It's 2012

Well, the calendar is closing in on the departure date.

I've been refining my gear, figuring out arrangements and details, and testing my mentality. Mostly the latter. I keep trying to figure out what else I need to figure out before I leave. Ultimately, I'm confident that I'm ready. But there's not much I can do over the next few months to really convince myself of that. I won't be able to until I'm on the trail.

I'm glad that I've been able to shift myself into a lightweight rating before I even leave. While I feel that I'd be able to appreciate ounces far more if I were to start off with a 60 pound pack... I'm very ok with the notion of starting off with my base weight much lower. While I'm not ultralight (and not upset at the fact that I'm not), I'm very happy with the progress I've made. I've also become a lot more fond of each piece of gear while doing that. It's been an excellent process, and to anyone that is currently backpacking with extra weight on their backs, I definitely recommend giving your pack a critical eye. I know the gear won't be what gets me to Katahdin, but leaving behind 40 pounds of luxury and (more accurately) poorly planned gear should at least not hurt my odds. The process of packing away the other gear I've acquired over the years that I thought I would bring on the thru-hike has been fun, and relatively comical. I'm actually quite excited to see what my opinions on my gear are after I've put miles on the trail. I suspect I'll look back and shake my head, wondering why I thought I needed something in particular, or disappointed in myself for overlooking something that I'd obviously need. Oh, don't worry. I'm taking toilet paper.

In my time leading up to the actual hike, I've been asking a lot of questions and seeking a lot of encouragement from those within the backpacking community. Most questions seem to give three or more different answers. It can be very frustrating. That is, until you know the one answer that is very universal for a different kind of question. I've found that whenever someone asks for the best single piece of advice, or just assistance in general, the one answer that reliably arises is "HYOH". It stands for 'hike your own hike' and is very much the best single piece of advice than anyone can receive. Once you've acknowledge that you're indeed the one that is hiking the hike you're hiking, what seems to follow is a particular school of thought that works in tandem with that. I've started to be more introspective with the whole process than I was before the magical acronym. Not only is gear choice, hiking speed, trail choice, etc solely up to me, but reasoning  and evaluation of everything is all mine. It's a wonderful thought, really. While I never felt the need to follow someone else's expectations, explicitly telling myself that that's the case has really done wonders.

So here I sit on an early January evening, keeping my mind (hyper)active about the trail. It's only a matter of time until my body will be joining it.