Hitting the trail tomorrow!
Trail Day 1 is rapidly approaching! We start TOMORROW!
We flew from Portland to Los Angeles on Sunday to stay with Easy’s best friend in Santa Monica before heading to San Diego. It felt so good to board our flight and to know that (almost) all of the random things we needed to do before leaving were finally done!
We moved out of our house and put the contents of our one bedroom apartment into storage. We dropped off our car at a friend's house. We said goodbye to almost all of our Portland pals (sending virtual hugs to the ones we missed)! The one thing that we accomplished that I'm most proud of: we managed to get along in spite of our very different approaches to planning and organizing.
I practiced letting go of my tendencies to control + label + overthink all of the boxes we packed. Mostly. I found myself getting a little bit anxious about the rush of the last day and the co-mingling of different types of objects (i.e. kitchen items with clothing or shampoo bottles in a big bin without being ziplocked first). It was hard for me to let go of the need to wash dirty clothes or sheets before we packed 'em up, but it was also nice to just have them taken care of. Of course I realize that I'm angling for control of these silly prep things because I will have very little control over this big journey we're embarking upon. It makes sense. And I am a good planner - I find that it calms me to take my time and organize my things into piles that get labeled and stored in sensible ways. But sometimes it's just too much.
Easy offers an incredible balance to my busy bee energy. He doesn't overthink his packing or make it more difficult than it needs to be, he just gets the stuff in a box or trash bag (very "no muss no fuss"). No wonder his trail name is "Easy!" Sometimes I joke about my Trail name being "Hard." Oh I sure hope I earn a better one that that...
I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.
- Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Today we take the train from LA to San Diego and stay with Trail angels "Scout" and "Frodo." They will take us to Mile 1 in Campo right next to the Mexico border in the early morning.
I'll admit that we probably have more food than we need for the first few days, but maybe it's a "better safe than sorry" moment. It sure is heavy though! Good training for us I suppose. We're both giggling about how it's hard not to overthink every little twinge of pain in our bodies as we close in on our start date ("My ankle!" "My knee!").
It seems like so much of a huge adventure like this is the anticipation before it begins... it's as it THAT's the real first leg of the trip. It's been funny to read posts on the PCT Facebook group of folks that have already started or are about to. Posts about unrequited love, hiking in jeans, pictures of snake bites (that aren't even from the trail, come on!), blister pics, and gorgeous desert flower snapshots. It's been interesting to hear from Easy about how different technology and social media has made the preparation this time (vs. when he hiked the trail ten years ago). He didn't carry a cell phone in 2007, most people didn't have one. This time we wonder if we'll have more cell service than we even want...?!
This will probably be the last blog I write before we start the hike tomorrow. I will keep you updated as often as I can without making it a chore. Thank you to all of you who have already donated to The Breathe Network and especially to Easy’s family for matching every donation. We feel very loved, very supported, and very excited as we begin our big adventure. Sending our love your way! 💜
