Pacific Crest Trail

Friday, September 23, 2016

Reflections

As we neared the Canadian border our conversations became deeper and they often related to how this experience affected us as human beings. When I left for the trip I knew I was in for an adventure and many people told me how life changing it might be, but I was told that before my trip last year and I don’t know if “life changing” are the words I would have used to describe it. Everything we do alters our lives in some way and yes, I returned from South Africa with some new perceptions but I didn’t really feel the way I thought I was supposed to feel. If you can recall from my first post 4 months ago (on the old blog) the PCT was my light at the end of the tunnel. It was a trip much needed at the end of a chaotic and stressful semester but I had no idea how powerful walking in the woods for 3 and half months could be. There were days that I walked and the pain was too much, the task too daunting but I continued to walk. I would walk while bawling my eyes out. I was feeling everything, every emotion with no distraction, no one to hide the tears from. I would cry thinking about what my grandpa would tell me as I took on this adventure, I would cry about mistakes I’ve made, about missing my family, or sometimes because it just outright sucked to be walking. But I laughed 100 times more. I laughed at my clumsiness, I laughed at silly jokes, I laughed at what the trail was throwing our direction, I laughed at the excessive farts, I laughed at the challenges, I laughed at nothing and everything. The both of us laughed long and hard. Looking back, I can’t remember a time where I had more belly aching laughs in such a condensed period of time. The sadness was raw, the joy was raw, and I’ve never felt so human. I don’t like to sound cliché and I think that is my biggest challenge in conveying this experience to people who haven’t spent any extended amount of time on trail. The actual task of walking all day isn’t much fun but it became meditative and reflective. I was alone with myself, alone with my thoughts and I had to learn to control them. Of course I still had interactions throughout the day and they were all so positive. The trail angels were out there helping us because they wanted to not because they had to. The other PCTers were all respectful of one another and had an underlying bond between us as we were all in the same boat. The trail brought people closer to the community, closer to their families and restored faith in humanity.

As I neared the end I thought about how I might answer the question “How was your trip?” and began doing mini interviews when I walked alongside another hiker. These were a few of the responses I got and recorded:

T-Rex (male mid 20s): "the most challenging and rewarding experience of my life"

Banjo (male mid 20s): "crazy. (long pause) just fucking crazy. There’s no way I could make anyone understand it so I’ll just leave it at that”

Echo (male 31): "the best thing I've ever done for myself. It's certainly not for everyone but I would recommend it to anyone"

T-bird (male early 60s): “everyone already thinks I'm crazy but I have a friend that I think put it well...I’m living the life that others only dare to dream of"

Tindy (male late 20s): "a lot of people have asked me if I would recommend it and I would tell them that they should do a few week long trips before they try it out. But I think I would answer that I have loved and hated the trail, sometimes at the same time"

Rant (male veteran early 50s): “fantastically life changing. A total mental reset for me”

Many of these answers turned into long conversations about what the trail meant to them and some were pretty fascinating but too long to record at the end of the day. I wish I was able to interview more people and especially some females but I forgot to ask quite a few times. After my conversation with Rant, Marissa and I talked about the word “profound”. I wouldn’t say that this experience was profound or spiritual but it was certainly perception altering which in a way is profound. We came to the conclusion that we don’t like the word profound because it implies something big and grand yet the “profound” thoughts we had were small and simple. Sometimes, simplicity carries far more weight than profoundness. When life becomes simplified to eating, walking and sleeping there’s so much more room for consciousness, an actual presence and sense of place. I became attached to everything on my back because it was everything I had. I remember making fun of my mom’s book club for reading a book that was ultimately about cleaning out your house. I wondered why anyone write a book about that, let alone read it. But on the trail it made sense…I got rid of anything that did not bring me joy and I survived happier than ever. I didn’t need to consume constantly. If something broke, I fixed it and kept moving forward. If something was worn and dirty, I rinsed it in a stream and kept going. There’s so much I learned from this experience and I don’t think I could possibly wrap it all up into a blog post but that was my best attempt. So to answer the question…It was incredibly demanding, fulfilling and perception altering. If you want the full scoop though we may want to sit down for some coffee and I’ll tell you all about it

Trail laughs

No longer contemplating life just contemplating how great apples are

Numbers and Such

Trail name: "Pick Up", received after picking up items people dropped and returning them, picking up candy off the trail and eating it. Also works for picking up the pace and picking up the trail at Walker Pass.

