Although I’m accessible while out on the trail (Thanks Steve Jobs), it’s proving way too time-consuming to blog every day. But I am taking some photos along the way, and those can be found here: http://instagram.com/thelittlepackage

I hope you follow along, and do comment!

A week ago this was my sewing studio, with a huge shelf that covered the entire wall, full of fabric and supplies, and a desk with two sewing machines on it. All of that is now a distant memory, as I am elbow-deep in the dreaded PCT resupply planning. It’s not pretty. A 2011 PCT alumni, Wired, sums up the resupply headache pretty well in this post, so I won’t repeat it other than to say… it hurts. Which is why I procrastinated as far as possible. And it’s why I can pretty much only bear a resupply plan from the Mexico border to Cascade Locks. Even by then I’m hoping that people will drive out from Portland to meet me with resupply and hike/camp with me! So you don’t see that many boxes there compared to a lot of hikers, but that’s in the plan.

I mean, I’m still waiting for the correct (Regional Rate USPS Priority Rate; optimal) boxes to come (and they probably won’t arrive before I move out in a few days)! I haven’t yet estimated any calorie needs or gotten an idea of how many calories I have piled there on that floor. I think it might just come down to me deciding which boxes deserve the most goodies in them depending on difficulty of the surrounding trail and scarcity of near-to-trail food shopping. I do still have a few days to sort this all out. But it’s almost worse than having teeth pulled. I don’t wanna!!!

A lot of PCT hikers warn that you don’t want to pack resupply boxes because you’ll get bored of the food on trail. Even worse, if you have to abandon your hike, you’ll be stuck with many pounds of trail food. So I was very careful to buy things that were not only calorie-rich, but tasty and treat-like. I was also careful to not buy too much of any one thing. So it may be in one resupply box, but not another.

See if you can identify everything laid out on my floor and table. Extra points for some of the more obscure items (like the stuff I picked up at the local Asian food market). Finding the $0.25/pc. three-in-one Nescafé instant coffee packets (packaged/printed for the Cambodian market) were a pre-trail “trail magic” moment yesterday. I’m excited about them, and just about every other item on my resupply list. It’s taken some self-control to not start eating all this stuff already!!

I just found this pieced-together panorama I shot in 2001 while in Norway to support some crazy friends running a marathon. I think it’s lovely. Life above the Arctic Circle. The bay, light as day at midnight. Taken with real film. Across the bay to the north you can see some lines running up the mountains — chair lifts. We took those chair lifts to the top and this black & white photo was taken:

Good times. Written on the back? “One too many doses and she thinks she can fly…” HELL YEAH.

My two cycling cap sewing patterns — with the best instructions, templates, and style/fit available — are now downloadable as PDFs. You can buy, print, and be cutting and sewing within minutes from now! Check them out:

These patterns include the same templates and guidelines that I follow when sewing caps in my studio. I worked for several years ironing out hiccups and honing the style so that these would look and fit great on everyone. The patterns print out on letter sized (or A4) paper. Just make sure to print at 100% – no shrinking to fit.

Please note my patterns and designs are protected by copyright and intended for personal use only. It is not legal to use the pattern to produce items intended to be sold commercially including flea markets, boutiques, and home based industries or internet websites. Nor is it legal to reproduce my patterns either by tracing or by photocopying for distribution. If you do hope to sell cycling caps, please feel free to use my pattern to research cycling cap design and learn one way in which they can be made. Trust me, not all cycling caps are the same.

Thank you!

Thank you very much for supporting my small business. I hope you enjoy my patterns.

It started when I got my first “real” job at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland in 1994*. In the 90s the Hollywood would admit you for $1.50 to watch a double feature. Sandy Boulevard was blistering with pretty aggressive prostitutes and Johns, junk dealers, and a lot of down-and-out types who needed somewhere to duck in for a few hours. I saw a lot of crazy things go down. I sold tickets, then “moved up” to selling candy and popcorn, then I started taking an interest in the building itself and became the “maintenance girl.” Not a janitor, though I did do a lot of blowing popcorn around with leaf blowers (sorta fun) and scraping chewed gum off carpets after freezing it with GUM OFF (also sorta fun). Nope. I was given the keys to the building, the alarm code, and allowed to show up any time to fix things up. Because by then the Theatre was already 70 years old, and falling apart in front of our eyes. It needed constant care. Everything was broken. Everything leaked. Everything was pretty gnarly and gross.

