Since last September I have been preparing for my hike. Back then I put together a plan of hiking each day (except for Fridays) and doing this week after week. I started easy with low weight and low mileage and have built up over time adding 10% increase each week. I’ve injected recovery weeks after every 4 weeks where I reduced the weight and distance 30% to let my body heal. [Thanks Steve Sisson for teaching me about training plans.] As a result over these past seven month I have hiked 1600+ miles. In addition each month I did a shakedown camp out at a local state park culminating with a multi-day desert shakedown at Big Bend in February. So am I ready? All I can say is that I’m now done with the prep. Yippee! And I know I can hike 20 miles with a 35 pound pack. And I can camp in a variety of weather conditions. So yes, I think I am.
I am tapering before leaving, that is, I am not stopping all prep, so although I’m done with prep I am still keeping up with my “habit” of hiking each day in the morning
Sounds like you are as ready as you can be. I won’t be commenting very much – just trying it out to see if it works. Steve is interested in your trip and will be reading also. Best of luck.
Susan Noell