By Jackie Zimmer
Life is completely different on the Pacific Crest Trail. Solitude is a very strange thing. You talk to yourself, you sing to yourself (or to the person you didn’t realize was hiking a few switchbacks above you and could hear everything- yes, that happened), you’re constantly trying to control where your mind wonders off to, you welcome a scenery change but soon begin to miss what you had just wished away, but most of all you feel so connected to Earth and the people you come across.
Eat, sleep, walk, repeat. I need to think of another way to say that, because I’m not eating all that much, and it’s more of a hobble.
It’s a nomadic existence out here. You’re not in the same place very long, you carry your life on your back, and the people you meet aren’t in your life very long. I feel wild and free, but so very trapped. Is that what an actual nomad feels like?
There’s something monumental about traveling at a human’s pace (granted… a very slow human, in my case). I’ve always had a deep appreciation for nature. It’s always made me feel happy and excited. But this is a whole other level of appreciation. I feel like I see
and appreciate everything in the forest so much more because I’ve had to work so hard for each step/ each view point. Today I stopped dead in my tracks because of a tree! A TREE!!! I started at it for awhile; peeling bark, droopy umbrella branches draped in light green hairy moss. “You’re a beautiful tree.” I said out loud. (I hope you remember that moment when you get back home). Yesterday I woke up before sunrise and walked down to the lake and sat on a log to watch the sunrise above Cathedral Rock (pretty sure I’ll be talking about that place for a long time); I started to cry because it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw. I thank every campsite as I’m leaving it. What will tomorrow bring?…. a rock named Wilson a ’la Castaway. Do other hikers do that? Am I going crazy? Is it some sort of extremist Hippie Spiritual crap? All of the above?
Toodaloo for now, Jack
Follow Jackie’s Adventure on her page, kindersleysocial.ca/webarchive/Jackie
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