Getting ready.

I've been hiking/walking nearly every day of the last week. It's felt really good to have that kind of time. Now that I'm not working, my stress level has dropped significantly. Not that it's completely gone, because I've got the Chits & Bits Game Marathon coming up a week from Saturday and there's lots of little things to get done. 

But strapping the pack on and walking for a few hours has done me a world of good. It's still a little strange that in about 3 weeks, that's all I'll be doing every day. Today I packed up everything, went to a friend's house that lives out in the woods and did a fairly short hike, with the full pack weight including food and water. 

      Not the most flattering pic but hey. 

After the hike, I set up camp, pitching the tent, inflating the mattress pad, throwing the sleeping bag in there. I fired up my Jetboil and had a mediocre freeze dried meal for dinner. I hope that I'll be eating something at least a little tastier on the trail, but I guess I'll find out. 

   Home- it's where my pack and tent is. 

I'll find out in the morning how it treats me. I imagine after 10-12 hours of hiking, I'll sleep wherever. I look forward to the trip. 

Remember-it's about the journey. 

Just an update

35 days until I'm hitting the trail. I've been on the go pretty much constantly-getting things ready, taking care of all the things I need to take care of. It's prime time for my Extra Life work, only 3 weeks until the big event. There have been a number of things happening in the mean time.

Last night, Rob and I had the pleasure of interviewing our hospital reps from The Barbara Bush Children's Hospital, on our Twitch stream. Meaghan and Kate talked about what Extra Life means to BBCH, and how it impacts local families. They are definitely two of the biggest proponents that we have and a big part of what drives us to do more. If you missed the live stream you can watch the replay here.

Today, Rob and I are on our way to Bangor Toy and Comic Convention, where we'll have an Extra Life table set up. We'll be talking about Extra Life, selling raffle tickets and giving game demos. Neither of us have been there before, it's a new convention, and a little outside our area, but we're looking forward to spreading the Extra Life gospel!

Thursday night from 5-8pm we're at Five Guys in South Portland once again selling raffle tickets and talking Extra Life. Five Guys is donating 10% of their sales while we're there to Extra Life- so come have a burger with us!

All right, on to the gear talk. I pretty much rounded out the last parts of my gear- at least preliminarily. Most thru-hikers do what are called shakedown hikes before they head out. A shakedown means you pretty much strap all your gear on and go for a hike. It lets you gets accustomed to your gear weight and how everything feels. I'll be doing that over the next month and will probably end up changing gear as necessary. I posted my gear list on Appalachian Trials here - http://appalachiantrials.com/gear-lists/jamison-mclean/

Please take a look and tell me what you think! More on my upcoming adventure soon I promise. I may have some really exciting news to share soon- but I don't want to jinx it. 

Remember-it's about the journey.