Miles on trail: 2,007
Days on trail: 92
Days off trail: 6
Elevation gained: 362,930 ft (68.7 vertical miles)
Elevation descended: 364,284 ft (69 vertical miles)
Days in California: 49 Average miles per day in CA: 21.2
Days in Oregon: 19
Average miles per day OR: 23.7
Days in WA: 23
Average miles per day in WA: 22.3
Wilderness boundaries entered: 32
Starting weight: 137lbs
Ending weight: 124lbs
Falls: 17 ...thank you snow fields, blowdowns, and slippery rocks
Showers: 11 ..yowza
Highest point: Forester Pass at 13,153 feet
Lowest Point: Cascade Locks at 140 ft
Longest mile day: 32
National parks: 7 (Sequoia, Kings, Yosemite, Lassen, Crater Lake, Rainier, North Cascades
Blisters: 12

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Stehekin- Wait for it.....CANADA!!!

Day 88
Stehekin-2589 (19.5)

We slept in as much as we could before hopping on the 8:15 bus to the trail (and the bakery of course). The walk was nothing spectacular but still beautiful. The changing autumn leaves are making me feel a bit like I need to get my butt in gear. We are both hurting all over and have decided that ibuprofen might just have to be the name of the game for the next few days. We walked into camp at the trailhead around 7 and received some trail magic from a man who has been meeting his wife every four days with food. After she left this morning he began driving for Canada but turned around and came back with a bunch of food instead to trail angel for another few days. He cooked up some burgers and then we set up camp with a group of guys (Chips, Ruckus, and Misty) we have been hiking with and a German girl (apples).

Day 89
2589-2614 (24.9)

Next to the highway there was quite a bit of activity through the night so I had another night of very little sleep which has made my sleep walking begin earlier and earlier each day. Did I already write about that? Feeling like mom asleep while hiking and getting snapped out of it when spoken to and then trying to go back to my daydream as if I am trying to get a real dream to continue...its been a pretty strange feeling and it's been going on the last few weeks. Anyways, the north cascades opened up in front of us once we made our way up the pass and we got to enjoy the view almost the whole day. Its been anxiety provoking to think that there is only 2 days left but at the same time I'm ready to be done. I'll miss the beautiful views, the peace, the simplicity, the camp, the fascinating people but I look forward to a bed, a shower, and some time off my feet.

Day 90
2614-2635 (21.4)

The night was pretty entertaining as I listened to Chips in the tent next to me, fighting off mice the whole night. I had mice footprints covering the ground around my tent but none of them chewed their way through my tent. Marissa had a bit of trouble in the morning and was not sure why walking had become so upsetting. She cried as she walked and a lady stopped her to try to take her off trail and give her a hotel but made Marissa feel even worse. We decided to keep walking but walk close together to keep each other company the whole way. As the rain persisted and we got more and more wet, we began to see horse poop covering the river of the trail. I had said that it felt like I was walking through muddy horse shit not through horse shitty mud because it was so excessive. I was walking commando in rain pants that were already filled with mud because I had let my shorts get too wet and had some nice chafe going by the time we reached a camp that was protected by trees. Some hunters were set up in a structured tent with a woodfired stove and came over to give us some candy and hand warmers. We all hid in our tents dripping wet and yelled to each other to make conversation. The fact that I had to put on clothes the next day that I was wringing out before bed was a bit daunting but distracted me from the fact that this really was our last camp on trail.

Day 91
2635-Manning Park (23.5)

We woke up this morning with our clothes sopping wet and ice crystals falling on our shelters. Today was the big day and I think that that was the only reason we were able to put on our wet clothes and walk on. As we made our way up the mountain side it began to snow and we began to slow old man jog to try to get warm and relieve our joints. Once warmed up a bit we tried to take things reasonably slow to enjoy the last miles before the monument. We counted 30 blowdown sin the last 2 miles before the monument and just thought about how much the trail has thrown our way. It couldn't help but give us one more little hiccup. We passed through them and heard the cheers of people making it to the northern terminus below us. We sped up and took one last switch back to see the monument there at the end, waiting for us. Those posts we walked so far to see were not grand in themselves but what they symbolized was pretty unreal. As we sat around, it never really hit us that we were done...as it was, we still had 8 more miles to a road. We ate and talked and signed the register before walking on feeling a great sense of relief. We were no longer hiking to the end we were just walking a trail we were done we could feel the weight off our shoulders and the miles flew by. We approached the highway around 4 o'clock and got a bit of mist. We turned right and there it was, blue sky with a rainbow leading exactly to where the lodge was. We finished, we did it...holy crap.