Hitting a Wall, and Making Some Changes

Yes, I’m still on trail.

I haven’t been blogging since the beginning of this journey. At first, I chalked it off to the fact that my phone was hardly working and I needed to save as much battery as possible “just in case.”

But honestly, I wasn’t blogging because I didn’t want the negative feelings I was having toward the trail to shine through in my posts.

Let’s back up a bit

At the beginning of this journey, everything was incredible. I was loving every minute because I had just started this adventure that I had been dreaming about for so long. But my feelings began to change without me really noticing.

It was cold. It was wet. But I kept thinking “it will get better.” As the seasons began to change, I kept expecting my feelings toward the trail to do the same, but they just kept getting worse.

We were doing big miles for the sole purpose of getting to town and taking a break. We started taking more and more zero days, and began to dread even going back to the trail.

These feelings persisted

We kept pushing through these feelings. Don’t get me wrong. Not every day was terrible, but the good was few and far between.

Finally, somewhere in Virginia sitting on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Tyler and I stopped and had to face the reality we were given: Do we quit?

It wasn’t the Virginia Blues. It was just “Trail Blues”

As we were sitting there, a SOBO approached us and asked how we were doing. Instead of giving the expected “we’re great!” Tyler opened up to him about the struggles we were experiencing.

He sat his pack down, and proceeded to give us some advice which could basically be summed up in three points.

–Take some time off trail

–Drop pack weight

–Change up our scenery

We knew deep down that we would regret it if we quit, so we decided to heed his advice and go home for a few days.

We dropped a ton of pack weight (I even bought a new pack that fit me much better), we reevaluated our mileage, and we got some much-needed rest.

It helped

By the end of our break, we were both itching to get back on the trail. We were actually excited to get back!

Our attitudes have changed so much. We’ve stopped looking at the trail like a job. We are listening to our bodies and are doing miles that feel good instead of trying to push 20-plus miles every day.

Most importantly, we’ve once again found the drive we had when we first started this journey.

“I can finally see us on Katahdin”

Yesterday, Tyler looked at me as said those words.

What once seemed like a crazy dream now seems achievable.

Katahdin, we’re still coming for ya.

Hasta luego, friends

Ray (I finally got a trail name!)

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Comments 3

  • Vince Piquet : Jun 1st

    Enjoy every bite of the sandwich. Fair winds and following seas.
    Vince aka The Dude, SOBO, ’17/’18

    Reply
  • Ruth morley : Jun 1st

    That was good advice you received. How great that you followed it and benefited in such a big way!

    Reply
  • Glenn : Jun 4th

    Getting your arse kicked is sometimes a good thing. lets ya know you are not immortal. Salute

    Reply

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