One Year Later…

 

A year ago, Dave and I embarked on a journey on Pacific Crest Trail, an adventure that changed our lives in so many positive ways. I will be forever grateful for all the amazing moments we experienced along the way, memories that are ours to keep for the rest of our lives, and all the fantastic people whom we met along the trail and have the privilege to call friends today. I’m also grateful for the days that did not go as planned, the days that were much harder than expected, and the days that straightforwardly sucked. They taught us the most valuable lesson of them all – that getting outside your comfort zone is where you grow.

Some of the other things we learned:

• A liter of water weighs 2.2 pounds. It sucks to carry 6 liters at a time. It sucks more to run out.
• Cute baby ground dogs will chew on your bandana if you leave it outside overnight.
• Every town you visit, somebody claims they had their best burger ever just there.
• 10 miles on the trail are much easier to walk than 1 mile in town
• Running shoes, after you wore them for 800 miles, will hurt your feet, no matter how “good” they still look.
• You can crave tuna packets, even though the sight of them in your regular life makes you barf.
• There is no such a thing as a “quick” stop in a town.
• Walking distance is a subjective matter.
• It’s no use to worry about what lies ahead. You won’t really know until you get there.
• You will lose quite a few pounds during a long-distance hike, as well as quite a few worries.
• Life can be uncomfortable and enjoyable at the same time.
• The only cure for the thru-hiking bug is to plan another thru-hike… and so

… in two months we will see the trail again. We plan to finish the section through Sierra that we chose to skip last year when melting snow deemed it unsafe, and then we hope to re-hike parts of Washington State that were concealed in the smoke from wildfires when we traveled through them.

I’m super excited about our new adventure and I’m excited to test the new gear we acquired for the trip. I will be posting gear reviews as well as my daily blogs. Stay tuned.