One month ago

One month ago today, I woke up 18 miles away from the Southern Terminus of the PCT. The weather was perfect the night before, so I’d slept without the rain fly on my tent. My last cotton candy sunrise of the trail greeted me when I woke up. I laid in my tent feeling excited about reaching the finish line that day and dreading the end all at the same time. I felt proud while walking back to Campo after tagging the monument, but I kept wondering, “now what?”

Now that I’ve been off trail for a month, my feet have almost shrunk back to their pre-hike size and I’ve gained back some of the 30 pounds I’d lost. I’m settling into my new normal world routine of driving to work, going to the gym, seeing friends, stressing about whether or not my car will pass its smog test later this week, scheduling doctor’s appointments, being shocked by the price of strawberries in the Bay Area, and scrolling through my trail photos.

I miss when my routine was hike, eat, and sleep, with the occasional hitch into town and grocery shop.

The normal world seems unnecessarily complicated. I’ll get used to it again, but really, I’d rather go hike some more.