[pct-l] A break from the trail???

[Jjolson at uwyo.edu (Jeffrey John Olson)]

Hey!
 
I'm sitting in Bend, OR at my sister's enjoying a number of IPAs as the temperature peaks in the mid-nineties.  I hit a tennis ball against a board in Juniper Park for an hour before the heat got to me.  I'm in such good shape and hate to waste it...
 
I left the trail at Santiam Pass, deciding in the first week not to complete the whole trail.  June 12 - 14 was snowy and cold in the North Cascades.  I met no one the first three days of the hike and totally loved the isolation and wildness of the weather.  I had an extra fleece pullover I wore while sleeping.  I had no pants, and that was fine.  it snowed, not rained, and I was totally warm.  At one point the wind was blowing 40 mph and the "sleet" was horizontal.  My legs were red for a couple hours, but more than anything, I was elated and whooping to be warm!!!  But I had to be content with the "small world" of flowers and rock and snow and grass.  The big views just weren't there.  
 
So different from going over the Packwood Glacier in the Goat Rocks.  it was a white out, 30 mph wind, and horizontal rain.  My frogg togg top drained onto the bottom of my precip jacket and moonstone vest, soaking both of them to my belly button.  I'd forgotten the reason the rain pants, which I didn't carry, pull up to my ribs.  Next time I'm cutting off the legs of the pants and carrying them as shorts...  I was cold for 24 hours.  I'd so much rather hike when it's snowing and cold than warmer and wet...  
 
I got close to Harts Pass and day hikers appeared.  I met my first NOBOs just south of Harts Pass and they said there was no snow to speak of south of there, and they hadn't used either their snowshoes or ice axe.  I dropped my MSR snowshoes, old friends, by the side of the trail within the hour.  No ceremony or ritual.  Five pounds lighter...!!!
 
I hope someone will enjoy them!!!  I mailed my ice axe home from Stehekin.  
 
I used it once on a snowfield just north of Cutthroat Pass and slipped and missed the last step before rock.  There I was, holding onto the head of the axe, body fully extended on the snow.  My first thought was, "if I hadn't had the axe, I wouldn't have taken the last step and slipped."  The three snowbanks north of the Packwood Glacier were a bit steep, but there were good steps others had not "cut" but kicked.  The lack of trail on the scree between the snowbanks and glacier were actually more nerve wracking.  I slid ten feet once before catching myself.  The angle of repose is right there.  
 
I didn't hike much more than 12 miles a day and spent all non-hiking hours in the tent under the Nunatak Arc Alpinist sleeping quilt for the first couple weeks.  The sixth week was motivated by the end of the trip and I averaged 20 mpd or so.  I hate counting miles.  I know it needs to be done, but it so detracts from just being on the trail.  It only hurt when I stopped - feet and lower legs.  That I can hike three miles an hour is amazing.  To have 15 miles done by noon is awesome to me.  I learned to just walk and not look at the watch or altimeter.  
 
After Stehekin I met lots of the pack.  I particularly cherish Warner Springs Monte and Burn.  Both are total characters in their own way.  Monte said he's trying to set the record for the lightest base weight pack on a thru-hike.  One of the other thru-hikers said he had lots of advice but not much experience.  Regardless, he was hiking his trip.  I saw hime in Trout Lake.  I walked ten miles down road 23 after waiting for a half hour and no cars passing.  I found out what three miles an hour felt like.  Finally, the fifth car in three hours stopped, and there was Monte.  I hitchedhiked from Trout Lake to Cascade Locks, and while lying in my tent at Salvation Spring, he and One Gallon walked by, both with incredibly loud voices, talking about moving the kick-off, and debating the points.  I heard them for 30 seconds or so, and they weren't concerned with water, so they didn't see me.  I think Monte has a cause/purpose... 
 
There was a thru-hiker breakfast with 15 or so hikers sitting around a table in the middle of the restaurant at Timberline Lodge.  I walked off the trail to get my food drop and there was the pack.  A couple of the guys have such loud voices - I couldn't sit down.  I like being alone and one on one conversations.   
 
Nickel passed me at Wapintia Pass where I was airing my toes, and commented, with a cloud on his brow, that he had to work off 5000 calories from the all you can eat breakfast.  That was the last I saw of him.  Everyone was averaging 25 mpd at that point.  
 
