Skurkitus...

Andrew Skurka was in town yesterday to give a lecture on his 4,700 mile Alaska-Yukon Expedition. Aaron and I went to hear him talk (Aaron is a big fan), and I have to say - it was very inspiring! This man has hiked about 30,000 miles since about age 20 to age 30. He's even hiked the PCT... as a section of a giant 6,785 mile Great Western Loop.

His lecture covered the gear that was used, planning and preparing for the Alaska-Yukon Expedition, and some highs and lows of the trip. It goes without saying, that his gear is extremely light weight and everything he brought had a purpose (or two or three). He worked very hard to eliminate redundancies regarding his gear. "Why bring a sleeping bag with a lower temperature rating (that weighs more), when you can just wear all of your clothes to bed, therefore allowing you to take a lighter weight sleeping bag with a higher temperature rating." This makes a lot of sense, and is something I have to really think about when preparing and packing for a trip. In fact, I should have done this for the short trip that Aaron and I just took on the PCT. There were clothes (short sleeved shirt, long pants, puffy jacket, gloves) that I didn't even wear, or hardly wore. I had enough other clothes with me that I could have easily just layered those clothes and been just as comfortable. Carrying less clothing would have made my pack lighter, and maybe then I would have been better able to keep up with our friends... on second thought, maybe not. I do tend to hike slower and take a lot of pictures... Definitely before we hike the JMT, I will need to go through all my gear and make sure that everything is serving a purpose, and that everything will get used on a regular basis. On Saturday, Andrew Skurka will be having a light weight backpacking clinic that we will attend, so hopefully we (really, just me, Aaron's got this part down pretty well) will learn some new and important things.

During his lecture, Andrew said a few times how important planning is for a longer trip, and that he would often spend almost the same amount of time planning for a trip, as he would actually spend on the trail. He showed us a few slides of his Excel spreadsheets that detailed how many miles he would be averaging per day, what terrain he would be traveling across, what gear he would need and when, how much food he would need, etc. Even though he has taken plenty of long backpacking trips, he still explained that planning is a very important component to ensure that a trip functions smoothly. When listening to how he prepares for long trips such as this, I was reminded of some of the plans made by other PCT hikers that I've met or read about over the course of the past year. Some of these hikers start with packs that weigh about 60 pounds(!), and they decide to hike the PCT about two months before starting it (probably, these hikers are just more efficient planners than I am). Personally, I feel a real need to plan, train, and test my gear well in advance - and we're only planning for a 211 mile trip! Maybe the second big trip will be planned a little differently... then again, I'm kind of enjoying thinking about and planning for this trip even though it's well in the future.
 
Andrew also talked a lot about the highs and lows of his trip. A definite high for him was just movement itself ("further, faster, lighter"), as well as being able to see and experience things that most people aren't able to, and probably never will. Also, it was a thrill for him to see how efficiently he could operate outside the "land of soft" (how he referred to all the plush comforts of everyday life - running water, electricity, chairs, beds, constant companionship, refrigerators, etc.). One of the lows I remember him discussing came from a question from a kid in the audience. The kid raised his hand and asked Andrew if he ever felt lonely while out on the trail. He stopped and really considered this (after all, he did spend 20ish days without ever seeing a human) before saying that he doesn't have a problem with being physically isolated from people, but that he truly missed being able to discuss his feelings and experiences (good, bad, and the in between) with another person. Another something he took away from this trip was the feeling of being humbled in the face of big wilderness. More than half of his Alaska-Yukon Expedition was off-trail, and about a third of it was in a location that even the locals consider to be a more wild version of the Alaskan wilderness. He mentioned that while hiking he felt a strong connection to nature and began to regard himself as no longer part of an elevated species compared to other animals, but was simply "just another animal." This is something almost all of us will never experience, not even when hiking on the (beautiful, but man-made) PCT. All of these very unique experiences probably played into his humble and unassuming demeanor, which made me feel like you could ask him even the simplest backpacking questions and he would answer them without making you feel silly. That being said, both Aaron and I are very excited for his light weight backpacking clinic on Saturday - let the backpacking/gear questions begin!

Alaska-Yukon Loop

 Andrew Skurka's website