Why do I want to do this?
A couple days ago I drove from the Bay Area in California to Corvallis,
Oregon. I sort of paralleled the PCT, but covered in around 10 hours a span of
latitude that takes hikers somewhere around 2 months to walk.
Why do I want to spend so much time walking over ground that can so easily
be covered by other means? Of course simply getting from point A to point B has
very little to do with a long distance hike like this, but still, why not just
drive or hitchhike or ride a bike to all the cool places (and more) that the
trail goes by?
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First off, because I think and hope it will be mostly fun. I love being
outside, and the region this trail traverses is an incredible playground. I
look forward to learning what I can about how the plants and critters make
their homes out there. I look forward to living a schedule with the sun. I look
forward to the freedom of setting my own schedule and pace.
I look forward to walking from one mountain range to the next, to
seeing first hand and at an appropriate pace how this big tectonic tangle of
earth-parts is put together. To learning how one piece of the landscape relates
to the next, and maybe even learning something about my place in it all.
I look forward to the challenges, physical, emotional, mental, and to
seeing how I react to the experience. I look forward to being uncomfortable. To
having my soft edges roughened up a bit. I look forward to the feeling of being
alive, the one you really only get from being out in the heat and cold and wind
and wet, from having your comfort and maybe your safety challenged a bit. I
look forward to taking that all as it comes and moving past it to thrive in
ways I wasn’t sure I was capable of.
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Of course I have my doubts. I doubt that I really want to spend 5
months doing the same thing all day, every day. Over the years that the PCT has
been a part of my consciousness, I’ve often thought that I wouldn’t want to do
just one thing for so long, that I would miss surfing and the other great
activities in my life so much that I would have trouble staying motivated to
finish. I doubt that the ratio of Type 1 Fun to Type 2 Fun* will be high enough
for me to keep enjoying myself. I doubt that my knees and feet and various
other parts will hold up well enough for me to finish.
----
But on top of all these reasons, and counter-points to my doubts, there
is a certain fundamental need or desire or itch or urge to do this hike that I
can’t fully explain. For over 10 years I’ve tossed around the idea of hiking
the PCT both internally and with my friends and family. The desire grows and
fades with seasons and years, but it has always been there. I need to do the
hike because I don’t want to someday realize that my body isn’t up to it
anymore, and have to wonder what it would have been like to try.
So, I guess for now, that is why I want to do this hike.
*Type 1 Fun: fun to do and fun to talk about later.
Type 2 Fun: not fun to do but
fun to talk about later.
Type 3 Fun: not fun to do, not
fun to talk about later.
