Preparation for the Kekekabic (Kek) trail in October continues. Friday we received  BWCA maps #7,#8,#9 which cover the Kek trail. These will help us to plan out our hiking and camping.  We also cataloged our backpacking gear in a spreadsheet (thanks Google Docs) and weighed it. This will allow us to very concisely decide what we will or will not bring with the ability to factor the weight of each item in regards to whether we really want or need it. On our first past over our lists Amy and I both found many items that we realized their weight was not worth the convenience they provided.

Perspective map of the Kekekabic trail

Amy also received the food dehydrator she purchased. This is one of her ideas to drive down the weight of our packs for the 40 mile journey. Since she plugged the deydrator in last night I do not think it has stopped running. She has already made a  fruit roll-ups, strawberrys, apple chips, and bannana chips. Right now we have more of the above fruits dehydrating along with Pinneapple, Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Peppers), and jalapeños. Amy is really getting into it, its awesome.

Dehydrator, delicious fruits, Jalapeños, and Bhut Jolokia.

Today I was able to locate a GPX file of the Kek that I can load into my Garmin eTrex handheld gps. This will be able to provide support should we lose the trail. This past Friday night, at Feliz Cumpleanos, Kevin and I agreed to navigate via a compass with the BWCA maps. We are not turning to the GPS until we have been lost no less than 3 times, and lost being defined as unaware of where we/not clear if we are on the trail for greater than a half hour.

Amy also put together a prelimanary menu for the trip. We still need to establish the weight of these meals though before finalizing the menu. It is our goal for this trip to reduce our normal backpacking weight. So far she has planned Oatmeal w/brown sugar and ham, Ratatouille, Mexican burritos, Broccoli Cheese soup, Chili, Salmon, Cascade stew, Chicken and Mash potatoes, and Beef stew. It is quite an awesome menu so far. Snacks will include the standard Granola bars, trail mix (where do you think the name came from?), but will also include many dried fruits thanks to the dehydrator.

At this point we still have a many things left to do. We need to revise our final packing list, finalize the menu, book driving arrangements with Smitty, and confirm which of our friends are joining us.