Date: 2014-03-10
To: Friends
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Dave and Beth, the friends-turned-trail-angels who sent me a tee shirt in Agua Dulce and met me at White Pass last year just stopped by for a surprise send-off visit! It was so wonderful to see them again before I left, and I got to thinking about all the unlikely and incredible connections that form through thru-hiking.Most people see backpacking as primarily a wilderness experience, but many thru hikers will tell you that the best part of long distance hiking is the friendships. Due to the nature of the hike, resupplying in towns, friends from back home can be intimately involved in the journey through phone calls, letters, and care packages. Since you are out there so long, you are in a position to make many new friendships as well. How often do you make a lifelong friendship with someone you meet on a weekend trip? Stretch that out to several months and the odds are high. Katie and Claire, whom I met on the PCT and hiked with for several months, and Claire's parents Colin and Cathy, came to Olympia last weekend to have a send-off celebration for my Mom and I. Thanks so much for the great weekend! Katie's folks were with us in spirit, since they were busy back in Portland, but they wished me good luck when I stayed with them for ten days while taking WFR (Wilderness First Responder) last month. I am blessed by all of their friendships. We've all done so much together, it is hard to believe that I have known them for less than a year. That's the magic of thru hiking!Thru hiking can form friendships off-trail as well. Jenna thru hiked the PCT last year too, but I didn't meet her until about a month later at the climbing gym. Since then, we have gone climbing outside and at the gym quite a bit, plus we hiked the coast (see previous entry). Thanks for many awesome adventures!Speaking of the climbing gym, I think that yesterday it may have seen the highest concentration of thru hikers in its history- Katie, Claire, Jenna, and I were all there, as well as Lindsey and Kyle, a couple that hiked the AT last year. Another friend, Kit, who is going to hike the PCT with his girlfriend Erin this year, also stopped by. There is definitely a correlation between climbing and thru-hiking! Mom and I have gotten quite a lot of support from our friends wishing us bon voyage. A few nights ago, our neighbors behind us hosted a small get together with the people whose houses I can see out the window as I type this entry. It was wonderful to spend an evening with the people we live closest to since we haven't done that much in the past. They offered to have my dad over for soup this summer since he will be alone for six months. The people of our church, St. Christopher's, wished us farewell yesterday, and the choir (of which my mom is a member) gave her a small St. Christopher medal (he's the patron saint of travelers).During their visit today, Dave and Beth asked if I was going to keep my trail name, Guy on a Buffalo. My answer is yes, because too many people know me by it not to! Katie and Claire call me Buff (short for buffalo) since they know too many Michaels. Boulder, Scooter, and Sunshine call me Buffalo since they never knew me as Michael- though I did know them pre-trail name and still call them by their more colorful nicknames! And, you know how early on in the PCT I wrote how hikers I had never met had heard about me ("so YOU"RE Guy on a Buffalo!")? Well, Jenna and I went to talk by Anish, the unsupported speed record holder for the PCT (60 days!) and when I told her my trail name, she gave the response above! "No way!" I thought. I was floating through Yosemite Valley while she blasted through Tuolumne Meadows. It turns out the the trail angel, Scout, the same person I stayed with in San Diego, had also driven her to the trail to begin her record-breaking hike, and to calm her down before she started, he showed her the Guy on a Buffalo youtube videos. He also mentioned that a hiker (me) had been given that name at his house about a month prior. WOW!Anish told an amazing story of chasing off cougars, enduring her body consuming itself because of a calorie deficit, and receiving trail magic from Scott Williamson, whose record she broke, all on the way to Monument 78 in 60 days. I have the utmost respect for her and was inspired even more to live my dreams (one of which starts by flying to Atlanta tonight!).Mom is nervous, Dad is waiting for the panic to hit (he thinks it will be on the drive back from the airport tonight), and I am stoked to be hiking again. I need to pack now, but I'll post again soon!