New Silhouette

Walking, walking and walking. 150 miles in to my attempt at through hiking the PCT I have been humbled by how difficult it has been, and moved to tears by the beauty I now find myself in the midst of. It’s everything I imagined and at the same time nothing like I imagined. One of the unusual things I’ve noticed hiking mile after mile is you end up looking down a lot. Rocks, washes, cliffs, twists, turns, sticks, snakes and other things lay in your path so navigating them is a full time occupation. It’s like looking at a silhouette on a moonlit night. I look at my shadow with gratitude and appreciation. It’s such a privilege to be out here, it’s stretching me mentally and physically back into the person I forgot I was.

Being out here there is a real connection to nature that can be uncomfortable and a little scary then in the next instant  be nurturing and overwhelmingly beautiful. It’s raw, and as real as it gets. My feet are covered in blisters that are healing, my legs are accommodating my requests to walk me 18 plus miles a day, and my eyes feast every minute. It’s a new revelation every day. Tomorrow I start winding my way up toward Mt. San Jacinto, and a few days later drop back into the desert. My friend Gavin summed it up perfectly, “In one instant we step into our future not yet created, into the adventure itself.”