For the last few years I’ve been brainstorming for a good way to write about hiking the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails (plus 2,000 miles of the Continental Divide Trail). I want to avoid a linear recollection of the trips, and may now have a way to do that.
This spring I spent a month in the Southwest desert and was blown away that within the week I was, for the first time ever, completely homesick. In a few days I’ll be leaving for another trip, about three weeks long. This one will be a shot at recapturing some of the mind-bending introspection and quiet fun that attracted me to wilderness travel in the first place. Perhaps such things were only possible while younger, more care-free and single, but I don’t think so. Maybe it was the constricting canyon walls and blowing dust of the SW that dried my spirits, or possibly just inadequate physical conditioning. Missing my wife was a big part of it, but two loves must be able to coexist, even though they often require separation from the other. If there’s anyplace to do it, it’s the familiar rocky forests surrounding
So, through the surprise of the desert trip, and the as-of-yet unknown outcome of the Northland, connections and comparisons can be made with the long trails, and around this frame, the story unfolds.