But it was a treasure! Only a few of us knew that behind the raggedy, soda-stained wall curtains were beautiful trompe l’oeil murals and that behind the old Cinerama screen was an amazing vaudeville stage and orchestra pit. So only a few of us saw the potential and the beauty and hung in there. It is a treasure.

Because you can still hardly tell even if you visit today, I’ll show you some pictures of what hides behind curtains and paint:

The more I explored the place alone, at night, the more in love I grew. There was so much to discover, so much strange old history so foreign to me as a teenaged Alaskan in Portland. Ladders in the back led up to cavernous concrete rooms which used to hold hundreds if not thousands of pipes. The pipes were long gone, but back in the first year the theater opened, they were blown by the Wurlitzer organ to thrill the house during silent films. A year later talkies were the new rage and they became obsolete**. A hatch in a West-facing outside wall used to take deliveries of ice blocks, which cooled the forced air in the hot summertime. Every seat held thousands of memories, and sometimes coins fallen from pockets. Tips for me. And that’s not even beginning to think about the magic of the movies themselves…

Think of any other type of building where people go and almost always enjoy themselves thoroughly, despite themselves. A movie theater is one, and I can’t think of many others. Movie theaters are magical, especially the ones that were built to embody magic. The Hollywood Theatre is so magical that the entire neighborhood was named after it.

Today I changed the lightbulbs for maybe the last time. FYI, this is what the crawl space looks like, for the most part:

When I got down the ladder I chatted with Connor, the Operations Manager. It’s become clear over the past couple years that the Hollywood Theatre now has its act together. They’ve got good prices, great concessions (real butter for the popcorn, beer on tap, and pizza from next door***), INCREDIBLE programming (indie movies alongside treasure 35mm prints of kung fu and other rarities, as well as comedy and theater events), and are working hard on the building (new roof, new heating, plush new seats with tables, new screen, new sound, soon to be new Kickstarter-funded marquee, and in a little while, full LED lighting). Connor took me on a tour of the backstage area, which I haven’t seen for years. I couldn’t believe my eyes. If you like movies, film, projection, movie theaters, and maybe even pipe organs, that area might do for you what Disneyland does for a five year-old. First of all, it’s clean and dry. Wow. Second of all, it’s organized. My eyeballs almost popped out. Finally, it’s ALL FILM. Trust me, the Hollywood Theatre is 100% awesome, through and through. It took some time to get the ball rolling in the right direction, but it’s rolling. I’m so happy about it.

If you live in Portland and haven’t been to the Hollywood, now’s the time to check it out. The coast is clear! The seats and bathrooms are no longer Superfund sites, and your feet won’t stick to the floors. You also have some backstory which should make it even more enjoyable. It’s an old theater and a work in progress; though, so give some leeway and be kind. Remember to buy something at the concession stand, because that is how any movie theater really makes its money, and remember to tell your friends or donate to the Hollywood Theatre non-profit if you can. The Hollywood is our treasure.

**As I understood it, Hollywood’s Wurlitzer organ was moved to the Oaks Park skating rink. A false, but very fun, legend. Hollywood’s organ went to the Imperial Skating Rink, then was sold to McDonalds, then moved to a private home in California). The Columbia River Theater Organ Society (bet you never heard of them) has been tinkering with a new organ installation in the Hollywood for a long time now. Shhh! They don’t know this but for a while I knew where they hid the organ key, and I’d take it for a spin at night when nobody but me could hear. In those moments, my only dream in life was to simply play a bar or two of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Didn’t happen. But that thing can make just about every other noise in the book. Monkey falling from tree? Check. Dog getting kicked? Check. That thing is CRAZY.

***Though I still whine every time they tell me they don’t have any frozen Junior Mints. Argh! That’s the BEST way to eat them!

