Date: 2017-06-11
From: Carl Newhall Lean-to

To: 1.2 miles BEFORE Cloud Pond Lean-To
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: scattered clouds

As you may have already surmised, I am pretty goal oriented. I set a mark for myself and then work backward, mapping out how to make it happen. Have 900 hikers stay at our house, over nine weeks, mid-March to mid-May. Check. Five days after the last one leaves be ready to set out on my own thru-hike. Check. Throw a 40th Anniversary party for ourselves the day after the last hiker left. Check. SO my goal today was Cloud Pond Lean-To. That¢s where I calculated I needed to get to today so I can be in Monson late tomorrow. So what happened? We¢ll get to that¢¦ I¢m not sure I did a good job capturing how special these hiker conversations are. Remember your last conversation with someone or with a small group, where afterward you felt so full, so rich; where others had bared their truths (¢I¢m 37 and today for the first time I really felt proud of myself,¢ said one woman last night). Where you bare your own truths. Where the most outrageous stuff is funny (¢And I¢d been walking backwards, the wrong way, for an hour!¢) Where you are so tired, beat up and bug bit that you should go to sleep, but you don¢t want to. And where age ¢ 18, 37, or 65 ¢ falls away. It only simply matters that you are here. You walked the miles. Maybe that¢s a touch better at explaining to you, now. After the big ford this morning ¢ 150 feet wide, knee deep, I heard something I never expected to hear. ¢Scout, you should on if you want to. Make Monson tomorrow night.¢ This was hard hiking. RT is a trail god, tough as nails, but his knee was swollen and the trail was giving no quarter. Look at these two photos ¢ the boulder scramble straight up and the all-too-typical roots and rocks. (Frodo: This is a trail?!? Man. Thank goodness the designers of the PCT had more sense!)  I thought hard on this all the way to our lunch shelter, all the hour I waited for RT to arrive. You have a hiking partner and you stay with them, right? I¢d never leave Frodo. But then I guess I did for this hike. She told me it¢s okay. RT doesn¢t get personal a lot, but I felt he did at the shelter when he channeled Frodo¢s words. ¢It¢s okay. Push on to Monson. Reserve a room for the next day.¢ In the real world there are ¢only¢ six degrees of separation, they say. Any person in the world can be connected to any other by linking up at most six people. In the hiking world it seems like it¢s just one-and-a-half degrees. I ran onto trail maintainer Bob Campbell and his daughter today, working ¢his section.¢ He gave me fresh apples! In a minute¢s talk he mentions his trail area boss Ron Dobra. Zen Quake! Frodo and I hiked with ZQ on the PCT in 2007 and still keep in touch. - - This is the norm in the trail world. As the afternoon wears into dusk, my strength has leaked out. That lean-to a mile and a half away is my ticket to Monson. But I¢m so tired. I¢m tripping more and there¢s a 750-foot climb. I see a decent stealth campsite. Would I be giving in? But then I think of Frodo¢s words. How terrible would I feel if I fell in this last push and really hurt myself? ¢Make wise decisions.¢ I hear her. I listen. I am so tired, I can¢t motivate myself to cook dinner. I eat some bars, cheese, and crackers cold.  It sounds like rain is striking my tent. When I look close I see it¢s those awful buggers the blackflies, pinging against the fabric like rain. I set my alarm for 5:10 am. Maybe if I start hiking at 5:30 I can still make Monson. Why are wise decisions so hard? Scout