Time Off The Trail

So besides the little life change I had this morning, this week has been mostly sitting on my butt, icing my knee and waiting for the weather to clear. I’ve watched a lot of TV (mostly avoiding the constant rehashing news channels), and gotten in touch with friends, family and my tramily (trail family). My tramily members are now either clustered in Idyllwild or have flipped north to Mojave, looking to walk SOBO (southbound) to cover the dryer and lower desert sections.

I happened to catch an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation; The Offspring. Like many other experiences I’ve had over the last couple of weeks, the timing of me catching this one was quite remarkable. Data a synthetic lifeform with artifical intellegence creates a daughter named Lal. When trying to describe to her his struggles with trying to understand human emotions:

LAL: Then why do you still try to emulate humans? What purpose does it serve except to remind you that you are incomplete? 
DATA: I have asked myself that many times as I have struggled to be more human. Until I realised it is the struggle itself that is most important. We must strive to be more than we are, Lal. It does not matter that we will never reach our ultimate goal. The effort yields its own rewards. 
LAL: You are wise, Father. 
DATA: It is the difference between knowledge and experience. 

So now I’m trying to get my act together. I used Uber for the first time today to drop packages off at the Post Office, bought food for the next stretch (probably too much….again), and started aranging my gear. I sent my boots and ice axe forward; switching back to my trail runners but keeping the crampons. The trail runners aren’t ideal for them, but I want to have some sort of traction available. I checked online for getting some microspikes instead, but shipping was too far off. Other than that, my gear is the same. Despite my stuff scattered all of the hotel room, I’m not nearly as stressed about packing as I was the night before starting this adventure. I walked in here with all of this, I can walk out with it, too. Plus I had Top Gun to watch, so all is well.

During my time here, I’ve been able to view portions of the PCT on the San Jacinto section from my hotel balcony (when the clouds cleared enough), including all of the new snow where there wasn’t last weekend. I also discovered a former coworker is at her condo 1/2 mile from my hotel, and all of the supplies I need are close by, even stove fuel. So this gift of a ride Jeff gave me on Tuesday certainly was another blessing. It’s pretty much been raining almost the whole time, so I’m glad I’m not out in a tent for this many days.

So tomorrow I saddle up, try to find a ride, and hit the trail again. There for sure is more snow in my future. Nothing technically dangerous, just the issues of camping and traveling on snow. I’m mentally prepared to change my schedule to walk on stiff snow to avoid slush (getting wet) and postholing (getting f-ing exhausted).

Savior out.

20200407 122325

20200407 152757

20200409 155625

20200410 165708