It’s Februrary 2nd and we’re closing in on our March 1st date. A few things linger around the periphery but they’re largely dependent on weather. We’re getting a fair share of precipitation in the form of weekly snow and rain showers that will make their way down into the ground sooner or later. A couple friends of ours who went SOBO to Oracle last year sent pictures of their first day around the same date and they trudged through about an inch of snow. It could pile up on the passes here and there but then it’s down into the high desert stretches which remind me of the Socal PCT from what I’ve seen.
It’s a bit of a waiting game now; staying focused, letting the random chatter about the ‘real world’ drift away, going about business at work and home and watching the i/o of funds. I shift gears internally, spend my time in more of a meditative state, reflecting on the past two years, thinking in broad strokes about broad topics lost to time, often within my own history. I imagine where I want my own consciousness tuned before things like this..how I’d like to resonate with the spirit of the trail in my own way. Everyone has their own experience, though the trail has a homogenizing effect on everyone after a hundred miles or so. Everyone walks, eats, and sleeps but it’s a long personal undertaking at the same time.
So I just try to gravitate toward that mindset again and bolster the edges that got a little soft on all the Swiss chocolate and red wine and winter days watching old Olympics documentaries. Thru-hikes can be brutal but it’s something you embrace until you hit that stride.