No more suspense ...

I did not break any records. I had to stop my hike after 3.5 days, at mile 130. (was planning 5-6 days and 210 miles.) The choice to stop mainly rested on my inability to eat my main food source. I'm not a fan of coconut and the food-bars that I was planning to use for the majority of my calories ended up tasting like coconut bars. (At elevation, under extreme exertion, food tastes different, and never for the better. I thought I had sufficiently tested these but apparently not.) I was left with only about 1800 calories / day (instead of the planned 4000), roughly amounting to 5 handfuls of nuts and some energy shots called Shotbloks. Instead of the planned 1lb of weight lose per day I lost over 2lbs. After 3.5 days, 35 - 40 miles/day, and 27,000 ft of elevation gain I ran out of gas and called it quits. I exited at Vermilion Resort. In the end, it was an amazing experience and one more thing I've learned not to do on a low calorie diet ;)

Last post before attempt ...

I'm extremely anxious and nervous but ... I feel mentally and physically strong. My logistics are in order. I fly to LA today and start the hike tomorrow morning. Please cheer me on and thank you for your well wishes and support.

- Jon

The ramp-down

The hike is close. Only 9 days away. The past weekend was my first ramp-down weekend in 5 months. I hiked 12 miles with someone I met after he read this blog and contacted me. (Thanks Matt for the email message.) It was nice to take a shorter hike. I'm pretty tired of walking :)

The last 2 training weekends in June were my toughest.

I backpacked two 15 mile days with Ken which wasn't too bad. (Though I think Ken was slightly abused.) We hiked from Alpine road up to Skyline and then down into Portola State Park where we spent the night. Sunday morning we hiked back.

The previous weekend I hiked the last 60 miles of the JMT with Aaron. We drove up Saturday morning, hiked 30 miles, slept 3 hours, from 3:30am. - 6:30am., hiked 30 miles, then drove home. I finally went to sleep at 5:30am. Monday morning. It was one of the hardest hikes I've ever done. The trail was more technical than I remember (more large rocks in the trail). It makes running tough and requires a lot of lateral motion.

I have new respect for the trail. It makes me nervous. Even getting close to the record is possibly out of reach. (It is a record after all ;) ) Whatever happens, if I finish and I give it my all, I'll be happy.