Thursday, December 20, 2012

Dear Anonymous,

Three months back.
 And still when I’m asked what it was like, I open my mouth and have no words. A thousand scenes play through my head as I search for a way to put it into a sentence and I settle for  “amazing,”  or “life changing.”
2668 miles.

I was fine the whole ride home, more than fine, I felt great! I’d just finished the trip of a lifetime, easily the coolest thing I’d ever done. Confident as hell, I stepped off the train in L.A. to see my parents and girlfriend waiting in anticipation, huddled together and craning their necks to find me in the crowd. I was immediately overcome with an insane sensation only possibly described as emotion the second I saw their faces.

1400.1 miles

yosemite

path of a glacier


the one and only yeti

mile marker


Liane on ascent to muir pass

niko on a special misson



I talk about the hike to people when they ask, and sometimes when they don’t :) It seems that few people I know can truly understand what a thru hike could be like and I can only tell so many stories before I tempt my family to announce another ”BACK on The TRAAIIIL” joke in an old man voice.
But i'm finding normal life isn't as satisfying anymore. Instead I’m having flashbacks, at work or in traffic, triggered by a phrase or a picture and suddenly im spinning back to some creek in the woods or some vista in the grand mountain ranges the trip crossed.
I know others are, too. I get two word texts in the middle of the night.
Lone Pine.
South Lake.
An awesome couple of days in a desert town or an unpredictable side trip to escape the Sierras in search of more food, two words bring me back to any moment so vividly I can almost feel the sweat on my skin, the pack hugging my body.
The trail underneath my feet.

Frozen lake


Once in a lifetime sunset, Northern Washington

mile marker


Wow.

Me and my 165 mile partner Giant Slingshot

My mind races to the next adventure, whether it’s a thru hike or not. I’d do it again if I could, in a heartbeat. It felt like five years of life in six months, every day completely new and foreign and challenging. I never really understood it before when I read  “you are always in the present on the trail.”
But now I do.
If someone told me to be ready to go tomorrow morning with my bag packed, we’re headed for the Mexican border, I would. I’d do it all again.
Mostly I go to work, try and figure out a way to save money again and re-assimilate back into normal society where water comes out of a tap and your day isn’t planned around it. I keep a lot of the memories to myself so I don’t talk my family to death, which I’m convinced is possible.
view west from the knife's edge

However like those texts, anonymous comments come in the middle of the night that let me know I am not off the hook.
The story must be told.





3 comments:

  1. Alex, congrats on finishing the PCT!

    Just weeks ago discovered your hiking journal, at a time you already must have reached your goal. I've previously been playing with the thought of doing the PCT or CDT myself, since reading your posts those thought have surfaced again. Let's see, one day...

    I'd be glad if you'd share the remainder of your hike - and I'm 100% positive I'm not alone.

    Cheers,
    Gert

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  2. You never bore or talk too much about your trip to your Grandparents. We love listening and looking at the pictures. So proud of you kiddo and love you mucho too! Grams

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