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Day 104 – Elements of adventure

PCT day 17 Yvon Chouinard who’s the founder of the company Patagonia said “When everything goes wrong, that’s when the adventure starts.” Without a doubt an adventure gets much more intriguing and exciting when things go wrong, but when hiking 8000 miles in one year it’s hard to decipher whether something is going right or wrong. Is a 30 mile day right or should I have gone 35? Is swimming across a brutal river safely a good decision or bad? Is patching my tarp or tent with duct tape good or bad? How about sewing up my sleeping bag with floss? I have put some ingenuity and working with what I have into my adventure. Some may know and some may not, but I rarely carry more than 4 or 5 days of food and depend on post offices and local business to resupply for the next section. About 85% of what I eat is meals pre prepared with a dehydrator that my dad mails out to me. My mom often contributes some dehydrated dinner leftovers as well, much to my sisters dismay. A couple times during this trip there have been issues with packages arriving before I do and today was one of those times. I was expecting at least two packages from the post office and they came back with only one. The one was from my aunt and full of 6 pounds of gourmet candy and treats. Once I found the other package wouldn’t be in until tomorrow at the earliest I decided to at least walk another 8 miles to the other road into town and then wait until the mail comes tomorrow. Luckily, much like most of the trail there are many helpful trail Angels and I knew I could get back to town from the other road. I wouldn’t have dreamed of trying to get a ride back from that particular crossing 5 years ago but with the growing number of hikers, the town is more aware and helpful. So I hiked 8 miles and ate pounds of chocolate and moose munch. By the end of the stretch my hands were coated with melted chocolate and I looked like a kid who got in the chocolate cake batter. It was worth it though. I didn’t have to wait long before one of the most committed trail Angels I have ever met, Dalton picked me up and took me back to the airport where I was greeted with a sea of tents and felt right at home. Here’s to hoping the package arrives tomorrow. I am two days ahead of schedule so I have literally been outrunning the mail.

Mile 547 – 566

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