I buy stuff

Trip Start Oct 19, 2007
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Chile  ,
Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Today is trekking preparation and purchasing of supplies day.  Tom makes out a list of everything we will need.  I like this as he is already doing most of the thinking which means I can just sit there, whistle a toon and exist inside my own head which is wonderfully bizarre place to be.  I remember once my friend's girlfriend asked me, Shawn what are you thinking about right now and my reply was camels dancing in a high kick line wearing tootoos on a grassy knoll.  Needless to say she loved it.  So Tom writes out a detailed list of all the food we will need to bring with us and we decide we should pack enough food for 6 or 7 days and we can just buy food for the last 2 to 3 days there.  We think we can knock this sucker out in 8 or 9 days which seems a bit ambitious to me but definitely can be done.  We also go over the map route and plot our course and where we will spend the night each night.  Basically we just do all the prep work that you would expect, and by we I really mean Tom.  We head to the supermarket but it's small and they don't have everything that we wanted so we improvise. 
Later we attend a free lecture on trekking the Torres and we get a bunch of helpful hints like lining your pack with a garbage bag and then put all your shit in other garbage bags to essentially make your pack waterproof and don't worry about putting on warm clothes in the morning because yes you will be cold but after trekking for 10 minutes with a heavy backpack you will be sweating and then you'll have to stop to take off layers.  According to this guy the trekking isn't necessarily all that difficult.  Yes there are ups and downs and streams to cross and boulders to be traversed and some steep climbs but nothing that is out of the ordinary.  What makes this trek so difficult is the unpredictable and ever changing weather.  He tells us that it can be sunny one minute and pouring down rain the next.  The wind can pick up at any moment and can be extremely powerful.  Some Irish guy just died here a few months back because a big gust of wind came up and knocked him off balance and he fell off of some cliff.  It's much easier to lose your balance with a heavy pack on and the wind just makes it that much worse.  It sounds like to me the worst part is dealing with the rain and your body having to deal with extremes of hot and cold.  Should be fun.  I still think I might die. 

We pack our packs and mine maybe weighs 40lbs which is a fucking lot and most of that is food.  I will carry most of the food while Tom carries the tent, the stove, all the propane tanks and the pots etc.  I also will be carrying a sleeping bag, a sleeping mat, a coat, a fleece liner for my coat, 2 pairs of extra socks, a long sleeve shirt, 2 t-shirts, a hat, sunglasses, an ipod, my journal, an extra pair of warm up pants, gloves, and some toiletries which I get made fun of for.  Allright, I guess we are ready to do this.  I must admit I'm a bit worried as I have never trekked with a pack this heavy before nor for this distance (the circuit is 124k or about 82 miles) but more than anything I am super excited and I can't wait to begin this new adventure. 

Fin
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