Monday, October 15, 2012

FINALLY!

Sorry about my lack of posting here. What is wrong with me? Well, my brain went from trail things to home things in the speed of light. I managed to hang tight till my home was vacated and since then, I've been cleaning, planting flowers and generally nesting. I've thought many times about this blog and what I want to say about my trip but somehow the words have remained in my brain and haven't pushed their way forward. I think I was feeling pressure to sum up the whole shebang in one go but really, this is to much to put into one post. So I have decided not to sum up the whole thing and just post my current thoughts about my hike and how I might have done things differently to get a different outcome... as in finish the trail in one go.

Three things I could have done differently

1. I spoke to Angela on most days. One would think, as I did, that this would be a good thing. Logically it would be good to have home support as much as possible, yes? But as it turns out, no. Daily contact from home made it harder to be where I was. I always knew what was happening at home and when things got hard on the trail, my thoughts went to home and how much I was missing and really, what the hell was I doing out here anyway? In case anybody wonders, it is really hard to be in two places at once. As a result I did a lousy job at both.

2. I really should have started the trail with 30 less pounds on my frame. I had hoped I could drop weight quickly but for whatever evil reason I didn't, and the extra weight played havoc with my body. Those deep blisters I had were a direct result of pounding, day after day on my old dogs. Plus, just the general fatigue of carrying thirty pounds of weight on top of the pack weight I carried. Do the math and it doesn't bode well for long distance success.

3. Lastly, I would have been helped by hiking more training miles before the trip started. My goal was to be up to 15 miles a day, three times a week prior to starting the trail but the reality turned out to be more like 12 miles, 2 or 3 times a week. That doesn't seem like much of a difference, and without the other challenges it might not have been too much trouble but with all the other things factored in, it was problematic.

People have been very kind to me. Saying that 700 miles is a lot (and it is) and they would never be able to do it, etc. All true maybe but still, I will probably always feel some disappointment at not meeting my goal of thru hiking the PCT in one go.
                         People on the trail looking out for eachother. A nice thing.