Some thoughts before departure...

  • I am still not a vet, doctor, lawyer, dog trainer, cia agent, fbi agent or a navy seal so...walk
  • I am doing this for the challenge of course, and I hope to gain a confidence that comes with this type of endeavor. But also I hope to gain some new knowledge about the world and the truths that reside in it.
  • Am I walking to "find myself"? Or just to take a walk. You decide...and you'll probably be right.
  • I'm not in the best shape of my life, but I do have a lot of new great gear so....
  • After living with my parents the last 2 years, it makes perfect sense to walk 2650 miles - alone.
  • Yes there will be bears, cougars, rattlesnakes and scorpions both imagined and real along the way. I'm definitely more worried about those imagined.
  • Am I scared? Not as of yet, more of just a constantly increasing anticipation. But check back with me on the 3rd night in the desert.
  • I tried to keep my pack fairly light, but I definitely would not call it ultralight. Somehow when I added up all my ultralight gear and put it in my ultralight pack, I ended up with just slightly heavy.
  • My biggest concern for this trip is that I get too hungry somewhere along the way, my brain goes awol as it usually does when I get hungry and subsequently you never hear from me again...I'll try to eat frequently.
  • I am not Christopher McCandless. This is not Into the Wild.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

I'll be back here someday

Day 49, Mile 760.3
This by far has been the best day on the PCT yet. That is definitely saying something considering all the great times I've had so far, and the fact that i have a very heavy pack heading into this 8 day leg. The mountains that i said are no longer in the distance, are now right here, i am walking on them, its cool. Today started with a 2.5 mile climb back up to trail pass to rejoin the PCT after picking up the food ration last night. The next few miles we climbed a gentle ascent and ultimately topped out somewhere over 11,300 feet. It was a beautiful view and we took an early break just to make it last. The rest of the day went by with most of the miles being downhill. We arrived here at rock creek and decided that even though it was early it was a nice spot. What started out as a "nice spot" turned into my favorite place on the PCT so far. Hence the best day so far. We are camped in a stand of tree's which is sandwiched by rock creek flowing loudly on the right, and a large open meadow on the left. During dinner on the bank of the creek i was relieved to see that there was a definite lack of mosquitoes which compliments the awesome surroundings. I had a teriyaki chicken and rice mountain house freeze dried dinner tonight. I changed the way i cooked these and it came out great. Just icing on the cake really. I hope my excitement for this place and evening is apparent without verging on sounding giddy; although i must say I'm close. After dinner i walked over to my tent and saw two deer grazing in the meadow. I spent the next 20 minutes wasting the batteries in my camera trying to get a decent shot of them. I pretended i was an Indian(native American) sneaking up on the next 3 weeks worth of food for me and my family. The stalking worked well, the camera just couldn't handle business. I gave up and came back to the tents. I was telling Kraig and Gina how amazing i thought this place was and then two bucks walked right past at about 50yds. One older, about a 6pt maybe, and the other younger and awkward. They looked like mule deer to me and Kraig agreed. As i write this they are grazing about 300yds off in the middle of the meadow. I really didn't expect this type of stuff so early into the sierra's; we just entered Sequoia National Park at mid-day. I hope i haven't gone on too long about this, but its just been great. Ive caught myself smiling just cause many times today. Anyway we have decided to summit Whitney tomorrow, and guess what - I'm excited about that too. The plan now is to take only essentials and leave the rest of the food etc in bear boxes at crabtree meadows. Then with light packs, summit in the afternoon and camp at guitar lake tomorrow night. Hopefully this will put us a half day or so ahead and i can get to Mammoth and the parentos that much sooner. It's starting to get chilly so i gotta zip up and pass out. Thought of the day; When people are talking about walking they often use the saying "i just put one foot in front of the other". Doesn't make sense really. This would be accurate if you were describing the the beginning of an attempt at the splits or a specific move in the hokie pokie, but not walking. I mean unless you say "i just put one foot in front of the other, and then put the back foot in front of the other, and then i repeated that and achieved forward motion" - see that makes sense. Songs of the day; assorted pieces from Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, and here comes the suun doo do doo dooo here comes the suun-and i say its alrighhht doo do dooo...yeah im not going to write out all of those you either know the song or you dont. Craving of the day; all types of asian cuisine - tonights mountain house teriyaki is as close as i am gonna get out here.
JWC on the PCT

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