• I sent in my application for "retired status" through the Oregon State Board of Nursing. In 2002, I graduated with a Bachelors in Nursing Science from Oregon Health and Sciences University, and that fall I was licensed in Vermont. Since then, I've had licenses in New York, Washington, and Oregon, and worked in thirteen hospitals in three states (I never used my NY license). But the work wasn't truly for me. I loved helping people and was very good at the science and logistical part of nursing, but the US healthcare system is so fucked (excuse my French) that I felt like my hands were tied. It seemed impossible to really help anyone, and that was very discouraging and draining. I left a very desirable position in 2009 and never looked back. Except the nightmares. I had one the other night were it was 1300 o'clock and I still hadn't done morning rounds on two of my patients. I had not even read their charts, seen their faces, and had missed several meds (including abx and steroids). If you're a nurse, you know how stressful that type of dream is! Screw all that. Henceforth, I shall be called Caroline , RN, BSN, Retired. And that is that.
• I visited Rental Management Services in Portland Oregon and gave my 30-days notice to vacate from this very cute but total shit-hole of an apartment. They will be marching prospective renters through to see the place all month and I plan on doing something like this:

  Just sort of stand against a wall and flip through cards reading, "DO NOT RENT HERE." Except I gotta make a bunch more cards, and all the cards' words gotta rhyme. And I sort of want to look that cool and untouchable, but also completely inconspicuous at the same time. I'll get right on that. And please don't bring up Bob Dylan. 'Cuz I'm going to.

  The lyrics are a bit more à propos and I guess, well shit... let's forget I ever put up the INXS video. Excuuuuuse my French.

So anyway, I'm leaving my very quaint and cute but total shit hole of the apartment I've been living in for 8 years, I don't have a forwarding address, I'm a retired old nurse, and... I feel fine.

Read more about what these big changes mean for Little Package here. ]]> http://cap.little-package.com/blog/2013/03/big-changes/feed 0 http://cap.little-package.com/blog/2013/03/why-i-am-walking-the-pct http://cap.little-package.com/blog/2013/03/why-i-am-walking-the-pct#comments Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:00:34 +0000 littlepackage http://cap.little-package.com/?p=5082 To start off, I’ll say: No, I have not read ‘Wild.’

I have not read the book that might be stoking a surge of new thru-hike attempts this year. (It’s on my library hold queue, though!) I hadn’t really heard of it until my friend Elly Blue asked, “Have you read Wild?” I sounded a bit stupid saying no. She made it seem like I might be the only one who hasn’t. I might be.

I’m not sure I’ll need to read it, though, to find out what it’s about.

I feel more comfortable anywhere else. But especially in the woods.

Bill Bryson, traveler and author of “A Walk in the Woods” said,

To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.

I love this quote. I think it’s very telling that when I think of past travels, I remember feeling very comfortable. The pace of appreciation for little things is slower and just feels joyous.

When I met a happy-looking bunch of PCT hikers in 2010, I got hooked on the idea of exploring that trail. They were all miserable but you couldn’t tell at all; all they did was smile and beam joy. I was camping on the trail (having ducked into the woods with my bike) for a week, meeting various hikers, and just romanticizing ditching my bike (which was not allowed on the trail). I wished I didn’t have my bike (and the hikers wished they had my bike!) I don’t think even if I could have a bike on the trail, I would camp that way. I love mountain biking, but there’s something about being on foot that is so much more free and real. I feel more able to do anything, any time. You know how they say life moves much more slowly (as compared to from a car) when on a bike? Well, it moves even more slowly, and carefully, on foot.

That is why I am walking and not biking this time.

Big news — yes!

You can learn more about why here. You can learn more about how it affects Little Package here.

I have wanted to hike the PCT since meeting several PCT hikers (namely, Thump Thump, Cloudbuster, Sunseeker, Princess, Johnny Appleseed, Jolly Green Giant, Blizzard, No Pants, Microburst, Paparazzi, and Sweet Sixteen) on my 2010 bike tour through Oregon. Luckily I work for a nice lady who gives me all the time off I want. But I am definitely on a very tight budget. Thankfully, I already have a lot of the things I need because I like to bike tour. But there’s new criteria: it also needs to be done with weight and size in consideration.

