2015. My Year.

Just a few short hours from the New Year, and folks, 2015 is going to be my year!
This is the year I will attempt something pretty extraordinary.
This year I will leave the "real world" far behind.
This year I will shed my old life and trade it for something new and exciting.
Three short months until that cataclysmic change.

Four months till PCT!

Lately I have been feeling like the days are slipping away from me, sliding as easily through my fingertips as grains of sand.
How is it that the days, weeks, months are whizzing by, but every minute passes SO slow!
Every minute of every day that I am not asleep, the future is on my mind. I'm so close, but so far! Life is boring here in civilization. Sooooooooooooo booooooooooorrrriinnnnnnnggggggg. Insert distressed emoticon here.

Bring on the adventure!!!

Here's what's happening right now in trail prep world:
- GOT MY GUIDEBOOK! Two days ago. Already 150 pages in.
- Trail schedule is coming along. Right now the estimated start date is April 23, 2015, giving me enough time to reach Lake Morena for the Annual Day Zero Kick Off event. I'll post the full schedule once I have it tacked down.
- New gear! Solar panel to charge my phone, food dehydrator to prep meals for the trail, LifeStraw water filter, Black Diamond headlamp, Smartwool base layers, compass, trekking poles, etc!
- Researching sleeping bags. I'm upgrading my crappy 2 year old synthetic fill bag to a high quality, high loft down bag, but there's so many choices!
- TRAINING TIME! Joined a gym next to the shop I work at to get in some muscular conditioning over the next 3 months before I go. Gotta get in shape for those 20 mile days!
- Perpetually growing excitement.

Questions I Have Been Asking Myself

All this is slightly delayed. I've actually been planning this hike for a few months now. Then, it was just an idea; something I thought I'd like to do. It's only recently become a reality.

So now I'm getting down into the thick of really planning this thing, and I'm starting to ask myself some hard questions. Questions like:

Why the heck am I doing this?

It's not really all that funny how many people look at you like you belong in a mental ward when you tell them you're going to walk a vertical cross section of the country. Their bug-eyed, gnarly-browed grimaces are unpleasant to look at, not to mention disheartening, but you can't really blame them. Five to six months of walking...upwards of 2,600 miles...living out of a backpack...sleeping on the ground...going weeks between towns...going days without seeing another person...none of these things are really within the imaginable realm. The hardest part is admitting to yourself that you can't even really imagine it, even though you desperately want it, for some sick reason.

Why the HECK am I doing this?

The answer isn't simple, but I usually sum it up with a simple: "I have no idea."
The long version consists of lots of little reasons:
- I just graduated college and "careers" scare me.
- I feel limited as a woman in society and want to stick it to these misogynistic fools.
- I want to challenge myself and test the limits of my own strength.
- I want to learn something.
- I want to shed my cushy, monotonous life for a while.
- I want a change of scenery.
- I want to take advantage of the freedom my early twenties has allotted me.
- I want to "find myself".
- I'm bored.
- I'm restless.
- I like to hike.
- I've got nothing better to do.
- I'm insane.

What it really comes down to is some sort of primal instinct that I can't quite define. It seems to encompass all of the above and then some. It's a calling.

I'm a 22 year old woman, college graduate, with new-found freedom, high ideals, and a lack of purpose, and I'm going to go do something crazy. I'm going to let the Trail help me figure out exactly what it is that I want out of this life.

"Nowhere to go but everywhere"

A Decision

"One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple." - Jack Kerouac

I am going to hike the Pacific Crest Trail.
Why?
Because it's there.

Feet to trail April 23, 2015.