May 27, 2013
0 miles today
478 miles total
Like all long term endeavors, balanced days off are strategically wise. Or if you walk a lot, a day spent sitting on your ass feels good. But too many days off spirals one into a deficit of ambition. For me, my knee has spoken. This day is one of rest, which is easy physically, but a challenge mentally. The call of miles is a strong one.
All day the large group that had stayed for the Memorial Day weekend party has been moving out. I did not know most of these folks as they had started the trail before me. An annual kickoff meeting/party takes place at the end of April for the PCT. This year some 400 hikers had attended. Most then start their hike. Because my group has been moving at a fairly quick pace, we have begun to catch the tail end of the large kickoff group, a good chance to hear new stories.
One individual I met named Handstand works in one of three locations – the South Pole, Greenland, or Palmyra. Palmyra is a tiny atoll in the South Pacific owned by the Nature Conservancy. He works anywhere from 4-6 months a year maintaining facilities at one of the three far-flung locations. He spends the rest of the year seeing what interests him. This year is it completing the PCT. In October he will return to Antarctica. His parting comment was, “I can’t stop laughing whenever I think that someone is paying me to work in those places.”
The taco salad affair was more intimate and subdued as the dinner crowd was greatly reduced.
The weather forecast, which basically means looking up at the sky, hinted at rain. So I set up my tarp, using my new and improved tent pole for the first time. A 25 mph gust of wind snapped it in half at the seven-minute mark. Can’t blame the tooth for that one, as it is back in my mouth.
Spent the rest of the evening concocting a new pole from the remnants of old trekking poles. Some pieces of equipment simply refuse to behave in a civilized manner.
The pole that would not go up
Steve Halteman
On the Pacific Crest Trail
Hiking the PCT for the Kids of Escuela Verde
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