From campsite at Lake Susan Jane PCT mile 2457.34, elev. 4577, walked 4.28 miles to Stevens Pass at PCT mile 2461.62, elev. 4053. Total a up/down: +850/-1273.
Dear Trail Friends
I am sitting in the ferry line with Chris in definite culture shock. I am not on the trail anymore but it is going to take awhile to "get" that i'm not-- that I don't need my bandana with me at all times, don't need to closely monitor my iPhone charge, don't need to keep my pack and sticks by my side, don't need to keep walking, don't need to (and can't) just pee thru my p/style or dig a hole when it's time to poop -- and countless other small changes. The trail is a way of life, a set of habits, a culture, an identity. I am suspended between worlds: the challenge of re-entry. And it isn't ever truly "re"-entry, is it? You never stand in the same river twice; you never return to the same home that you left.
I woke up early this morning after a deep and peaceful sleep in the tent that has been such a comforting movable home for me these past two months. I didn't want to arrive too early, so I read Carrot Quinn's book for awhile ( age was hiking the very sections I have just been hiking, so it was especially fun, though I must say I envy her ability to describe both the trail and her experience in language).
I began hiking at 6 am. Just as the trail arranged a beautiful sunset for me night before last (complete with the sighting of Mt Baker, which even if it was a case of mistaken identity -- one man told me it was more likely to have been Glacier Peak--made for a transcendent moment for me),this morning we had a gorgeous sunrise--a reminder that this is not only an ending but also a beginning.
Photo 1. Just in case you don't believe I was camped beside a lake ( it didn't show in yesterday's photo), here is the lake as I started down the trail just as I step out of my campsite.
Photo 2. The whole sky celebrating the beginning of something new.
Photo 3. Hiking up to my last pass, kissing the mountains goodbye with every step, with every glance. Whispering to them "I will always love you."
To be continued in Day 62, Part 2
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