The Pacific Crest Trail stretches from Mexico to Canada, and hikers can walk its 2,697 mile length in a season, although not many have made it. This summer Vanessa Oklejas and Bob Moision plan to hike the entire distance, and in an interesting variation to simply hiking and enjoying the scenery, will share their experience with students at Rowland Halls school in Salt Lake City.

Numerous investigations are planned in cooperation with students, and key tools are a satellite phone, digital camera, and PocketPC hand-held computer. With this combination Vanessa and Bob can send images, data and messages to students and school teacher Mary Slocum.

Kooltrak, Inc. of North Palm Beach, Florida, is helping sponsor the expedition by supplying miniature portable temperature recording equipment for use on the hike, and supporting software and services so students can access the data at any time via Kooltrak's website. Other companies are contributing to the venture, and information about sponsors can be found on the expedition website.

A key reason for using Kooltrak loggers in this expedition is their small size and long life. Hardly bigger than a dime and weighing less than half an ounce, these tiny electronic devices contain a temperature sensor, memory, microcomputer and battery, and will record temperature continuously for up to a year. Using the PocketPC computer their data can be read out at any time and sent by satelite phone to the Kooltrak website. Bob and Vanessa have set them to record temperature every minute, will read the data to the PocketPC every day, and will transfer this data regularly by satellite phone to Kooltrak.

Details of the equipment and software being used to do all this is available in the section SYSTEM INFO and on the Kooltrak website.