AT Preparations

With our start date for the AT now six weeks away, I thought I'd share about our preparations. We have been trying to get to the gym 9 or 10 times a week. We've been lifting weights for our legs, arms and core; we've been using the stair climbers and treadmills with weighted packs; we've been in the climbing gym, and gone for the occasional runs and swims.

We have finalized our gear, we bought pack covers and dry-bags (one to purify water in and one to store our electronics).

Last weekend we made our first aid kit with an empty peanut butter jar, a few adhesive bandages, some moleskin, antihistamine, alcohol wipes and Tums. The jar is light, relatively crush proof and water proof.

Probably the most important preparation though, is my beard. I decided that I didn't want bother with shaving, or the itch and pesky neck hairs of growing a beard, on the trail. So, I decided to get a jump the whiskers and have the beard in place by the time we hit the trail. Of course, I'll still have to deal with trimming the 'stache, but I have a handy scissors on our mini multi-tool and a loving wife, so that won't be too bad.