Less and More

I’ll admit that, when I was on the PCT, much of my thoughts were directed to mundane issues. I would, for instance, spend literal hours thinking about the different kinds of fermented foods I wanted to make when I got home, or what I was going to get each of my siblings (and siblings-in-law) for Christmas, or fifty different ways to cut and eat a watermelon. 

But along with all that musing, I did get a chance to examine my life, think about what life would be like when I got home, and reassess my priorities. So it’s good to know that five straight months of doing nothing but walking and thinking paid off in some way.

It was hard to reintegrate my ideas when I was in Portland, but since I’ve gotten home to St. Louis, I’ve been trying to make a conscious effort to follow through in the things I was thinking about. This has manifested itself in many ways, some small, some large. Here are a few of them.

Less Facebook. Much, much less. It used to be that any time I needed a break from work, I would scroll Facebook for a while. On the trail, when we’d get to a town, I did it obsessively, desperate to hear any news. But something I’ve realized more and more is that Facebook makes me feel awful. Sometimes it’s because people post things that make me upset, but mostly it’s just brain-numbing to scroll through a hundred statuses of people I don’t even really know anymore. Now I go on Facebook just to post my blog, answer notifications, check messages, and keep on the loop with event invites. I have stopped scrolling through the news feed. I’ve missed some news, but I’ve also been much happier for it.

Less sugar. Actually, for a couple days now I’ve been making an effort to cut out all refined sugar (white sugar, corn syrup, etc.). Why? Because sugar makes me crazy. My emotions get completely out of whack and I feel like everything is wrong. When I go off sugar, which necessitates a more whole-foods diet, I feel much more stable. It’s an amazing feeling. I was on this diet before the trail, and I’m happy to pick it up again. 

More reading. Somewhere along the way, I stopped reading on a regular basis. Not only is this not good for me, but it’s inexcusable since I’m a writing teacher! Right now I’m most of the way through Great Expectations, with a long reading list to follow.

Tacos at a vegetarian restaurant in
Vancouver, B.C. They were so delicious!

More vegetarian cooking. I’m on a continual journey to become a better cook, and my current goal is to learn how to cook vegetables in a way that makes even Zachary want to eat them. We met a person on trail who cooked us the best breakfast scramble I have ever eaten, which was 90% wholesome veggies. We both loved it. If I could learn to cook vegetables like that, I would be very happy. (Plus, meat, while tasty, is expensive!)

More tea. I’ve never liked tea, but only because I’d only ever tried black tea. In the past year or two I’ve started drinking some tea just because it’s good for me, and found out that it wasn’t half bad. Zach bought me a tea strainer, so I’ve been drinking loose-leaf tea and steeping shredded ginger. I drink raspberry tea or ginger-green-peppermint tea every day now.

More prayer. On trail, I developed a routine for praying, and often talked with God steadily (if in a scatterbrained way) for a solid hour every day. I’m still figuring out what it looks like at home, but I try to make time (more than my typical five minutes) every day to talk with God and listen to him. In the busyness of everyday life, this is easy to let slip, but I realize more than ever that he holds my world together, and I want to be listening and understanding what he’s telling me.

