PCT Thru-Hike Sponsorship

Great news!

Goddess and I have been picked up on a sponsorship for our thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) next year.

The primary sponsor is Yama Mountain Gear, run by Gen Shimizu out in Charlottesville,  Virginia.  Gen makes ultra-light shelters and bags, which will help cut my weight by a couple of pounds.

That’s the deal – I carry the house, Goddess carries the kitchen.

Gen is working hard to get other companies on board, which is nice.  But for us, the most important part of the sponsorship is personal access to mentors, folks that have been doing this for a long time.  It turns out that one of them even lives a few miles away.  It will be good to pick their brains as we prepare.

If you’re wondering why that’s the most important part for us – have you ever asked a question on social media in a group of several hundred people?

There’s your answer.

If you’re curious about our thoughts on this, we both have profile pages on the team site:

Goddess

Bill

Yep, for those of you that don’t know, Goddess’ name is really Jennifer.  But on this page (and in real life) she is and will always be Goddess.

Here we are together:

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Part of our responsibility with this sponsorship is to do some fundraising for the Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA).  You’ll likely remember several of my posts from this past summer where I was out working on the trail with the PCTA.  Next year we can’t work on the trail, but we can do our part by helping fundraise.

I know it’s a tough time of year for everyone.  Especially since it seems that everyone is putting a hand out.  But this fundraiser will go all the way through 2015, so please don’t feel any pressure to act immediately.

However, if you are looking for another opportunity for a tax write off this year (and again next year), here’s your chance since the PCTA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

As you can see, a couple of folks got a bit antsy (you know who you are), not wanting to wait until the announcement.  That’s awesome!  And Thank You!

I’ll keep you updated as we get closer to the hike.  It’s hard to believe that in just over 100 days we’ll be starting this adventure.