I graduated college all bright eyed and ready for a real job
in a field I had actually worked hard to get into. Only when I graduated there
were no jobs (don’t get me started on the whole nursing shortage thing that’s a
rant that can go on for far too long). So as the months continued to find me jobless
I found myself spending hours researching interview and resume tips in
desperation. I couldn’t even get an interview but I was going to be prepared if
I ever did manage it. One of those classic interview tips was about how to spin
your weakness’s into strengths. As I continue to prep for this trip I find
myself dwelling on traits that I think are going to cause me problems if I don’t
actively work on them and what the heck am I going to do about it.
One piece of advice I keep hearing about the PCT is that you
have to go with the flow. This is not
something I am know for, I like planning and lists, I like knowing where I am
and where I am going. Simply put I can be too high strung for my own good. Somehow
I don’t think that saying head north towards Canada is going to calm my nerves at
some dusty trail intersection in the middle of nowhere.
As I sit with my giant pile of maps, my calendar and the
great website: Craig’s PCT Planner (http://www.pctplanner.com/
a website where you plug in a few
statistics like pace and hours hiking and it helps you create a rough itinerary
with days between resupply points and more statistics than I know what to do
with) I keep trying to remember to step back and go with the flow.
It helps that I know it’s very logical. Realistically there
are just too many things that will be out of my control on this hike. I just can’t
know how fast I will be hiking and how good (or bad) I will be feeling days
from now let alone months from now, there could be forest fires or freak snow
storms or I could fall and break my ankle. The what-ifs are never ending and frankly
pretty depressing and scary. So instead of getting bogged down by little
details I am working on this flexibility thing.
With that in mind I have finally nailed down a rough itinerary
for this whole shebang. There will be lots of changes and fine tuning to come
but at least I finally have a base.
Oh and in case you were wondering there are other things
that need tweaking but let’s just focus on one thing at a time ok?
I've seen Erik the Blacks booklets with just about everything you need to find your way with, on the PCT, and wish they had been available when I did it. But -- Woe! Are they expensive. Still, if I was going to do it again, that's what I would use as a guide.
ReplyDeleteI do like the look of eric the blacks stuff but have heard some pretty negative comments about the accuracy of his stuff so I'm sticking with halfmile and yogi right now. guthook just realeased something for iphones but I would hate to rely only on the phone.
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