Livetough - Pacific Crest Trail Journal - 2012

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Excited as ever... PCT bound

Hey this is Style... Thank you for taking your time to relax.... and enjoy... reading about my adventures.... I am about to hike the Pacific Crest Trail this Spring. So you may have met me some where in an interesting circumstance or I may have invited you into my private thoughts via my journal and that is how you ended up here. My life is about to change into a very different world..

Then Style's shadow is cast aross the face of the granite rock upon which he stands. Taking a deep breath... he looks across the sky in wonder and thought about the day that just passed. Did that many different...amazing, totaly spectacular events occur all in one day? ha that is what the trail can do ... Leave you breathless at the increadable views... as you go in to trance... staring at the skyline in wonder.... Imagine every nite watching the sun set as you snap awesome pictures... of the purple and pink tones that paint the skyline.. Its only 50 days till I am standing in the So-cal desert with a pack looking out across the vast landscape and realizing that I am thousands of miles from home. The feeling literally is like... electricity flowing through my body as I contemplate the journey across some of the most extreme terrain I have ever imagine. Deserts to Snow in the same day along with a three thousand or more climb in five miles elevation over 20 miles plus a day. Epic proportions. I will be standing on top of the highest mountains in the 48 states...Mt Whitney... So why do I hike? It's the sheer thrill of it. Waking up in a different place everyday. Awesome people you meet along the way in the little towns. Loving the water that I carry everyday more than any possession wanted. Beautiful vistas and so much space out in the no mans land. Sleeping under the stars. Being totaly free to do what I want. My life is changed forever from the Appalachian trail...and again my life will be chisled and tested to the limits on the PCT... I will touch lives.. I know that I am not alone in that respect that the AT changed me. I am more at peace being away from other people in city life. I am able to concentrate better because I am less distracted with all the needless drama that I have separated myself from. I get over silly things easily. I can endure almost anything that comes my way without anything stopping me. Thru hiking makes you feel amazing and clear headed. Its the best thing that happened to me. I have learned to just trust and let go of situations that will work themselves out. I have overcome and been victorious daily in my goals and overcoming obstacles. I mean serious challenges. No water, shoes broke down and hiking the Bigelow range in Maine with only crocs, not real shoes..lol but how I loved those crocs when I did get used to them. I just got over it and accepted it. I ran out of food many times. I needed gear and it just showed up in hiker boxes at the exact moment needed as if falling from heaven... Rain, sleet, everything I owned wet and then huricane Irene slashes Vermont. In Georgia, at the beginning of my hike, a tornado passed only a mile or two away and tore apart the mountain just accross the valley. I was able to survive with cutting hair for people on the way for about 230 miles in maine because somehow lost my bank card and ID. How good it was when the mail drop with my card came along with new shoes. I really learned how to Trust the Lord even with the little stuff. To rely on His strength when I am weary and weak. I am all around better as a person. I love to exercise and eat healthy. Before the AT I was really on the lazy side. But I just fell in love with the trail, the amazing people who hike it and those who help us do it. Now walking ten miles is like a nero. Anyways back to the now.. I am taking an Amtrak to Washington D.C. then to Chicago, LA and arriving in San Diego. I am really stoked about the trail. I have never been out west before and looking forward to it. I ordered the G4 backpack from Gossamer Gear who now is my go to for light gear. In a few days the package will be arriving so I can get all my gear from all over the place into a pack and refine it. That will rock to get all my stuff organized and not in my head and off paper lists. I am shooting for under 10 to 12 lbs base weight not including what I wear while hiking. Should be a snap. My strategy of knocking down my pack from like 17lb base weight from the Appalachian trail to about ten pounds or so is by starting with my big three which is pack, shelter, sleep system. These Items are going to be around 1.5lb or so each so that I am left with kitchen, clothes, misc stuff. I also just realized the other day that you can make a tyvek rain gear out of a full jump soot they make for lab work or painting ect. so I ordered a set. The whole rain gear set will be about six ounces. That is a big jump down from almost 17 oz rain pants and a 15 oz marmont precip shell. I do not expect to use these that much in So-Cali as I will in Oregon and Washington. Excited about new gear because I have been doing ordering for preparation for this though hike. So I am going to go eat some food and i will be back again.

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