I was very careful — or so I thought — researching and purchasing gear for my bike tours, but in retrospect I see how ultralight (UL) backpackers take that kind of care to the next level. In bike touring I was aware of the need to save space. But since I was on wheels and had less impact to my joints, I wasn’t quite as concerned about weight. Granted, I did get some great, light, and small things. The Therm-a-rest Neoair mattress, the Optimus Crux Lightweight Stove and the Sierra Designs Lightyear 1 tent, for examples.

But UL backpackers take lightweight gear-hunting to the extreme. They really put cyclo-tourists to shame. Their gear puts my gear to shame.

It’s sort of intimidating. I mean, I know you have to have it all on your back for months. That at some point early on, every step on the trail comes with a thought about when you can take your pack off, maybe send something home. At some point everyone sends something “heavy” home… and lives to regret it. As I work on my gear list, I am thinking about all these issues. It’s a game of back-and-forth, in my mind. If something is a little heavy but will make me very comfortable, maybe take something else out of the pack or make something else lighter.

Just because it is light doesn’t mean you should carry it.

Styrofoam. Very light but very big load. Photo via WafflesAndSteel.com

After deciding all the things you think you need, you then go through a majorly painful reality check whereby you again leave things behind. A pencil? Fingernail clippers? Can’t I just borrow these from another hiker? Three pairs of underwear? Why not two, or heck: why not just one?! Or maybe I can borrow them from another hiker! Is a tent necessary? A lot of UL backpackers don’t think so. These braves “cowboy camp” in bags on tarps under the stars, proud of the realization that a tent — a tissue paper-thin layer of nylon — doesn’t protect you from things that go bump in the night. But it does protect you from rain, wind, and bugs… so what do you do? Of course you think of some configuration of tarps and bug mesh and hiking poles and rope and stakes that somehow weighs half what a lightweight tent does. And you look like a genius. It’s a trail miracle! But does the added difficulty of procuring those fancy and expensive things, setting them up (try setting up a drum-tight tarp in diagonal rain, I dare you), and protecting them from damage outweigh the weight savings? Who knows… bottom line is, everyone likes what they like. The truth will come out on the trail. And yet, it might change every day.

Here are some of my dilemmas:

• I’ve been told by one PCT finisher that carrying trekking poles AND a tent with poles is “stupid.” I think I’m going to do that anyway. How do you win this one? Will someone make me some carbon hiking poles please? Or carbon tent poles? Can I just use my tent poles to pick my teeth and call it multi-purpose goodness?
• What the heck am I going to eat? I’m not a finicky eater, with two exceptions. One, I avoid soy like the plague. Two, I don’t really like to eat most packaged food. It makes me feel gross. How does that go? Garbage in, garbage out? Haha. So, that sort of means I’ll struggle at the convenience stores along the way. I think I’ll make myself a bunch of little snacks like the famous D Sharp Homemade Energy Bars (I’ve made this recipe in variations several times and its great, though ingredients are expensive) and send them to myself. And dehydrate some things to send to myself. Like yak meat and papaya. Not together! That’s gross. On second thought… that sounds pretty good. On the trail, I will eat ANYTHING. In fact, I plan on foraging wild edibles on the trail as well. Watch out chipmunk.

Some of my silly contributions to UL packing

As a seamstress, I have some things to contribute:

• Cut the tags out of the inside of your clothes and gear. Cut off any brand label patches on the outside, too. Get over your brand snobbery. (A seam ripper will help with that.)
• Cut off any patch pockets you won’t be using.
• Get clothing that fits (keeping layering in mind) and get it hemmed if it’s too long. Actually, get clothing that is too small, because you’re going to get scary skinny.
• Look at your tent and pack and consider shortening straps when possible, or cutting off straps/features you will not need.
• Cut the tongues out of your shoes. OK, just kidding… but I know at least one very notorious PCT hiker does just that.

Put that on your scale and weigh it

Here is my gear list. What do you think? It’s a little heavy at 17lbs with some easy fixes that I have plenty of time to make. Also, I’m considering hiking a lot of the trail without a tent, and cowboy camping. Yee HAW!

Have any advice or questions? Add them in the comments and we’ll chat!