Yoga, Hiking Solo, and Hats.

I have been going to yoga on a daily basis to get limbered up for a month of lugging my pack up and down mountains. Maybe it was the sunny weather this morning, or the general feeling of joy in the air, but while doing my third (third!) set of full wheel today, I had an overwhelming feeling of bending, bending, bending backwards until I hit a breaking point where happiness and light flooded through me like a glowstick being activated for the first time. After so much planning, it finally hit me that I am leaving for an amazing adventure in a week. I felt so thankful for the fact that my body is capable of back bends and hiking, even after having surgery on my lower back 8 years ago. I am also incredibly lucky to have the time and resources to go on this trip, and to have a friend who is able to both come with me and put up with me for a month straight, in intense situations, with no distractions.

Hiking solo would be an amazing experience, and hopefully I will go on a long solo hike one day. However, memories and experiences fade, and what you are left with is a journal, photos, and intangible changes that are deeply felt and hard to explain. When you share an experience, though, it is kept alive through conversations, stories, jokes, and shared memories. There is a lot more laughter on trips with others, unless you are laughing to yourself alone in the wilderness, which is probably less satisfying and more creepy. Of course, you meet others on the trail. I’m not what you would call a “Social Butterfly,” though, and I like to have small talk out of the way already. Luckily, when Amanda and I hiked the Long Trail, we met Leah (Fox, I’ll get to a post on trail names eventually), who spent a couple of weeks hiking with us after starting out solo. Her dad met us all at a trailhead with a cooler full of Ben and Jerry’s, and a ride to their house for hot showers and delicious hamburgers! See how happy we are about ice cream?

If nothing else, having two minds directed towards decisions while on the trail, and before starting the trail, adds a level of security that I find reassuring. At least if we make a mistake, we’re lost together, and something about doing stupid things WITH someone, makes it entertaining, rather than frustrating. Since a month of hiking comes with many frustrations, I prefer the, “well…I guess we f*d up again,” reaction to, “I’m lost in the woods alone and a bear is going to eat me.” Not all forks in the trail are as obvious as this one, and sometimes you end up on top of the wrong mountain or at the bottom of the wrong ravine.

Anyways, I will leave you with this photo. I have been buying all of the random last-minute stuff that I will need for the trail, and have had a visor on my list for months. I was picturing a cheap visor a la elementary school in the 90’s. However, they all cost like $20 at sporting good stores, which is ridiculous, so I decided to cut up a hat that I never wear. I think it will make a huge difference-I don’t like the thought of my hair being matted to my head under a hat, getting gross and tangled for a month, and not having showers or a brush to fix it. At least this way, it will be baked in the sun all day long, which should keep it relatively clean. Kind of. At least I’ll get highlights…right?

For the record, it was a hard decision not to invest in one of these beauties.