Here I go again

To summarize, in May and June of 2017, I hiked the PCT from Campo to Kearsarge Pass before the snow melt scared me out of the Sierra.  Then in July and August of that year, I rejoined the trail at Donner Pass and hiked to Ashland before fire closures ahead convinced me it was time to call it a year.  In total, I hiked 1,355 PCT miles that summer.

In May of this year, I restarted the trail at Campo and made it 165 miles before I had to admit to myself that the boredom of rehiking the trail outweighed the desire to claim a perfect thru hike (ie complete the entire 2,650 mile trail in one season).

Soooooo, with all that preamble in mind, here I go again. I will be flying to Medford (sister city to Ashland) tomorrow and will pick up the trail where I left off in 2017. 

The plan is to use Oregon to hike my way back into trail fitness and then flip down to the Sierra in August.  Given the crazy snow levels down there again this year, I am thinking that entering the Range of Light in August to be able to truly enjoy that part of the trail is well worth having to sacrafice the title of "Thru Hiker". Yeaah, I know, blatant justification!

Then if all goes well, I should be able to flip up to the Washington section in September and take a bash at completing the trail before the snow commences in the Cascades.

This all sounds doable on paper and I even have a spreadsheet that says so, but I will have to see what wrinkles both Mother Nature and an aging body have in store for me.

I suspect blog updates will be a bit spartan as I will have limited access to Wifi.  Bear with me please.

Thanks for following.

Addendum: Here is an image of my last home cooked meal before I leave for the trail for upwards of two and a half months.  We started with a Caprese salad (not shown) of baby mozzarella, avocado, Roma tomatoes, fresh basil and a reduced balsamic. Then it was off to the main of herb crusted thick cut lamb chops, grilled veggie medley and French mashed potatoes (if you have never tried these, for the love of God look up the recipe and try them) accompanied by a light BC rose.

And I am giving this up for cold oatmeal, ramen noodles and Knoor sides?  What am I thinking!?!?