I’m going to be switching the dynamic of my blogs and the way I approach some of these “lessons”. A majority of my blogs are a reflection of what I had learned this year through trials. As I dive into training for the PCT, I am experiencing many trials/errors. Since I have not yet mastered the skills enough to necessarily teach them, I will be writing from the midst of the storm. This means, you get to follow along with me as I learn and experience training challenges. Maybe after the trail I can shift back into an instructional format, until then this will model more of a personal passage.

My co-hiker and I hiked inner basin up to locket meadow. I had hiked the Humphreys a couple times before, and with limited time we decided not to summit for the day. As incredible beautiful as it was, I am not in nature a complete optimist on life. I’m not gonna sit here and tell you it was the most rewarding nature-loving experience. The trail kicked my ass and it was hard.

After Humphreys, we started purchasing our equipment and have been taken it on the trail to test it out. Our goal for our individual packs is sub 20 pounds. With this in mind, we have to be ounce counters. I constructed an excel document that allows us to plug in our equipment and its weight to easily track. Beginning my purchases I already made my first big mistake. I found a 3-pound, 0′ degree bag from REI and immediately snatched it. After taking it out several times, I realize it’s compaction sucks. I was hyper focused on lightweight items, that I neglected the bulk. I underestimated how much bulk would make an impact on our balance skills.

I have purchased my backpack and tent as well. My backpack is the Osprey Aura 50 Ag, it weights 4.1 lbs. The tent is the Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL 2 Solution-Dyed tent and weights 2 pound and 8 oz. We took our backpacks out on a steep grind up Elden, filled with a small amount of weight. I became very aware of my balance while traveling up. The actual weight was not too brutal, as we carefully distributed weight into zones on our backs. It was the stability that my legs felt they were gonna roll off the side of the mountain. As we gained height it became apparent to me that this whole trail would be more of a mental struggle than physical. As challenging as It was on my body, it was the feeling that I was going to fall of the mountain that caused my anxiety to spike. I felt I may have had a panic attack as we inched up (the altitude definitely dosen’t help with anxiety symptoms). I found refugee under a large tree and hugged it as if It was protecting me. I felt defeated, but my co-hiker reminded me this was the beginning of training. Training of both the body and our minds. We sat at the uncomfortable height for a while and practiced eating and breath breathwork at the altitude. My goal was to become comfortable in the uncomfortable and that was exactly what we did that day.

With Love, Miss Rachel