An Enlightening Experience

Hiking is extremely routine-oriented: you wake up when it gets light, pack your stuff, eat something, hike for three hours, eat something, hike for three hours, eat something, hike for three hours, rest, eat something, hike for three hours, cook, pitch tent, sleep. Give or take, this is my day. You might think this would make for a rather monotonous lifestyle, doesn't it get boring? Well, yes, sometimes, but there's also a lot of action going on upstairs. Something that I've remarked on before and that any thru hiker will tell you is that your brain is so much louder and communicative when you quiet the rest of your life. Hiking gives you time for for introspection, a look at your soul.

It also makes it that much more obvious, and delightful (or depressing), when something extraordinary happens. The last three days of hiking have been pretty extraordinary, so I thought I would relate some of my most recent experiences.

Three days ago I set out from Belden. (For those of you following my schedule, I am somewhat ahaid of schedule. In fact, my schedule is pretty screwed, as I'll explain later). It was raining, but I decided it was time to start hiking regardless. The nice trail angels I was staying with seemde to think the storm would be short, so I wasn't too worried. This was my first real rain of the trip. So I hiked.

About 8 miles in, I ran into another hiker I knew, Rumble. She had camped in the hills the night before, gotten her stuff soaked and come back down because she was scared of hypothermia. Fair enough, it made me nervous, but my stuff was dry and I was still in good spirits. So I hiked.

This is when I started getting cold. As it turns out, the poncho I was using as raingear was semi-waterproof. Well, that's too bad. My stuff was still dry, but I was soaked. I noticed I was peeing an exceptional number of times, despite not having drank anything that day. I was soaked for so long that I was absorbing rain through my skin in mass quantities. I didn't know you could do that, I guess hiking does teach you something! I considered pitching my tenet and waiting out the storm in my sleeping bag. Nah, to keep going was the only way to keep warm. So I hiked.

I started to wonder if the rain would ever stopped. I started yelling at the clouds to go away. At one point I did a sun dance. It must have worked, because around 3:00 PM I saw my shadow. I've never been so happy for a little sunchine. As the steam rose of the meadows around me, I found a log to sit on and enjoy the sun. It was still drizzling, and a little windy, but it didn't matter because that extraordinary matter/wave called sunlight was raining down on me for the first time in 18 hours. I was content.

I kept hiking for the rest of the day, although I felt somewhat weak from trudging through the storm. I made camp on a mountain summit, with a beautiful view of the sunset and the cloud formations, not so long ago a menacing threat, now broken and swirling in intricate patterns.

This being a trip of ups and downs, it got really cold that night. SO cold that everything frosted over. It didn't rain, which was great, but it sure looked like it did when I woke up because my rain fly was soaked through from the melted frost and condensation. I spent an extra long time packing up that morning, rotating between rolling up the fly and sticking my hands in my armpits and down my pants for warmth. Leaving my sleeping bag for the below zero wet environment that morning was one of the hardest things I've done on this trip so far.

As you might have predicted, the rest of that day I ate something, hiked for three hours, ate something, hiked for three hours, ate something, hiked for three hours, rested, ate something, hiked for three hours, cooked, pitched my tent, and went to sleep.

Day 3 from Belden. Something in my head decided I needed a challenge. I knew of a Trail Angel about 33 miles hike from where I was camped, an intimidating distance. I decided to go for it, although the food might have also been a motivating factor. So I hiked, this time hard. I was sweating all through the morning, despite the cold weather.

About 10 I came across an establishment in the middle of Lassen National Forest. It was called Drakesbad Ranch, and I had heard about them from some other hikers. At this point I was damn thirsty and decided to go get some water. As soon as I scoped the kitchen, this turned into a yearning for food. I rationalized: I'm not sure I can do 33 miles on pack food, better tank up here. It worked, and I quickly headed for the restaurant.

It turns out they weren't open for meals at the time, but thankfully they're also extremely hiker-friendly. When I explained my dilemma, that I was in a hurry, this guy named Ed came out, tried to convinced me to stay for lunch, realized I couldn't, then proceeded to reopen the kitchen for some scrambled eggs and ham. What followed was extraordinary.

I was served an entire spread, including a glass of orange juice, fresh fruit, coffee, the biggest plate of scrambled eggs and ham" two random onlookers had ever seen, and a half loaf of fresh baked bread. I was floored, as I paused in between oversized bites to truly comprehend what had just happened. I polished it all off, pretty quickly to my credit, and asked Ed what I owed him for this feast. I was already clutching unconsciously at my cash bag, worried that I had just incurred a big unforseen expense. This was a very nice place, after all. Ed quickly returned with a bill, that had a simple "5" written on it. He had charged $5 dollars for what was justifiably a $15-20 spread, and that 5 was clearly a triviality. He then proceeded to pack me out with more fresh fruit and pointed me to a shortcut back to the PCT, saving me a couple miles of walking (although I did have to climb a hill, ouch).

As an addendum, I have to mention that Ed was not the only one being amazing, he was just the guy in charge. I talked to at least 3 other people there, including one women from Lithuania who waited on me 1/2 time (brought me the bread), and they were all the most gracious and wonderful people. What a high to be treated like that by complete strangers! If you ever have the chance, I encourage you to visit Drakesbad (especially if your hiking), its a wonderful wonderful place.

After giving the hot baths and a scrapping of original plan some serious consideration, I set off down the shortcut. I hiked until I was tired, stopped to snack on some Gu that Sam Meehan sent me in Sierra City (that stuff rocks) and started hiking more. At some point during the afternoon, I had an epiphany, one of those rare hiking moments in which you realize something so utterly simple that it sounds idiotic when you right it down, yet so profoundly affects your soul. To risk sounding idiotic, here is what I realized: I am hiking a thousand miles on the PCT, just graduated from college, going to China and then to Latin America. My life is absolutely blessed; in that moment I learned to acknowledge and thank whatever god/ law of science/ person/ other put me in that moment at that time at that place. It was feeling of pure gratitude for the conditions that had shaped my life and made me who I was. It was bliss.

I won't say anymore, because as I said its not something that can be communicated through words. It just was. The actual experience lasted for about 30 minutes of hiking, but it has changed me irrevocably. I can still feel it, not as I did before, but its there and always will be.

Unfortunately, I couldn't just be transported to dinner at the Trail Angel's so that I could reflect upon this experience over a nice hot meal. The rest of the hike was dry, hot and my body was exhausted. I made it though, and just in time for dinner. Yet another piece to be grateful for.


Bear Bait