Well, it’s been almost 8 months since I last updated on here. A lot has happened in the meantime!
Last time I posted anything here, I was intending to get into better shape, because I was looking forward to backpacking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2023. When Chester the dog got sick, however, it threw a big spanner in the works… But here’s what’s happening now.
- Chester is still doing well. He gets 500ml of subcutaneous fluids daily (or about 4 out of 5 days, really), which is a big commitment of time and effort for us, and for him. He continues to do chug along, though!
- I got waaaay out of shape! With Chester in a very touch-and-go condition for a few months, not really knowing how his health would fare in the longer term, I kind of quit doing the serious mileage (treadmill/elliptical and hiking) I’d been doing in April.
- I discovered a passion for sailing! I’ve been interested in learning to sail for quite some time, but have never gotten around to it. However, a friend (who recently bought a serious bluewater boat, capable of ocean crossings) asked whether I’d be interested in sailing to Hawaii with him at some point. The answer: extremely. Because of my Pacific Crest Trail aspirations for 2023, we penciled in 2024 as a date to cast off.
- Then I bought a boat! Yep, before I even learned to sail… I’ve done a bunch of work on the boat (I’ll post elsewhere about that) and read and watched as much as I could about how to sail.
- Then, I learned to sail! So then I actually started to learn to sail. I took a Basic Cruising course with Simply Sailing, on Granville Island. The course went well, and the sailing bug is well and truly established in my system.
- But – I still want to hike the PCT! None of this sailing business negates the fact that I still want to backpack home from the Mexican border in 2023.
- I failed to get a PCT permit! In November, the first 70% of PCT permits were allocated for 2023. My designated time to log in and select a permit date was 2:38 PM. Permits ran out at 2:32 PM. I missed out on a permit by 6 minutes.
- But that’s OK, maybe I’ll just sail! There was another opportunity to get one of the remaining 30% of permits available, on January 10. But if I was, again, unsuccessful in obtaining a permit, well, that’s OK, I would just spend the whole summer sailing and getting comfortable on the water! I could sail on my own boat, as well as with my friend on the boat we plan to sail to Hawaii on!
- But wait – I did get a permit! On January 10, I got a much earlier time for permit selection, and applied for a permit to begin my hike on April 27 at the US/Mexican border at Campo, California! The permit application was reviewed and approved, so it is official – I am hiking the PCT in 2023!
- Which brings me to now… Yup, I have 99 days to prepare to hike 2650 miles!
So I’m about to start posting again, and hopefully will keep it up this time! Please stay tuned…