OLIVIA MILLER BAKKE aka MAMA LION ~ THRU HIKING GEAR & TRAIL WISDOMS
“After doing the PCT, I have a lot more confidence in trusting kinda, the journey. And being resourceful and asking for what I need… and figuring out what the next step is and not worrying about mountains that I haven’t come to yet.”
GEAR
FEET
• Darn Tough Socks
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• Brooks Cascadia
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FOOD
• Nido Dehydrated Full Fat Milk
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• Breakfast – granola, oatmeal, Mountain House egg scramble
• Lunch – four 150-200 calorie snacks / person
• Dinner – hot meal with rice or pasta side with freeze dried chicken or beef
• Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• Bagels
PACK
• Osprey Ariel Pack
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• ULA Circuit
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SLEEP
• REI Halfdome 2+ Tent
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• Zpacks Duplex Tent
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• Western Mountaineering Sleeping Bag
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• Therm-a-Rest NeoAir
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• Term-a-Rest Zlite
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MISC
• Halfmile App
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• Yogi Books
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• Head Net
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• Spot
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• “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall
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• Leukotape
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WISDOMS
FOOD
• I knew how much water I needed to dry camp comfortably, so I would start planning that out in the afternoon to make sure. I needed about 4 liters of water, 2 liters for me and 2 liters for Emerson, to comfortably get started in the morning. So that would be dinner, drinks, brushing our teeth and some water in our water bottle in the morning.
THRU HIKING
• My planning was basically getting my gear into my backpack.
And then even if you have all your gear, I feel like if you haven’t done an
extended hike previously there’s a lot of tweaking that goes on.
• Being patient with yourself as you start because that tweaking is going to happen while you’re walking. So instead of being intimidated by people who wiz past you at 25 miles a day even if you’re physically capable of it… being patient with it. Maybe you have to do less miles, but you’re tweaking what your method is. How you get into camp, how you leave camp. What your rhythm is during the day. And what your gear is like.
• It was a really interesting transformation, because… I was walking along this creek and I was like “I’m not happy right now.” And I asked myself the question “What can you let go of?” And I was like I can let go of those books. Before that moment, that wasn’t something I could do… but then I was able to lay it down and now I can laugh about it.
• Never quit on a bad day.
• One of the things that I noticed was that when things would start to go wrong, I would keep pushing and I learned over time that that was often the most detrimental answer. Sometimes the best answer was to get to a safe place and rest.
• There’s gonna be suffering or discomfort. That’s just inevitable and getting comfortable with that idea of being uncomfortable or feeling pain I felt was pretty important.
• I’ve never been disappointed by just hanging on for a little bit longer.
• After doing the PCT, I have a lot more confidence in trusting kinda, the journey. And being resourceful and asking for what I need… and figuring out what the next step is and not worrying about mountains that I haven’t come to yet.