[pct-l] It's all in the planning... for now

[StoneDancer1 at aol.com (StoneDancer1@aol.com)]

These discussions of food and cell phones reminded me that, even though you  
spend a generally agreeable, though sometimes frantic, winter planning and  
planning, like a battle plan, it will, in all its small details, be thrown out  
the window after the first step is taken.  ( Jeez, could I place any more  
commas in a sentence?)
 
I had great fun planning every mile, every day, every motel stop,  every Zero 
Day, every calorie... everything.  Like a biblical scholar, I  could recite 
whole tracts of the Guide from memory. I read every post on  both PCT and 
Ultralite sites.  I packed and unpacked...endlessly.  It  got me through the long 
winter here in the Sierra Nevada foothills. 
 
 But I found to my great joy that serendipity and  synchronicity were more 
important than anything... that an unplanned  side-trip to Mammoth turned into a 
day as magical as the sunset on Forester  Pass... that junk foot served as 
well as organic stems and seeds and twigs when  needs they must... that a day 
here, a mile there was as unimportant as the world  I left behind... that two 
hours waiting for a hitch passed by as easily as two  minutes... that I couldn't 
wait for the night to pass so I could see what would  happen on the morrow. 
Oh yeah, and that Momentum is everything.
 
 
Row Row Row Your Boat
"No Way" Ray  Echols