North and south
Posted on | February 19, 2010 | Comments Off
Jeff and I will stay with the Manns (Scout and Frodo) in San Diego for two nights. Then one of them will give us a ride to the trailhead at the Mexican border just south of Campo, California. Jeff and I have hiked north from there to Lake Morena at least three times.
The Manns are a thru-hiking couple, having completed the PCT in 2007. They put up aspiring hikers in their San Diego home, feed us, and take us to the trail. Trail angels. I am eager to meet them and hear some of their trail lore. They have hosted some of the hikers I find most fascinating. And they are good writers. I’m reading their 2007 PCT journal and came across this quote from Scout: “Isn’t there a law that says the words ‘Arctic’ and ‘San Diego’ must never appear in the same sentence?” It reminded me of when I lived in Santa Monica.
Southern Californians expect warm weather. All the time. When it was cool enough that Angelinos were uncomfortable wearing shorts, they would complain. A lot. Railing against the unfairness of the weather. I do not exaggerate. In the Bay Area, though, one never leaves the house without a sweater or jacket. It just isn’t done.
Walk well. God is love.
Sometimes friends know
Posted on | February 18, 2010 | Comments Off
A friend sent an email message to me with this:
The closer we get to April, the more a reality your PCT hike becomes (to us observers, although I know you are right in the middle of the planning, etc.). Anticipation must be overwhelming: you have things to do before heading south, but I’ll bet you are having a hard time concentrating on mundane, routine, everyday things. Were I in your enviable position, I would by now have a hard time sleeping, wish the calendar would move more quickly, and be so excited I would not be able to contain myself. I hope you are experiencing this type of joy. I will follow your trek regularly from Idaho, where we hope to be by late April or early May. Is this the week you are mapping part of the Martinez area? Be well and enjoy the prelims to Campo.
Could not have said it better myself.
Walk well. God is love.
A new kind of beauty
Posted on | February 17, 2010 | Comments Off
k. d. lang
I had heard about her Vancouver performance of this.
Four hour hike today. I really am getting stronger. My body’s response to my decision is promising. Come on feet. The trails were crowded. More crowded than I have seen on a weekday. A few days of sunshine, and then more rain.
The Pacific Crest Trail has captured my mind.
Walk well. God is love.
An (the?) argument for wealth
Posted on | February 17, 2010 | Comments Off
Beauty in motion
One of the most beautiful things built by human hands. The Golden Gate Bridge comes to mind. And the early Jaguar XKE roadsters.
The J class yachts were owned by the filthy rich. An ultimate symbol of the leisure class. They were terribly expensive to build. Outrageously expensive to maintain. And extraordinarily expensive to crew. And sheer joy to sail.
Among the things I would like to do — attend Easter mass at St. Peters, Christmas in Bethlehem, and walk to Manning Park — is to sail on a J class yacht in a stiff breeze.
Walk well. God is love.
What a fine day
Posted on | February 14, 2010 | Comments Off
Garden work! Moderately dry soil. My friend Jackie gave me some yellow onion sets and I needed to get them in the ground. So I went to bed four, dug down and aerated the soil, leveled it, added two inches of a beautiful compost/chicken manure mix, worked that in and leveled again. I can almost hear the onion sets settling in. Stretching to touch the soil around them and squinting to begin producing roots and that tiny green sprout that will come out of the ground and fill my vision with joy.
And then.
I knew there would be a lot of people on the trail. Sunshine. Weekend. The sunniest day in weeks. People were so happy. And I could see that they had the anticipation that those they saw would be happy too. I hiked for three and a half hours. Following a bit of an epiphany. About food on the trail. I need to eat well when I hike. Everyone who has hiked with me has told me that. I just never heard it. Looking back, I don’t understand. But it is true. The last person to really emphasize it to me was Tailwinds when she saw me crash on the Mission Creek Trail.
Why? I am not certain. And I don’t know if I need to know. What I do know is that I need to eat well. And I thought about it this morning. I’m training. Selecting gear, test loading it, planning resupply places, walking now three hours a day. (How ’bout that!) So, I thought, “Why not train yourself to eat well?”
Surely you know by now how I love to tell a story. My cousin, Jay Corry, lived in France and North Africa for about twenty years. He knows and demands good food. Whenever we have hiked together, his pack might weigh in at 60 pounds, and he would carry steak, the most delicious olives, dates, cashews. So I imitated him a bit today: eating at least once an hour. I had dates and cashews for a snack. Oh my that was so very good. And for lunch at a spectacular overlook, I ate falafel and tahini. It made a difference. Oh. At one break I ate a pear instead of the nuts. It was so delicious I groaned with pleasure.
I crave pizza, especially after a hike. But that is an almost certain way for me to blow through my calorie allowance. So I rewarded myself with a beautiful steak. Potatoes and carrots from the garden.
Gardening, hiking, and eating well. A good day.
Walk well. God is love.
Pragmatism and the American experience
Posted on | February 13, 2010 | Comments Off
Isms. People who hold onto -isms — communism, national socialism, libertarianism — have an over-arching tendency to view events and problems through the lens of the ism.
Historically Americans and our governments have taken a pragmatic approach to solving problems. One of the causal limits in our national paralysis: the current issues are too frequently viewed through the lens of libertarianism. So many people. So many of the people I like and admire adhere to this simplistic ideology. In a time of perceived threat, the solution comes not from an idea of efficient solution, but from “does this fit my ideology?” There is a strong bias to failure in that approach.
And the libertarians I know are rigid in their beliefs. And that’s what it is: belief. Not reason.
Walk well. God is love.
Almost midnight
Posted on | February 12, 2010 | Comments Off
My stomach is growling. Beans in the half burrito I ate tonight. Catch that bragging: “half burrito”?
I found out tonight that a friend is going to join Jeff and me at the border, possibly two more. Typical hikers.
“Hey, I’m hiking. Want to come.”
” Well, I have all these things to do. When are you starting? I can come for maybe ten days.”
Start a hike. They will come.
I got my guides in the mail today. Another reason I cannot sleep. And I am tired, having upped my training hike to three hours.
I know. Retail therapy. I’ll order my hiking poles.
Walk well. God is love. J J
Tiny things
Posted on | February 10, 2010 | Comments Off
are expensive.
I have spent most of the evening ordering very small things. Bottles weighing less than a third of an ounce each for Aqua Mira (water treatment) and DEET (mosquito protection). Food packets: mustard, relish, mayonnaise, etc. These can make all the difference in a meal being simply calories and having flavor. There are websites that specialize in these small items.
A mosquito headnet weighing .33 ounce. And no. The net is not for the mosquito to wear; it is for me.
A spork (spoon/fork) weighing .35 ounce. I got two of those.
Walk well. God is love.
“The Audacity Of Nope”
Posted on | February 9, 2010 | Comments Off
Some phrases are just too good to miss. Ryan Grim, of The Huffington Post, quoted a friend of his of saying it.
Walk well. God is love.
Retard sometimes funny
Posted on | February 9, 2010 | Comments Off
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Sarah Palin Uses a Hand-O-Prompter | ||||
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Walk well. God is love.
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