One on one conversations - God, man, gizmo and donkey - three guys going from stevens to whitney were wonderful - 22 year olds winding down/up from graduating from college.  I so appreciate how different the educated youth of this generation are compared to mine.  God, man, hiked 38 miles into Cascade Locks anticipating meeting his girlfriend the next day.  I hiked with my friend Deniece from Stevens to Snoqualmie, and she had a "boy toy" crush on Gizmo.  I can't wait to let her know he is a philosophy major - Nietzsche - and a jazz/rock lead guitar players/singer.  
 
Cedar, Recess and Skittles are a group, and I didn't get to talk to them other than an hour at lunch we shared on the dirt in front of Ramona Falls.  
 
heather and matt were averaging 25 a day.  They hiked for three days and two nights between stevens and snoqualmie and then spent three nights at the motel at snoqualmie waiting for the weather to clear.  Matt was a little ironic about that.  However, I fully understand.  I spent a day a week in a horizontal position in a motel, much different from my previous long section hike where I spent 35 days on the trail without a town break.  I like downtime on a bed.  it's expensive, but at 53/any age, worth it...
 
The Honeymooners, or the Newleyweds, were moving through at this time, and all I got to know was their faces...
 
I saw the beauty of Burn - a 25 year old woman hiking alone with a panoply of faces.  I really loved talking with her and watching the expressions move across her face.  Why is it women don't  believe in themselves???
 
I may start at Lassen and hike to  Ashland completing what I haven't done of the trail north of Whitney.  I may not.  
 
I really appreciate after six weeks that my cholesterol dropped 100 points, my blood pressure, always normal, is low normal to low, my pulse is a steady 55 at rest, and that I am 25 pounds lighter.  I go uphill now faster than down.  Downhill hurts my knees.  
 
I got off the trail, and said "that's enough."  
 
I'm now considering another three weeks during the heat of the summer on the hottest part of the trail outside the desert.  I'm already planning hanging food from trees, and stashing water a day or two prior to starting so I don't have to carry more than a couple quarts.  I like having three days or less of food and a pack that's 25 pounds or less.  I can get rid of the sierra designs ultralightyear and use the lunar solo.  I can get rid of the two year old, hence unusable bee kit.  There is much I can do to get down to 11 pounds base weight or so and make walking through the heat easier.  
 
I met two fellows older than me hiking Oregon, and the greybeard said this was the last long trip he'd do.  There is something auspicious and worth noting when someone with grey hair and beard, and the demeanor of an imp, makes such a statement.  It's acknowledgment of a transition, a reckoning, a big picture sense of priorities shifting.  I'm n ot sure I'm ready for that.  
 
I laughed, and said I couldn't go that far, but Europe and its museums and coffee shops and adventures call...  That was three hours before Santiam Pass and I realized I was "done" with long distance hiking.  I hiked 23 miles by 2:30 that day, and my feet hurt.  My lower legs hurt.  I was tired and my spirit cried for rest.  I know why hikers band together to hike, but I couldn't do it.  I spent two hours hiking at Donkey's pace, three miles an  hour, and was able to carry on a constant conversation - mostly him talking about his life and plans - but I at least kept up and grunted to let him know I was listening.  
 
On this trip I opened to one of life's constants - despair - and met it head on.  I was so out of shape and it hurt so much to  hike most of the time, that just leaving the trail was always there.  It was easy to focus on the physical pain.  It was there ALL THE TIME!!!  I had only a couple mornings in the final week where when walking on the flat or uphill I felt no physical pain.  Matt of Matt and Heather said the pain went away after three weeks.  For some maybe...  
 
The despair was hidden and wrapped and layered with physical pain.  I never had to sit and silently, quietly open to the  larger reality of purpose and meaning in living.  I knew what this long distance hiking thing was about and could maintain well enough to keep the bigger questions at bey.  "The Trip" this time was about physical pain and sticking with the plan and walking until it didn't hurt as much.   This is a core, or a partial core definition of self-discipline.  Nothing comes without a steep learning curve in which pain plays a ringing, central role.  I found that physical pain from doing t he same thing 9 - 12 hours a day slowly recedes.  The same goes with writing a dissertation, or for me in the next y ear, a book.  
 
I loved the fact I met a couple "guys" who offered to "burn one" with me.  That modern day pot makes me hallucinate and antisocial had me thank them and apologize for declining.  However, I liked that 25 year old heads saw through the age difference to make the offer...
 
Funny what hiking does to a person...
 
Jeffrey Olson
Bend, OR, where it's 94 degrees...