Grant and I also stopped at the Oren Krumm Memorial Shelter which was the first shelter to be built on the Northern Michigan section of the N.C.T. It is a good place to spend a night out of the weather and to remember Oren Krumm. He was a fellow Boy Scout and Pelkie kid. He will always be missed dearly by many.

Here are some iphone camera shots of the run.. Sorry in advance for the low quality!

The foot bridge Eagle Project.

Oren Krumm Memorial Shelter on the  Sturgeon River.

Tibbets Falls, Strugeon River. (terrible photo!).

Grant.

First and most importantly. The trek is on schedule.  No matter what, I will start walking on January 1st. There is no doubt of this.  It is getting down to the wire and show time is just around the corner. The excitement as well as the pressure is building rapidly. Not a hour of my day goes by without me thinking about the journey ahead.  Every night I fall asleep dreaming of walking thousands of miles through landscape I have never seen before. And every morning I wake up to thoughts of all the things I must get done before I even get to the first trail. This will truly be incredible journey of adventure and personal growth that I can hardly wait any longer to begin.

The largest difficulty that I have encountered so far is the complete lack of work hours at my current job. My plan from the start of this project was to work for this company this season for 6 months. It was agreed that I would earn more than enough to cover my budget for the entire trip. The season even started out well with working 18-22 hour days regularly. It sounds crazy but I was actually super pumped about the job. I was swinging sledge hammers, putting in fence, digging holes, planting trees and installing sod. I was quickly working towards my goal on my own which made me happy.

Then the work simply ran out. This left almost the entire work crew at home not working, which included myself. This is only to be blamed on the terrible economy that Michigan currently has. None the less, this threw me for a loop. I had never  been in a situation in construction like this before.  All of a sudden my plan turned around 180 degrees. I went from having the perfect plan to earn my own way to fund the trek to having nothing. So I then turned to the one thing I could do. Carpentry. I pulled out my tools and start doing odd jobs on my own again. It has been almost three months now and I am still doing carpentry jobs on my own. It is going pretty well. I am not earning as much money as the other job simply because I cannot work 22 hours a day on occupied homes.  However, working by myself sure has its perks. It can be very rewarding and creative.

The current plan is to keep working on my own and to continue trek preparation as planned. The job situation is only a speed bump in the road. Even though I want everything to go as I plan them, this is simply not reality and I have to work around the obstacles as the appear.

I have been cutting down my budget to stretch my funds as far as possible. I have eliminated all hotel stays and most restaurant dining. Instead, I will rely on the many friends I have around the country for a warm shower and home cooked meal while I am in towns buying supplies for the trail.

In addition to the  attempt to out maneuver the funding obstacle by working for myself, I have also sold my tv, stereo, surfboards, snowboard, boots, brewing equipment, climbing gear, wetsuits, helmets, goggles, athletic clothing,  even flannel shirts and all backpacking gear such as stoves and backpacks that I am not taking on the trek. The only things I have left besides the gear for the trek are  my truck, tools and mountain bike. Hopefully the bike will the sell this week. I plan to sell the truck after I don’t need it for work any more.  Finally, at almost 25 years old, I have moved back in with my parents to eliminate the costs of groceries and renting an apartment for the next four months.

I believe I am doing everything I can think of to help make this trek happen. I also believe my plan to be completely feasible and I fully intended to make it happen come this January.  But ideas are more than welcome so shoot me an email if you have any!

Now it is time to sleep. I have another patio to build in the morning. More soon.

Good Night.

-Samuel

-Samuel

My favorite feature about this pad is that it is thick enough for me to sleep on my side comfortable without my shoulder or hip hitting the ground.  For some odd reason I can only sleep on my side so having this comfort makes sleeping on hard ground a whole heck of lot more enjoyable.   I am also working on some homemade pillow designs. I’ll update you with that little comfort item as well as soon as I get a few more materials.

