Turns out, updating a blog on the PCT is hard

We're trucking ahead on our journey, and have arrived in Mammoth Lakes two-thirds of the way through the "Sierras". It has been an incredible trip so far. Since my last update a full month ago, we've traveled 450 miles north away from the LA corridor, north from the land of reptiles and sand and deep into the heart of the grand granitic land of soaring mountain passes and gushing streams of snowmelt.

To be perfectly honest, I haven't even done a good job of keeping up my personal journal much less this blog. I won't try, even now, to chronicle these last weeks day by day, because summaries like that turn into lists of mountains climbed, hikers met, miles walked, and wildlife seen. And yes, that's what this trip is patently absurdly full of : ridiculous miles. But anyone who has been on a trip like this knows that there is so much more to backpacking than, well, backpacking.

It's not like there is all this empty time however. People often assume that backpacking involves a lot of sitting around campfires writing songs on ukulele and whittling little sculptures out of twigs and reading. But the truth is that there is a lot of walking, and when you walk 20 miles in a day, you're too tired to do much but the basics (food, water, shelter) before sleep takes over. There is plenty of time, however, to think while you're walking. Like think in a way that you've probably never experienced unless you've spent this much time by yourself without the distractions of the modern world.

I am continuously surprised by the  thoughts that circulate while I'm hiking. I think about grand things sometimes of course, the big questions, my future, etc. But a lot of time goes into thinking about the past, people and conversations that I haven't thought about for years. Songs circle in my head from my childhood. I conjugate verbs in Spanish. I even find myself thinking of movie previews that I saw years ago and imagining what the full feature was like. I spend literally hours at a time fantasizing about food (mostly deconstructing ice cream flavors)... That's the thing about a long distance backpacking trip like this. It is of course a physical challenge, and a mental challenge to do nothing but walk every day for months (there are these things called cars and planes and they lead to these people called friends and family, and your feet have blisters on blisters, etc.). But it's also a deeply emotional challenge for many hikers. You really have to face who you are and that can be a scary thing.

But the trail... it has been incredible. It is surprising every day.