mischief managed

For my upcoming hike, I've bought two new cell-phone batteries that I must now break in. I also have a small camp brush to help with cleaning up my bivy sac after a night of camping, and I've got a cheap trowel for digging cat holes (for when I need to poop at a campsite; I prefer to cover my mess up).

Regarding the question of eating nothing while camping: I've decided that it would indeed be crazy to starve myself while burning 5000-6000 calories per day, so I've once again ordered those weird little Survival Tabs so that I'll have at least some food-based energy to metabolize while I'm walking the long miles.

The weather from late September to late October is, according to Weather.com, going to go from cool to downright cold at night. At the beginning of my walk, temps will be a daytime high/nighttime low of 70s/50s Fahrenheit (20s/teens Celsius); by the end of the walk, those numbers will have gone down to the 60s/40s Fahrenheit (roughly 18-ish/7-ish Celsius). Since three of my four camping days will be toward the end of my walk, I'll need to be extra careful about keeping myself warm at night—especially my feet. My sleeping bag does a good job of keeping my body warm, but there seems to be very little insulation for my feet. I used to own a pair of knitted "booties" (for lack of a better term) that provided plenty of warmth; I don't have them anymore (or they're in my self-storage unit in Virginia), so I might have to buy insulating footwear here, either at a store or via GMarket.

And that's really about it in terms of equipment and prep. I've got a revised version of my checklist; it's all ready to go. For the moment, the only real prep is my conditioning: I've begun walking the staircase route along the Yangjae Creek again; for the moment, I'm doing only five tall staircases, but I'll soon expand back out to my old routine of fourteen stairs, with the occasional super-long route comprising thirty-three staircases. In 2017, I started my walk at 126 kilograms, which is roughly where I am right now; if I can peel off a few kilos before the upcoming trek, I think that'll make life much, much easier on my back, knees, and feet.

A Korean friend of mine says he's itching to try some distance walking, so we're going out this weekend to do a five-hour trek from Yeouido to my place, then maybe we'll do a longer walk two weeks after that—possibly a segment hike somewhere along the Four Rivers path, or possibly a new-to-me segment (8-9 hours) along the Gangneung-to-Busan Gukto Jongju. Any excuse to get out and walk long.