FaQ

Hi reddit! as you can see this place is pretty bare bones right now but that'll change once I begin my walk.  I figured I'd post up some Frequently asked Questions in the meantime.

Why?
Absolutely the most common question I get. There's a lot of reasons. I though of it a few years ago as sort of a graduation/see the world thing. That didn't exactly pan out but the idea stayed in the back of my head. Right now, I'm at a part of my life where I don't have anything tying me to one particular place. I've graduated, haven't started a career, girlfriend went off to grad school so we split. Everything just seemed to fall into place and I knew I'd regret it if I didn't at least try.

I think it will be a great opportunity to meet new people, see the country, and most importantly, test myself. I'm not completely happy with who I am and this is one of those life altering experiences I think I need.

What will you do for food? 

The majority of my food will be Soylent 1.5. It is a powdered meal replacement shake that is perfect for what I need. It's light weight, cheap, and has about 2000 calories of nutrition. I'll also be supplementing my diet with cheap high calorie foods like peanuts and fruit.

Where are you going to sleep?

I've got a tent and will camp when I need to but I will also use hostels, and friends couches.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. I'll update the list as time goes on.

I learned a few things today

On my 10 mile walk with my pack filled about 3/4ths of the way.

1. I need better socks
2. After ~4 hours of walking, with my GPS tracker running and being active on facebook, My phone was at     75%
3. Don't eat a protein rich breakfast before walking 10 miles.

Over all, it was perfectly doable. I don't feel like I'm dying and walking doesn't hurt so that's encouraging.

Today's just going to be a short update. thanks for reading!

The Final bits of Packing

It seems weird to me how little I'm actually taking with me but I'm sure it will seem like a lot when I put it all together for my practice walk tomorrow.

Most important is the backpack. It's a hand-me-down kelty. I'm not sure the volume but it has a lot of pockets and a good internal weight distribution system.

Next is my tent. It's a lynx1 I got from alps. It weighs in at a hefty 3.2 pounds but that's the trade-off for its price tag

I'm still searching for a good sleeping bag but I'll come back and edit later when I get one

Next I've got a 3 L camelback from platypus along with a couple of collapsible water bottles.

My main food source is going to be Soylent. This stuff weighs about a pound for 2000 calories of food. 1 pouch is a (regular)days worth and cost about 7 dollars which is quite nice. Just add water.

To supplement that food source, I've got a small folding camp stove that can use solid fuel cubes or wood and a little pot to cook oatmeal in. Lightweight, high calorie food is a necessity

Lastly I've got some luxury items. External battery packs and a solar powered charger, an ultralite fast drying towel, some dry shampoo and a tinder maker.

Now I'm not done packing in any stretch but at least I've got most of the essentials out of the way.

Thanks for reading! Tomorrow I venture out to try a 10 mile walk with my pack to get myself acclimated.

Preparation

There are a lot of things I had to do and a few things I still need to do to get ready for my trip. I've cancelled all of my recurring payments, researching food/shelter, put in my two weeks at  work. All of those good things. I still need to pack up all the stuff that's going into storage and find a new home for my cat but I'm coming up on the final stretch! I'm pretty nervous to be honest but I'm also really excited.

I guess I'm just checking in for this post. I'm trying to get in a rhythm for writing while there isn't much important to say.

Thanks for reading! Talk to you later.

The Beginning

  My friends have been telling me that I need to start a blog for my travels. I think it's a great idea but until just now I've been caught up with preparing. I'm not the most eloquent of writers but I hope that in the coming months this blog will be interesting to some of you. So here goes!

   In a little less than a month, I'm going to start walking from Charleston, SC, to Los Angeles, California. I expect the trip to take about 8 months and I've never felt more unprepared for anything in my life. I expect to see a ton of great sights and meet many of interesting people along the way.  stay tuned for more updates!