[pct-l] the one month mark.

[goforth at cio.net (Joanne Lennox)]

Usually the thruhiker mind starts to happen about or before a month for
me(it feels kind of like spaciness, but is a more intense, pervasive and
relaxed awareness).  If I am entirely alone and don't camp with others or
stay at resupply points overnight, it happens much faster.  Ditto, when I
go off climbing and crosscountry by myself, it can happen in a few days.  A
few added risks, a lot more uncertainty, unbroken solitude, and a lot of
unhurried walking with no actual destination, and I am right out there in a
matter of days. One trip I got in a certain slow walking rythmn, which
seemed to dissociate my mind from its tight hold on to my body and all I
had to do was start the same kind of walking and it would happen right
away. It was kind of like a drum beat.  I was walking much faster on the
PCT and this never happened.  When I was driving home I was trying to
figure how I could create a like rythmn while driving. ( I got a rattle and
experimented with that for a while)

Also I think that the mind and perception, etc, continues to change and
unravel a bit piece by piece.  It does not stop after the first month, 
there are moments that come and you realize it has changed without your
realizing it.  And it is not always possible to label what has happened; it
just feels different.  There are breakthroughs and changes and plateaus on
the physical fronts as well, and sometimes these are related to what is
happening in the mind and vice versa (pretty obvious)

goforth