Day 84 – HYOH and be happy

Miles: 1295.5 to 1318.0

Trail Miles: 22.5

Miles Hiked: 23.1

I awoke early but was feeling stressed about the blog, so I worked on some entries, knowing I might have cell service later. I didn’t get on the trail until late, 0750.

I finished the last 5 miles of the 13 mile climb leaving Belden. When I reached the top, I could see Mt Lassen and Mt Shasta in the distance, a preview of the days and weeks to come.

Mt Lassen in the distance

Mt Shasta

I was also rewarded with some cell service. Unfortunately it was only 4G and just would not load the blogpost and pictures. I probably wasted an hour trying, to no avail. I called HH and both my parents. I only got through to M&D. I was worried about “Operation Furball Flight.” — HH was flying the Furball up to NY to stay with M&D for a few months. It was the first time he’d been been “MC” of such an op. It was hard for me to let go of command.

Between that, the late start, blog and not catching up to Smokebeard yesterday, I was feeling some mental consternation. I was trying to keep it all in perspective though.

I knew there was no way I could have caught up to Smokebeard in one day and be worth anything today.

Getting a late start today had kind of stressed me – I needed to make the miles.

The blog was stressing me – it’s time consuming, especially with such poor cell/internet. It’d be easy to skip a few days, but I’m writing it for my memory, for years from now. It gets repetitive and more detailed than most people probably want to read but, in the end, I’m writing it for me.

I working to find balance. As HH said the last time we talked, enjoy this. It probably won’t happen again and if it does, it won’t be the same. Enjoy it as it happens.

So I decided to do what miles I could and be happy with that. The blog would get updated when it did. And I wasn’t going to stress about finding balance. If I ‘hiked my own hike’ (HYOH), I would find it. — Simple? Yes. Easy? No.

Anyways, I eventually passed the 1300 mile point. Not quite half-way, but getting close.

Not quite half-way

I saw several mule deer today. One was a buck, at least a three-pointer. I couldn’t really get a good view of how many points but it had at least three.

Mid afternoon I ran into two fellow thru hikers sitting at some trail magic. It was a cooler full of cokes and one remaining Sierra Nevada beer. A trail runner I’d seen had left it. I grabbed the beer and sat down. I wound up spending another hour just talking with the two hikers, Baby Blanket and Early Bird, and then the trail runner/trail angel who provided the refreshments.

I eventually forced myself to start hiking again. Baby Blanket caught up shortly thereafter. He’s from Maine, but had gone to school in Banner Elk, NC. He’d already hiked the AT, so we had an interesting conversation about long distance hiking and what it takes to successfully complete a thru-hike. Most people think it’s a physical challenge – and it is to a certain degree. But it’s really more of a mental challenge. If you can walk, you can eventually string enough steps together to walk 2,661 miles – the length of the PCT. The challenge is doing it mile after mile, day after day, with consistency and overcoming the problems/issues that will eventually occur. With the exception of serious injury, like a broken bone, it’s the mental challenge that knocks people off the trail the most.

Learning how to HYOH and all that that means is the foundation of successful thru-hiking.

PS. Today was another national holiday – Happy Birthday to Betty’s Mom!