I Could Drive Forever

The past few months have been a whirlwind of stress, excitement, and anxious anticipation as I plan and prepare for my thru-hike in April. There are the physical preparations–hiking up and down dusty hills and mountains in and around Los Angeles with twenty-five pounds on my back (a chorus of sideways glances and “so what’s with the pack?”; the thwap-thwap-thwap of my Cascadias along the trail).

There are the logistical plans–putting in my notice at work, preemptive doctor visits, filling out permit applications, mailing said permits out in time, saying goodbye in person to the ones who matter most, moving out of my cluttered second-story apartment, figuring out what to send to my future self at what location and on what date. And my car. What am I going to do with my car?

And, of course, there are the countless seconds and minutes and hours spent curled into a corner of the couch, the tops of my thighs warm underneath my laptop, scouring the interweb for gear. Stuff. Things. The screen is a mess of open windows, each window a mess of open tabs: Backcountry.com, REI, BackpackingLight.com, PCT-List, Backpacker Magazine, Trail Journals, and so on and on and on…Making sure I have everything I need to stay warm-ish, dry-ish, sufficiently hydrated, somewhat fed, and as sane as I can hope to be for five-ish months on the trail.

Tomorrow it will be March. March! Already! And there is still so much more planning and preparing to do…

Here I am being super pumped because I’m about to go on a hike in Malibu Creek State Park. Yay! Neat! Hiking rules! Stuff! Things! Stuff and things!

Here’s another photo of me being super pumped because I’m hiking up Echo Mountain in the lower San Gabriels. I’m not wearing my backpack nor am I holding my trekking poles because I set them aside when I stopped to take the picture. Also because when I tried drawing a backpack and trekking poles it looked like I was standing in front of a misshapen couch shooting lasers out of my hands.

And here’s another Built to Spill song because I love Built to Spill and because why not.