What do you need less of in your life? And what is going to take its place?

~~~

PCT Questions: The Most Useful (Non-Essential) Gear

I'd like to know what items you found most useful [on the Pacific Crest Trail] and if you thought of something that you didn't bring but you wished you had (within the realm of feasibility).

It’s hard to break down this question, because everything we brought on the trail was useful. In fact, we used almost every item we had every day. (The only item that we never used on trail, but still never got rid off, was a light bundle of rope. Go figure.) Obviously, it was most useful to have good backpacks, a tent, a sleeping bag, warm clothes, a stove and pot and dishes, solid trail runners (shoes), toilet paper and a trowel, etc. But if you’re talking about miscellaneous non-essential items, here are what come to mind…

Trekking poles. Holy cow, if you are going to take a long-distance hike, do yourself a favor and buy some trekking poles! We started without them and nearly wore Zach’s knees into the ground before we purchased them. We bought one set, so each of us just carried one, but they were massively useful. I can’t tell you how many times I would have fallen flat on my face if it weren’t for catching myself. Our joints had less pressure on the downhills, going up hills was easier, and stream crossings were more stable. Trekking poles rock. (Note: there were a couple people on trail who didn’t consistently use trekking poles. But most people still had use for them frequently, even if they didn’t use them all the time.)

Camp shoes (aka flip flops). This was something we ended up buying on trail: a super-lightweight pair of flip flops for me to wear around camp. It was really nice to be able to air out my feet when we were taking breaks for the day (sunlight is good to help harden up blisters) but still walk around if I needed to. They were also perfect footwear for stream crossings and midnight bathroom breaks! Just be sure the sandals are as lightweight as possible.

Backpacking hats look dorky (especially when you've
been wearing them for five months), but they're useful!

Hats. In the desert, I was determined not to get sunburn or heat exhaustion, which are both common acquaintances of mine in summer. When the sun beats down on my head too long, even if I’m wearing a hat, I tend to get a nasty headache that aspirin doesn’t curb. Naturally, I was pretty nervous about covering seven hundred miles of desert, and then another few hundred miles in 10,000-foot-plus elevation, in blazing near-solstice sun. I bought a dorky, expensive backpacking hat and hoped for the best. I was shocked— on the entire trail, I never got sunstroke. Not once. It was incredible. By the end of the trail my hat was trashed, but I’m definitely going to invest in a Sun Day Afternoon brand hat again. And no, nobody’s paying me to say that! (Note: A lot of people on trail didn’t wear hats, opting for no protection, or sunglasses, instead. Obviously they don’t have as much problem with sun headaches.)

Warm gloves. I almost didn’t buy gloves before we left, and what a mistake that would have been! The trail gets surprisingly cold— the desert at night, the High Sierra, and southern Washington would often leave a layer of frost on our tent. You can’t just stay in your tent until everything warms up (you’d be in there till noon), so being able to use your hands and still be warm is essential.

Headphones (with mp3 player). We bought these a couple weeks in because we were getting bored out of our minds. Yes, there was breathtaking scenery all around. But when you’re hiking for twelve hours a day without any sort of mental stimulation, you feel your brain start to calcify. After we got the headphones, Zach listened to podcasts a lot, and we took turns listening to music. A lot of people on the trail went through audiobooks. It’s nice to give your brain something to do.

The one item I wish we’d had…

Gaiters. This was the item that we almost bought several times, but kept putting off until it was too late. They are basically glorified socks that hook onto the outside of your trail runners, keeping dust, dirt, sand, and leaf litter from falling into your shoes. They are useful in pretty much every section of the trail: sand in the desert, snow in the Sierra, dirt and dust in Oregon and Washington, and pine needles everywhere in between. We often wished for them when we had to stop ten times a day to empty tiny pebbles out of our shoes. It’s a little thing, which is why we never ended up buying them, but they sure would have been nice to have.

~~~

Have a question about backpacking or the Pacific Crest Trail? Leave a comment!

A New Start

I drew this when we were taking a
 break from the trail in Sacramento.

For a solid week, I just couldn’t think about the trail. I couldn’t bear it. Thinking about it, or talking about it, or trying to write about it, made me feel weary, almost sick.

But a few days ago, I decided to try to drag some words out of myself as I picked up my worn notebook that holds sentence fragments representing all my PCT memories. I set down the book to use for reference. I opened my computer document that holds the massive expansion of those scratched-down words.

Two hours later, coming out of a sort of trance, I saw that I had written over 7,000 words. I had barely covered three days of trail. The pages were full of memories that were locked up inside me: conversations, insecurities, funny memories, incredible views, blisters and shin splints, and trail angels who gave us more than we could ever hope to repay. I felt emotionally exhausted, and went straight to bed.

Hope filled my heart that night, and has stayed with me as I spend a bit of time each day working on my journal. I still don’t know if I’m writing something anyone else will want to read, but I reassure myself that now I know that one person, at least will want to read it: me.

And that’s more than I could have said a week ago.

~~~