreparing

“I believe the pull to see and know the beauty, wonders, and strangeness over the next hill is an ancient human need burned into our DNA…”

– Rick Auerbach

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Our next nomadic adventure planning is in full swing, and man are we feeling blessed with how well everything is coming together! Over the dinner the other evening, I looked at Dan and said, “Wow…I just feel so blessed not only for our upcoming trip opportunity, but also for the ease of this transition.”

For a while there, we were both feeling so incredibly overwhelmed with EVERYTHING – wrapping up work and school responsibilities, selling Hobo-the-van and getting a fair price, purchasing a different vehicle that would be good on fuel yet something we can sleep in, rallying up some gear sponsors for the trail, purchasing and packaging all of our resupply boxes for the trail, and so forth. We are thrilled to announce that most of that to-do list has been accomplished, or is at least well along its way!

We feel great. We are very much at peace with it all, and we are beaming with excitement. Here’s some insight into some of our most recent accomplishments:

1. Hobo is sold! We asked what we felt was a fair price, and we had over 20 responses from buyers who wanted to come view the van. One buyer said they would just transfer us the money without a proper viewing; we accepted and therefore bypassed all that work! It was sad seeing Hobo drive away without us.

2. We have a new (unnamed) van! We purchased a 1991 Suzuki Every, which is a Japanese  export vehicle that is TINY. They’re called micro-vans and have an engine the size of a motorcycle, and right hand drive. Dan is going to rig up a raised bed in the back where we can sleep, with enough room underneath for some totes of clothes, food, ski gear and climbing gear. He’s way smaller than our Westy but we welcome the challenge…we think.

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3. We (or more accurately Dan) got some gear from a couple of backpacking light companies! Dan has very specific weight and durability standards for gear, so we are fortunate to find some options that meet our criteria and are willing to help us out. Dan writes a lot of gear reviews that are honest and constructive and fair. This has opened up a chance for us to try out some gear in exchange for reviews. I’m the lucky lady who benefits from my man’s expertise. Thanks Dan. 🙂

Dan's new Hanchor pack that he will use on our GDT hike
Dan’s new Hanchor pack that he will use on our GDT hike

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4. This weekend we will be heading to Cost-Co with our lovely housemate Annie to get an unimaginable amount of food. We have 12 resupply boxes to make, and we plan of mailing everything ahead. A lot of the towns have crappy food selection, so this way we will get to eat exactly what we want. We hope to find 340 Starbucks Via coffees, 25 kilograms of cookies, 300 energy bars and 15 pounds of candy just to name a few! Oh, and 75 chocolate bars tone exact…oh the meal plans of a long-distance hiker!!

5. Its not all junk food for our team, regardless of the copious amounts of cookies and candy we will be consuming. Being as I do work in the natural health industry by trade, we are working out what supplements we will be taking with us. I have some sweet hook-ups from a couple of supplement brands, with emphasis on areas like protein powders, electrolyte powders, and pain and joint mobility management. We don’t want to carry too much, so I feel these areas are key to our success and comfort. We both lost a fair amount of muscle mass on our PCT thru-hike, which is somewhat unavoidable, but we will try harder this time around to end he trail in good condition.

I’d say those are he main successes and triumphs and sighs of relief as of recently!

We’re kind of in a “pickle” because we are not only planning our 4 month Rocky Mountian excursion, but also our 2 month Southern Coastal BC play-time. We plan to move all of  our storage unit contents over to Squamish on the 31st, and live nomadically in that general area. Sitka will be coming with us on that two month trip while we do some backcountry skiing and rockclimbing. We have yet to figure out her “living arrangements” while we hike, so if you have any leads or want to dog-sit (even for part of it!) let me know. She’s awesome.

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Thanks for taking an interest in our journey!



3 thoughts on “Great Divide Trail – Planning andPreparing”

  • Mom, & I are so excited for your next 6 months of adventure living.
    Please keep us posted, so we can live your adventure vicariously through you.
    I’m afraid, this is the closest we well ever come to living out this wild dream.
    ( stay safe, but not so safe, that you miss the adventure )

    Love, Mom, & Dad

  • Tara,
    The van looks like, Tiny Tim, to me.
    Mom, & I could look after, Sitka for you.
    We could pick her up at trailhead June 1st. not sure how we get her back to you Sept 30th.