Back to the trail

It's been beyond amazing to see Gretchen again.  I'm truly blessed to have her in my life.  We've spent two days in Medford, and we're hoping to spend the third in or near Crater Lake National Park.  On Tuesday she'll drop me off where I left the trail a few days ago so I can head north again.  About 830 miles to go, and it honestly doesn't seem that far to me. I'm looking forward to completing this adventure.  It's been an awesome trip so far, almost indescribable.  It's been as much a mental journey as a physical one.  Every day poses new challenges.  I wish I could write more to share what I've experienced on the trail, but I could never write enough to give the true feeling of a thru-hike, especially in the time I have to write these posts.  The trail has been everything, both highs and lows.  It can be exciting, depressing, scary, lonely, beautiful, boring, etc., often all in the same day.  There have definitely been moments and a full day here or there where I've been miserable.  I've honestly never thought that I could quit though.  I've told myself the entire trip that home is through Canada.  If I'm not injured, I have no excuse to quit.  I've given up too much to be here.  For me, it's about reaching Canada, even if I'm not having fun.  It's supposed to be a challenge.  If it were easy everyone would be doing it, and it probably wouldn't be worth doing.  It's all part of the mental game, but fortunately, the experience has been overwhelmingly positive so far.

It helps when you have others hiking somewhere near to you to keep you sane, but it's rare to hike directly with someone during the day anymore.  Most of us have preferred to be to ourselves while hiking, but enjoy company at camp each day.  This developed in the last few weeks, at least for me.  I think it's our way of dealing with being near each other for so long.  Up to Crater Lake, I had been hiking with Fairway (for the better part of 1200 miles), Bladder Pillow (for about 500 miles), and Halfpoint (about 200 miles).

While I'm double zeroing with Gretchen, they have moved on.  It's not likely I'll see them again unless I start pulling 35-40 mile days.  That's probably not gonna happen, but if they zero a few times while I don't I may catch them.  So when I return to the trail on Tuesday I won't know for a day or two where I am in the big line of ants headed north.  Fortunately, I have an ipod now to keep me company in case I'm hiking alone for a few days.  I've never been one to hike with headphones before, but I'm tired of talking to myself in my head all day long.  If I'm hiking and camping alone it will get bad.  Several of us talked days ago about how we're all tired of having the same conversations with ourselves while hiking.  It made me feel better that I wasn't the only one.  My hope is that the music will keep me sane, especially after just seeing Gretchen.

As of now, I believe I'll enter Washington as soon as August 20, which will make it possible for me to finish with Gretchen (who will join me at Stehekin) by September 15, my planned completion date.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  Completing the trail that early will help minimize the precip I should experience in WA and the chance that the trail will get snowed in before I can complete it.

I wish I had the time to create more well written posts, but I tend to be busy in town and want to relax as much as possible.