Ouachita Trail…. 2.0

Getting ready for the trail with two weeks to go. Base weight is coming in at about 15.5 lbs. With 9.5 lbs of food (first 7 days) and 2L of water (4.4 lbs), pack should be just under 30 lbs when we start.

Here is the plan:

• Drive from Denver – Leave Sat, Mar 2.
• Overnight in Tulsa  – Sat Mar 2 – long day (10 hour drive) but makes tomorrow much easier.
• Drive to Mt Ida – dropping off water at two cache sites – 4-5 hour drive:
  1. Cache #1: Deadman Gap (OT 8.0)
  2. Cache #2: OT 86.0
• AND dropping off our food cache at the QW Lodge (OT 51.5)
• Overnight at Royal Oak Inn (Sun, Mar 3)
• Get Lori (or someone) to get us to the trail on Mon Mar 4, OT  138.4
• Hike for 7 days, 88 miles,  12.6 m/day, arriving at the QW Lodge on Sun, Mar 10. Two nights at the lodge, Sun, Mon, Mar 10-11.
• Leave early Tue, Mar 12 for the final 51 miles
• Arrive at the TH early Sat, Mar 16 (Sat) 
• Get a ride from Talimena State Park (Michael, Ouachita Trail Guide) back to Mt Ida.
• Spend two night in Mt Ida, Mar 16,17
• Head home to Houston on Mar 18.

We have all our food.  We plan to share the prepared freeze-dried meals for dinners (what Roberta calls “glop”). I’ll be eating about 2400 calories a day which, for 13-14 mile days is about right.