Life Update
Hey everyone! Amos and I… er, I mean “Tuna” and I have been hiking the PCT for two weeks. That’s right, Amos is now Tuna (T-Butter, Big Tuna, Tuna Butter) and my trail name is Calypso. Why is he Tuna?
Because he eats tuna and peanut butter wraps for lunch. No joke, that mixture does not seem pleasant to anyone but himself.
I am Calypso because I wear various hues of blue and charm men into hiking long trails with me (cue the obscure Greek mythology reference). Today we’re taking our first “zero day,” meaning a day without hiking, since beginning this thru-hike. As I am writing, it is cold and raining outside – nonstop – and a climb up to 10,000ft awaits us in the morning. I do not envy those who are currently on trail, huddled together at high altitude.
The desert, though hot and humbling, is beautiful.
I am amazed by the day-to-day and the process of acclimating to a new biosphere. While neither of us have gotten blisters (knock on wood), we’ve faced numerous challenges difficult to predict. Like, my horrific bout of chaffing from too-tight of shorts and an aggravated wisdom tooth. I cried. Yes, I cried big fat tears having to hike nineteen miles, enduring repetitive friction from nylon on my thighs. The next day, in order to hike out of the mountains, I wore a see-through tank top as a skirt and simply stopped caring about what others might think. Overcoming my pain was number-one priority. Once in town, everything seemed to go right, through ways imbued in magic.
These hiccups, and more, have gotten us a little off schedule. But then again, what is a schedule out here anyway? We’ve averaged 12 mile days over the past two weeks, and our initial goal was to take it slow to avoid physical injury, hiking 10-15 mile days. This next week we plan to pick up the pace. I cannot tell where exactly this antsy feeling is coming from, but I want to get moving. I love making a simple, daily goal and meeting it. That for me is success while hiking. It is also exciting to start the morning in a distinct place, hike, work through the inevitable pain of exhausted limbs, hike, and wind up in a new environment around bedtime. There is an inherent sense of delight in moving through a landscape at human pace, watching the scenery change around you by the hour and being able to track how far you’ve gone in the horizon. At least for me, anyway.
I only have 10-minutes left on the library computer, so enjoy the photos below!
Until next time, happy trails!
– Calypso
PEAKED CURIOSITY 