One Way Ticket to Somewhere

  How do you prepare your body for a hike that goes on for (my goal) 160 days? Running, day hiking, short backpacking trips come to mind, along with chemical substances that are outlawed by most countries as well as the Olympic Committee. With barely a month left before my start date of April 25, answering this question is becoming more urgent.   Thinking hard about physical exercise at Mt. Hood To get things started I went on a one night backpacking trip to the Pacific coast with my friend Brenda. This was mainly to practice setting up my new tent, trying out my new cooking gear, as well as tasting some of my dehydrated food.  New tent is working well The ski season was still in full swing at that time, so instead of planning longer hikes or backpacking trips I went on two weeklong ski trips. While this definitely improved my leg strength, skiing didn’t do much for my hiking endurance. It was a lot of fun though! Skiing above the clouds in Whistler  I’m writing this...

One thing that I definitely did not look forward to is leaving my home. Not only do I dislike moving, I really love my little townhouse in Ballard, a lively neighborhood of Seattle. It’s the first home I ever purchased and I’ve lived there for 14 years. It’s the first place in Seattle that felt like home to me. It’s where my daughter Lilli had her start in the US, first going to Ballard High and later to Seattle Central and finally the University of Washington. We had parties here, celebrated victories, recovered from setbacks. It was our safe haven during the lockdown phase of the pandemic. The list goes on, but I think you got my point. This one was truly hard. Mount Rainier Alas, Lilli moved out over a year ago and the house is really to big for me alone. Still, I didn’t consider moving until I had a pressing reason like my impending PCT start date. I did not consider selling as I wanted to keep the option to return to live here if I wanted to. I thought about get a roommate for the...