Today was fantastic. I don't have anything against the higher, bigger, snowier, scarier passes (except for the fact that they're exhausting and I get nauseaus from the adrenaline rush, not exhilerates), they're definitely cool and beautiful and earn bragging rights and good stories. I'm tired though. The high Sierra has had me beat. Selden Pass, at only 10,900' and maybe one mile of snow TOTAL before the pass, if even that, was just so friendly, so chill, so confidence boosting. It made a good day stay good, getting to the top at 5 after 14 miles of hiking, rather than getting to the top at 7 after only 11 miles of hiking like some passes before.
We got to Bear Creek this evening. The original plan was that we'd get as close as possible and then ford first thing in the morning, a plan the Safety Steve in me was all about. Then, as we were feeling good coming down off of Selden, the plan morphed into crossing it tonight, camping on the other side, letting shoes dry overnight and starting warm in the morning. I was not pleased. This is supposed to be the sketchiest ford on the PCT, it made no sense to me to risk everything on the assumption that word of mouth about Bear Creek only going down 1" overnight, when we could just as easily do it in the morning. I tried to bust out a quick sketch of guage-height v. flow rate of water, but was quickly told to put the engineer away and talk hiker instead. So I spoke to my fears, my desire not to have very stupid regrets come tomorrow morning, and I got my way. We are now sleeping on the south bank, and hopefully all will go well in the am.
I wish I was putting my brain to better use while hiking. Daydreaming has a slightly higher mental requirement than having a song stuck on mental repeat, but it's nothing big. Here's a sampling of the topics I keep myself entertained with:
Could I be a cool and fun history teacher?
I want to cook/bake...
I want to eat...
Arts and crafts and presents ideas
Halloween costumes
My dream kitchen...
If I could landscape and remodel, I'd want an outdoor kitchen/patio with a wood fired pizza/bread oven and....
If I lived by myself, I could...
I want a garden, and I want to grow...
If I went to church just so I could sing but not change my views on life, the universe, and everything, would I be a bad person? Would the God that I don't believe in be angry, and would I care?
Nothing deep. Nothing at all related to hiking.
I couldn't remember all of the day's Tao
- Typoed on my iPhone
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment