Sponsor Spotlight: SunButter

We are so excited to be posting our first Sponsor Spotlight, and hope that as you read our Sponsor Spotlights you will see that we have indeed done our research and found only the best-of-the-best companies to share the trail with. 

So let's hear it for SUNBUTTER! Woooooooooo!!!!

To start off, let us tell you our conversion story, and how we found our love for sunflower butter. Ask any of our parents and they will tell you that growing up Christopher and I were both HUGE peanut butter lovers (especially when paired with chocolate - yum). As Chris grew older he developed a peanut sensitivity, and it was no longer a good idea for him to eat anything with peanuts or almonds. And so his taste for sunflower seed butter was born. When we were dating he had me try it... and I'll be honest, I was so set in my peanut butter loving ways that at first taste I convinced myself this hippy-sunflower-butter-nonsense wasn't any good. Not long after I tasted it again and realized it was actually pretty dang tasty. Now we both eat it and love it. We enjoy it on pancakes, toast, tortillas, in desserts, with chocolate, with fruit, from the spoon, and just about any other way you can imagine.  

Of all the sunflower butters we have tried our favorite is SunButter. Unlike other sunflower butters, SunButter is processed in a facility that guarantees their product is peanut and tree nut free (and if you're one of those unlucky people allergic to everything shy of air itself the good news is it's also gluten, dairy, egg, and sesame free). SunButter has no trans fats, as well as the same amount of protein, more vitamin E, and double the fiber than peanut butter. This is a kosher product that comes in BPA free jars. We like the plastic jars because they are lighter than the glass jars other sunflower butters come in, making the product more lightweight for long backpacking trips. They also make great 1.1 oz SqueezePacks for short day hikes or overnight trips [we just found out these are going to be discontinued, and are being replaced with 1.5oz On-The-Go cups].

We encourage you to try SunButter for yourself, because no matter how many facts we could list about the product, at the end of the day there are two reasons why we choose SunButter - it tastes great and we love it!


Click HERE to visit the official site, learn more about this tasty treat, and order some for your kitchen (or backpack).

A Little Bit of What You Could Call Preparation

Some people ask what we are doing to prepare for the PCT, so let me tell you: YOU CAN'T PREPARE! As much as I want to say we are going to be fully prepared to do it by the time we hit Campo (the southern terminus on the Mexican border where the northbound trail starts) the truth is I know we won't be. No matter how hard we plan, no matter how many hikes and backpacking trips we go on, nothing could possibly prepare us for hiking 2,650 miles in 4 months – and that's ok.

But, since we don't want to be in the 60% of people who start and fail to finish the trail, we are trying to be as “prepared” as possible. So shy of watching an occasional YouTube video and documentary about the trail we are trying to sharpen some of our backpacking skills.

We went on an overnight backpacking trip up Mount Bradley on Douglas Island. Even though we had packed enough water (super easy to do on an overnight trip) we chose to practice treating and drinking water from outside. Chris had some water treatment tablets in his first-aid kit so we put them to use. After dumping out a Nalgene of perfect water from our kitchen sink, we refilled the bottle with cold water from a tarn (small mountain lake) and then treated it with iodine tablets. And drank it. It sure didn't taste as good as our kitchen sink water, but neither of us got sick and that is always a plus! We aren't certain which water treatment/filtration method we want to use on the PCT – there are a lot of different ones out on the market – but we have been doing research to help us figure it out. Though we may not end up using the tablets as our main method of water treatment, it was still a good feeling to practice treating our own water. After all, once we hit the trail we will be relying on our water filtration skills for survival in life or death situations. (Maybe that's a little dramatic, but this really is a critical and important thing to know).

Another topic that we have been discussing a lot is whether or not we want to go stoveless. While they do make lightweight backpacking stoves – we even own one that we love – it is even “lighterweight” to not bring one. Bringing a stove takes up space and weight with not just the stove itself but also fuel, extra water, cooking utensils, etc. Cooking with a stove also takes more time. And when you are thru-hiking for four months straight small amounts of weight and time really add up. Though a hot meal here and there would be nice we are leaning towards the thought that it's not worth it. A lot of people don't part with their stoves because they can't part with their coffee, since we don't drink coffee we shouldn't have a problem doing it. On that same backpacking trip up Mount Bradley we experimented with one of my stoveless meal ideas. For all you Pinterest-ers out there you will remember that overnight oats were all the rage a few months back, and I tweaked this idea to make it a perfect backpacking breakfast. It's basically just oatmeal and add whatever you want (we added brown sugar, some sea salt, and dried apples because that's what we had in our cupboard), then before you go to bed pour in some water, shake it up, and let it soak overnight. In the morning breakfast is there waiting for you! We love the idea of overnight oats because you can really mix it up with different add-ins and oatmeal is a great stick-to-your-belly-give-you-energy meal for hiking (plus it's light to carry). Bonus: it tastes really good too.

2,650 miles is a long way to walk

As we announced on our homepage a month ago, we are stoked to be hiking the Pacific Crest Trail during the 2016 season. This trek is something that we have put a lot of thought into, and we are excited about the experience. We want to dedicate this site to all things PCT: preparation, training, motivation, fears, trail journal, etc. Hiking 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada is not an undertaking we would go after if it was not something we felt passionately about. We live in a beautiful country, and we want to see it. We want to experience what life is like living minimally for months on end. We want to push our bodies and keep them healthy. We want to spend time together and go on a grand adventure before the realities of adulthood (children, real jobs, home ownership) start taking over our time.

As excited as we are for this adventure, we do realize how crazy it sounds to some family and friends. Here are some of the questions we've been hearing.

What started it all?
The answer to this question is actually pretty random. We went on a very snowy hike out to Jardine Juniper while we were living in Logan and after posting a picture on Facebook, Aunt Susan commented and mentioned the PCT. After reading her comment we looked up a little bit about the trail and told her we would love to do it, however we didn't think we'd ever have the time. But have you ever had an idea that wouldn't go away? Before we knew it we couldn't stop researching the Pacific Crest Trail. We were watching YouTube videos, full documentaries, reading blogs, and researching official websites learning what it takes to do something like this. We were hooked.

Why would you want to do this?
If you consider this a valid question, then we have to combat with the question "why not", which in all fairness is just as valid. Anybody who knows us knows that we thrive on adventure. We both love branching out and doing new things. We love nature and we love being immersed in it. We can't imagine a better way to spend our time growing together than an adventure like this.

We met in a desert,

Got married in a castle,

Moved to a rainforest. . .

Why wouldn't we want to do this???

What about school and "real life?"
Chris is currently taking two online math classes that are his last prerequisites to get into a nursing program in Utah, so the earliest date he can get in is fall 2016. We plan on completing the trail before Chris starts classes and I'll look for a "grown-up" job then. Why not spend this limbo time doing something awesome?

You'll need to hike about 20 miles a day to do this in four months? How is that possible?
This question is the hardest one to answer because truth is, the thought still scares us. Averaging 17-20 miles a day. . . yah, that sounds crazy. Yep, we're guaranteed to get blisters. And yes, we will probably hate the first few weeks. And we realize that there will be days where no matter how determined we are we simply won't be able to go 20 miles. However, we are not the first people to walk this far, and we won't be the last. It will be hard at times, but we will adjust, we will grow, we will learn, and we will do.