hello-shivani-things

[blessphemy]

I've been meaning to ask you about your Big Long Walk since i first saw you mention it in a tag! If you're willing to tell the story i'd be interested to hear it?

tl;dr i solo-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in 6 months of 2020. idk if you've heard of this trail. it goes from the US-Mexico border to the US-Canada border. it's kinda neat.

Big Long Walk: filed on this blog under sparse text posts of "#backpacking 2020."

(people are always like 'wow that's so impressive' and i'm always like (privately) 'tbh backpacking 20+ miles in a day is easier than doing 1 full cycle of laundry whilst battling Problems Disorder')

imho if you are lucky enough to possess the rare quintfecta of spare A) cash B) time C) health D) desire E) foolishness to decide to do it and then commit and not give up, it's pretty doable. it's just walking 1 mile. and another. rinse and repeat for 2,651 miles.

fun fact! the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) thru-hikers call the PCT the "Piece of Cake Trail."

but why did i do it? idk. why not. there's some additional context to my life here that's kinda personal so i won't get into it. mainly i wanted to escape emails and gender and i wanted to see some cool nature. mission accomplished! i did it for fun & You Only Live Once.

it's endlessly funny though. cuz I somehow did not realize when i Embarked, that backpacking a couple thousand miles would irrevocably Affect me. the way i see the World is fundamentally affected. the way i Exist is affected. i'm more Me. i didn't set out to Find Myself but i sure did become myself anyway.

a little slice of tangible in-this-real-live-world transcendence in the form of self-inflicted sore feet, sunrise in the desert, and a thousand more miles to go.