Two Weeks

Three more days of work, eleven days until I fly to San Diego and fourteen days until I start hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Something that has, for over a year, seemed so far away is now right around the corner, even though it sill doesn’t feel real. I fully expect that sometime between now and when I arrive at the trailhead I will have a full on panic attack. Ok, maybe not a full on panic attack but I know the reality of the situation will hit me hard. I’ve had the occasional thoughts of “What the hell am I doing?!” but they seem to pass quickly. The excitement easily defeats the nerves.

Perhaps what lies ahead hasn’t hit me yet as I have had plenty of other things to keep my mind occupied. Moving out of where Cristina and I were living and putting everything in storage, wrapping things up at work, writing a blog post for the Alzheimer Association and spending time with friends and family. Cristina and I also managed to make a quick trip to Portland to visit the Columbia / Mountain Hardware / prAna company store to pick up a few last minute clothing items for the hike. This was a little tricky as I’ve managed to cultivate a fair amount of mass, fat is fuel, to bridge the gap when I fine tune my diet on the trail. It felt weird buying pants that were a bit tight but I fully expect that the pounds will melt off in the desert.

Another thing that keeps my mind occupied are the things I need to do before I ago. At the top of that list is putting together 11 resupply boxes for various stops along the trail where resupply options are limited or non-existent. I recently attempted to go shopping for all the things I would need for the resupply boxes but noticed that I was I was filling my shopping cart with things that that would be prevalent along the trail at other resupply stops. Realizing that I would probably get sick of those things I decided that I needed to rethink what I want to fill my resupply boxes and ditched my half full shopping cart. I also need to practice setting up my tent. Yes, that’s right, it’s 14 days until I start a 5 month hike and I haven’t even setup the tent i’ll be taking with me once. I haven’t even taken it out of it’s stuff sack. Luckily it’s pretty simple and looks easy to set up. What is probably the most surprising thing I have left to do is go tanning, yes, tanning. Just to get a base. Since my journey starts in sunny Southern California and my skin is accustomed to the continuously overcast Pacific Northwest I’m hoping that a base tan will help keep me from getting extremely sunburned. There are a few other small loose ends to tie up as well but they aren’t that interesting, I mean who would want read about travel toothpaste anyways?

However, what i’m looking forward to the most before I leave is my upcoming send off this Saturday. Cristina even made a limited run of prints for the occasion as well. It will be great to see most of my friends and family before I head out. Maybe that’s when things will start to feel real. Hopefully I don’t have a panic attack.