That said.. My launch date of January 1st, is coming mighty quick. I have been sending sponsorship proposals to companies of all sorts. So far I have received one gear sponsor: ULA Equipment. I am super psyched about using their backpacks through out the journey. However this trek also requires actual cash for food and transportation expenses.  For now, my plan is to fill in the days I  am not working at my reclamation job with odd job carpentry work. I am taking advantage of every opportunity available to help achieve my goal next year. I am even selling everything I own: mountain bike, road bike, bmx bike, climbing gear, surf boards, wetsuits,  scuba gear and pick up truck. I’ll have you know, that  it is not ANY fun to sell my toys/hobbies but I know it will be worth it many times over when I’m done with the trek next year.

I knew that this wasn’t going to easy from the start and I feel that things will turn around soon.  If you have any work available of almost any sort or other funding ideas; please email me at samuel@theinitiativesite.com.

Here is the front cover so if you see it in the store rack, check it out.

Greg sent a dozen images to SBC Surf and these are the four that were published. Our friend Mike Dziobak is in the lower left image and the others are of me.  And yes, I agree..The beautiful, mint condition, 1986 Toyota van was the greatest vehicle I  have ever owned!   Friends, Matt and Hannah Abbotts are now the new proud owners.

I also want to say that we have been great friends for quite a few years now.  Which I am proud of not only because they are really good people that can give you a run for your money in a hot sauna any day of the week; but because they are truly living the dream of chasing adventure.  In 2008, Matt thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail. In summer of 2009,  Hannah and Matt circumnavigated Lake Superior by kayak as partners (~1200 miles). This past winter they asked me to become a Minister online so I could marry them. I was and still am honored. So after 10 minutes on the internet I then joined their hands in marriage. Now they are a happy couple and hiking the PCT as Mr. and Mrs. Abbotts.  Please check out their website at www.asuperioradventure.com for daily PCT journal updates as well as journals from past adventures!

More fuel is needed in the snowy winter season rather than summer  because snow must be melted into drinking water on a daily basis. It is more efficient to use readily available wood as fuel in the forest rather than store bought alcohol fuel.  So to overcome this obstacle, I looked around on the internet at what other people have come up for homemade woodstoves. I came across John Falk’s website called “Trail Gear”. On his site I found photos of the “compact wood stove”.  It intrigued me because of its simplicity. No moving parts, no batteries, no blowers and a large fuel capacity. My father and I also watched some videos of the stove in action on YouTube. We decided to try to make one ourselves out of some old cans in the barn.  This is what we came up with  tin-snips, step drill and Thirty minutes.

The stove works outstandingly well. Weighs only 6 oz. The upper “soup” can is removable and fits inside of the lower “paint” can that then fits inside of my cooking pot.  An alcohol stove is also compatible with this system by  using the lower can by its self as a pot stand/windscreen around the alcohol stove tucked inside.  This stove is bigger than the Evernew stove that I bought which is the key difference. It can be stoked with 1 by 8 inch  sticks by  pushing them into the feeding hole located on the side. The larger fuel capacity also allows the stove to be stoked at longer intervals. I am a huge fan of this cooking system and will be using it often. I may even start taking it to work to make hot lunches…!

Please check out John Falk’s website www.trailgear.org for more information, pictures and online store. He has great ideas.

Other updates include a new campstove purchase made by Evernew and new insoles made by SuperFeet. I will work on writing a post for each this weekend. Work has been pretty crazy. Some days we end up working 21 or 22 hour days. I can honestly say its the most difficult job I have ever had because it involves solely hard physical labor with hand tools. I use three tools for the entire job; a shovel, a sledge hammer and  a rake. The past two weeks have been even more difficult due to my poor health. I looking  forward to the weekend! It should let me catch up a little bit I think.

More soon.

-Samuel

This job works well for me because it is seasonal and thus fits my preparation schedule for the hiking project next year. It will allow me to put away enough money for over half of my trek budget of $16,000 plus cover my all of my college loan payments, insurance and phone bills. The only reason this job allows for this to work is that there is an endless amount of hours available.  One drawback is that it takes away time away from other areas of my life but so far has worked well with physical training. This is because the job is heavily physically labor intensive all day, every day. I have had great progress with my training by following up after work with a hour run or 3 hour bike ride or strength training in the gym or swim/surf days. I try to make training as fun as possible and so far its been working very well.

Alright enough is enough-more soon.

-Samuel