On the Pacific Crest Trail

Have you seen the movie Wild with Reese Witherspoon? If not, it's a must! The movie is based on a true story of a woman, Cheryl Strayed, who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. ALONE. That movie made me drool over the life I crave - the outdoors, the mountains, the trails and the FREEDOM. I wish I was brave enough to go hiking like that alone... but I'm definitely not! But WOW! GOOD FOR HER!

Nanette and I hiked on the Pacific Crest Trail on June 26th. Just seeing the sign made me giddy with excitement!  "I'm on it!! I'm on it!"  Yeah!!  I want to explore a lot more if it because our 8 miles was just a teeny, tiny, milli-fraction (is that a word?!) of the 2,659 mile trail!

And speaking of the trail, I follow a blog, Free Outside, written by Jeff Garmire, who is from Vancouver and who is currently - as of this post - on the Pacific Crest Trail (in fact, he's almost finished with it!), recently finished the Appalachian Trail and will soon be doing the Continental Divide Trail! (I actually hiked on this trail too, going over the Continental Divide, when I was a teenager.) Jeff is doing all three trails - in their entirety - in 9 months! Oh... and he happens to be supporting Suicide Prevention too!!

We encountered lots of different terrain, plenty of ups and downs, more than enough sunshine, and a crazy amount of spiderwebs. Gillette Lake is beautiful and the view from Greenleaf Overlook is spectacular!  The weather was perfect when we started but became very hot before we finished. The temperature was 90 F and heat like that can quickly cause dehydration and zap the energy right out of you. Nanette has an issue with overheating - something she is trying to find a solution for - and the last couple of miles were quite uncomfortable for her, so much so that I had to pour water over her head a couple of times to cool her off. We definitely need to get this figured out. More salt? Pack frozen water bottles? More hydration tablets?

It was another great hike with a great friend and a very peaceful day spent with Mother Nature. I love this new life of mine!