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.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Short and the Long of it

Day 38, Mile 637.4--Today went by real quick. We didn't leave camp until 650am but we had 10 miles behind us before 1030am. I tried a new way of walking today for some reason. It was more of a march and i just kept rhythm; uphill i went a little slower, downhill i went a little faster. One thing i noticed is it allowed my mind to wander a bit more which was nice. The only drawback was when i would completely check out and then realize i was right on the edge of a cliff etc. The next 5 miles went just as fast and we made it a total of 15 miles to a cache before 1pm. The next 6 miles however took forever. It was hot, and the grade was 5.0 for 2.3 miles and then 4.2 for 1.4 miles. Luckily the last 2.3 miles was a downhill for the most part. At the top of the climb i got another distant view of the snow capped sierra's. Which reminds me, i had said earlier that i saw Mt Whitney, i was actually looking at Olancha peak. Either way it got me ready mentally to be in the sierra's doing it real big. Today we passed "Hardcore" and "Latecomer" and their dog Hank. One of the few dogs left on trail, and from what i could tell he is doing alright. We got to the end of the 6 miles and had to do a 1.4 mile round trip down and back up off trail to get water from a spring. After setting up camp and starting dinner we were joined by a group of 5 or 6. One of whom is "Squatch" the guy who did the DVD's on the PCT i watched before coming out here. It was interesting to see what he deemed worthy of filming for his next movie. Now they are all down about 75yds with a small campfire going, hopefully they don't stay up too late, cause honestly i can't afford to lose the sleep. Going to be some more climbing tomorrow as we hit Walker Pass, hopefully i will be able to see the right mountain that is Mt Whitney. The girls of that group are now singing, it is not good at all. Some earplugs would be useful, i took them out of my pack at the last minute, oh well. Thought of the day; he who falls and does not get up, can take solace in the fact that he will never fall again, but that is all he may have. Songs of the day; yooou get a line i'll get a pole honey, you get a liiine i'll get a poh-wuuul baaaabe by somebody, and grant my last request and let me hooold youu, let me hooold youhooohoo, lay down beside meeee- those lyrics are off i think, by Michael Buble maybe? Craving of the day; a meal i had with Hayley right before i left at the Cheesecake Factory- pork chops done right with an apple chutney sauce thingy and garlic mashed potatoes and spinach, mmm mmm mmmmm so gooood.

JWC on the PCT

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