In the nervous light of sunday.

DAY SEVENTY-ONE, July 19, 0 Miles
At mile 1377.7
I swear I was going to leave today. It got to about 2.30, I realised it was not going to happen, why not have a day of doing nothing.

I guess this is a wee bit of a transitional period for my hike, with all of my hiking friends either off the trail or somewhere behind me, so few ahead, and my intention to start doing bigger mileages, I expect to spend a lot of time on my own. I know I'm only a little over halfway, but Manning Park seems so within reach now and I have the momentum and desire to just keep hiking till I get there. Of course, I see myself wishing I had taken it easy and spent more time on the trail once finished but you can't have everything. I have decided I want to finish my thru in under four months, no real reasoning behind that, but it's a goal and it gives me a date to aim for, that being September 9. I guess I will be spending a lot of time with my brain.

Also, because the physical and emotional challenge of the PCT are not enough, in my weeks spent with Hamburgerass and Shit Monkey, a number of additional challenges have been set.

• The world famous Seiad Valley Pancake Challenge (ask google). As if I wasn't going to attempt that. With Shit Monkey expecting to get there a few days before me it is likely to be a distance/time affected challenge between ourselves. Those pancakes are ridiculous, and somewhat frightening.
• The 50 Mile Day. Not looking forward to that.
• The 40 Mile One Candy Challenge. Pick one candy, no chocolate, that's all you eat for forty miles. Stupidly brilliant. Except. We couldn't come up with anything to actually do it with (I'm not ruining Skittles for the rest of my life), so chocolate was back in, Shit Monkey picked Reices Pieces, I've gone for Peanut MM's. And he did it. Between Truckee and Sierra City. Now I have to do it, and the only appropriate section is the 50 something miles between Etna and Seiad Valley. Awesome...
• The Four Day One Meal Challenge. Pick one meal, that's all you eat for four days. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. So it's Pop-Tarts and Cheese (well, you come up with something better).

Yeah, twenty-two year old men.