Thursday, January 10, 2013

July 7, 2012 - Off Trail.


July 7, 2012.

Day: Off Trail   Daily Miles: 0   Total Miles: 1864   Hours Hiking: 0   

Listen to the audio journal above or Download July 7th Audio File Here


July 7 – Day after Stopping
Mt Thielsen, the day before...
July 7, I'm officially off trail. I hiked zero miles today, but I figured I'd give a little recap of what happened. I woke up behind a big pine tree right next to the Diamond Lake Resort. I went down to the store and bought laundry detergent, soap and shampoo, then went and did my laundry in the public laundry there. It was pretty funny because I was washing ALL of my clothes {including the ones I was wearing} so I was wrapped up inside my tarp and there were guys there doing repairs to the other washing machines. It's just funny because they're in there talking and they just see me in my tarp and that's all I'm wearing. It was just silly. There was a woman on the other side of a little partition separating the resort's laundry area and you know, they're just talking back and forth like no big deal. So I got my laundry done, I ate a pint of ice cream on my walk down to the showers...I had a 16oz Bush beer and I was just enjoying not having to hike. The real feelings of being off trail really hadn't sunk in yet. It still kind of felt like a zero day, which I had had none of. It, I guess, felt like a resupply day, because I still have all of my stuff and I'm still completely on my own, self sufficient. So I walked down... I had to walk about a mile to get down to the showers at the campground. I had my big bar of soap, my shampoo. I get into the stall and I probably spend a half hour in there. I washed my hat, washed my shoes out because they were nasty from the previous days snow and walking down the dirt and stuff...And then managed to wash myself, which was awesome. I was clean! I had all clean clothes! You feel like a new man really. It's like a resupply, every time you feel that much better. I got out of there and walked back to the resort where I found out that my mom was going to be coming to pick me up pretty soon, so I just hung out on the big grass area out in front of the resort. It was a Saturday so it was pretty busy...maybe a Sunday, I don't remember. I just hung out in the sun relaxing. Not moving was a wonderful thing. I bought a can of frosting and ate some of that with all my extra cookies that I had bought at Crater Lake. A couple with two kids sat next to me on this double picnic table and started talking to me. I explained what I was doing and blah, ba blah and they got really excited and she sounded really cool actually. Other than that, my mom showed up and I get picked up and I finally was talked into going up and seeing their house in Washington, so we proceeded from Diamond Lake on up to Warm Beach Washington. That's a good ohh 6.5-7 hour drive. We stopped off at Big Lake Youth Camp where I picked up my boxes that included a new pair of shoes and food and all my resupply stuff I would have picked up in a couple more days had I continued on hiking. That was good that I got all of my stuff from there. We arrived up in Washington round about 12am and for the hung out up there and basically didn't do anything for 4 days. Today is the 12th when I'm actually recording this, I'm driving home or back to Northern California. I'm going to stop by Cascade Locks to pick up my other box that was sent ahead there. I spent the time in Washington organizing my photos, I stitched together 100 panoramas that I had taken. Organized, deleted and got everything sorted. I have more work to do on those... I played computer games and just relaxed. I ate a hell of a lot of food. I'm actually trying to cut back just a little bit now, because I don't actually need to put on 20lbs in a week. I'd rather put it on over a couple weeks and slow my metabolism and bodies reactions down. My right knee hurts, it's still fairly sore even though I'm not really using it. It definitely was a problem spot that was overlooked while hiking. So everything is....my body just needs to readjust. It hasn't even been a week yet and I'm gaining a little bit of weight back, that's for sure, but not nearly what I need to. I need to work on gaining muscle back while my body is still in the mode to build muscle and use whatever I've got. So I'm headed back down a nice 850 mile drive, somewhere around 12-13 hours. From there we'll see, just take it day by day. I don't really know what I want to do with my life right now, so it's good and bad. I kind of feel like its a time for a new beginnings. This is done and over with and I need some recovery time, but at the same point I want to start something new and go from there. We shall see. I'm definitely OK with what all has happened. Sure, it would have been nice to finished, but I did get an email from Jack at the PCTA and he was like "yeah, I was wondering when you were going to hit it, I had known for a couple weeks now that the snow was bad' So it was just a matter of time and when you hit it you finally were going to say 'quits'. It wasn't quite... it was too early for a...to try for a record. I got a message from Scott Williamson's wife, he is flying up to Washington on Monday, which would be the 15-16th and is going to hike around in Washington for a week or two and then he's going to go southbound for another record attempt. So she said he'll be bummed that he won't be crossing paths with me. He was hoping to meet up. But otherwise, it's just how it goes. I'm happy with having the new California and midpoint records. Anything else would have been bonus. You know 42.5 days or so is plenty of hiking, especially at averaging 44 miles per day, so that's something to be proud about. Nothing to look down your nose at. It's just how it goes.
Mt. Thielsen and the snow covered trail, the day before.