3…2…1…blast off.

Welp. It’s here. I’m gonna be hiking in less than 12 hours so, yes I should be asleep right now. I got a 20 mile day to Lake Morena tomorrow and that for sure ain’t gon be easy. But let’s be real, who’s tired?

I’m going totally nucking futs internally with the occasional outloud outburst. The next five-six months of my life starts tomorrow. In 7 hours tomorrow. Holy balls. Five months is a long, long time and sooooo much can happen and no matter what does of course it’s gonna be great. People keep telling me, it’s not about the end, but the journey, which is 100% true. But also…well ya. I wanna finish, obviously. But BUT, for real trying to be…positive/grateful for this opportunity, whatever happens over the next few months is going to be rad. Super duper rad. 

The past few days alone have been a whirlwind of goodbyes and phone calls and people being unbelievably supportive. I didn’t get to make it to my favorite bakery before I left and a friend surprised me with pastries from the amazing Karen’s. Talk about stoked. Relatives, friends, parents of friends, and old college acquaintances have been calling and texting to wish me good luck. I got to see all my cousins yesterday for a deliciously yummy dinner and breakfast. (Ya, I’ve been eating A LOT). It has been amazing and makes me grateful for the people I have been able to surround myself with. You all out there, you’re fucking awesome. 

I am by no means as prepared as I would like to be and will probably spend the next few days just figuring shit out on the trail as I go. My drops are as done as they could be, I have what I have in my pack at this point, and I’m ready to get really, really dirty. No more shaving, deoderant, hair washing. Cause I definitely did all those things before. No more toilet paper in toilets and no more pillows and blankets. Kissing cinnamon rolls goodbye for a while as well as wearing flip flops 90% of the time. Running water is gonna be a luxury. It’s going to be great. 

I decided to, uh, bring one beanie baby on this excursion. For old time’s sake slash maybe I can actually get good at art and take cool pictures of her on rocks and shit. So meet Lacey.  She’s an otter, loves Sly the fox (another beanie baby owned by my cousin Tayma), and got her ears pierced when I decided to poke a hole in each of her ears. The earrings came out for this trip cause who needs that extra weight. We’ll see if I can take care of her, maybe this will be my practice for getting a dog. Totally the same thing. 

Anyways. You can probably see that my mind is all over the place. But maybe I should actually go to sleep. Considering I actually have a bed and not a foam mat to be horizantel on. Thank you to everyone for your support and positivity about this trip. I am seriously lucky to have people like that in my life. I’ll be trying to post once-ish a week but no promises. And definitely don’t expect responses to texts or calls or messages cause I gotta make this phone battery last as long as possible. All right people! I’m out. Time to walk.