PCT Dreaming

As April approaches, a few hundred thru-hikers will be finishing their final preparations for a 2,650 mile hike from Mexico to Canada along the Pacific Crest Trail.  They will average 20 miles a day for 4-5 months.  Everyday’s morning mission: walk north.  In order to do so, many will quit their jobs.  A few will be enjoying retirement.  Some will have struggled to save money despite having planned for years.  Others will have spontaneously dropped out of school.  Loved ones will be left behind.  Flimsy relationships will end.  Homes and yards will be neglected.  Cell phone contracts will be dropped.

These thru-hikers will be well aware of the challenges: unrelenting physical pain and discomfort, loneliness and boredom.  Their backpacks will be practically empty - weighing less than 20 lbs.  They will have daily, borderline erotic beverage fantasies.  Their bodies will harden like wet concrete.  They will adopt trail names like Lost, Grey Beard, Ricola, Warner Springs, and Llama.  They will hitch into resupply towns like Vikings - raping and pillaging motel showers, pizza parlors, and liquor stores. 

They will arrive in Canada by October.  No trophies or news stations will be there to greet them - only a dimly lit dive bar that takes their picture and sticks it on a wall.  The bartender gives them a beer - on the house.  They lean back on padded stools and zone out over taxidermy. They mentally retrace their journey - through deserts and over mountains, through rain, snow, sunburns, bugs, bears, snakes, and sores.  California, Oregon, Washington.  The bar is warm.  Their beer is cold.  Their walk is finally over. 

PCT 2011, how I long to join you.  GOOD LUCK