The path provides: the walk

Many have heard this phrase. Like «let vu» and other mysterious phenomena, The path provides You can mark your mind when it happens to you. We know that it exists, and we are happy to name it when it happens, but you really do not understand how on earth it could happen so perfectly … How circumstantially …? It would be a great episode of The Twilight Zone.

I am 263 miles on the Colorado path. I did it in the middle, and I am reflecting during a zero at exit. I love to think about not having an explanation for me. No pattern revealed why or how certain things happen, at least that my mind can understand.

I think our little group was uploading the miles from Camp Hale to Tennessee Pass in section 8. We had spent a fantastic lunch playing in Cataract Falls, cooling in a hot August afternoon, but now we were dragging the last most pronounced miles until the pass. We spend small appetizing currents without looking at future water crosses in the databook. I assumed that there would be some water in Tennessee Pass where we would camp.

We pass the old coke ovens (I still need to look for what are really …) And finally we reach the top. A relief of finishing the day, having a toilet and knowing that we would be in Leadville the next morning could not match the disappointment of realizing that our last water source was almost 6 miles behind us. We were wrong.

None of us had a lot in our bottles, but after a water inventory, I left less, less than a quarter of a liter. How could it be so irresponsible? I knew better. We look at our options:

• Role randomly at the beginning of the water path
• One of us hooks in Leadville and back only for water
• We try to convince Dominoes to give us an impious amount of pizza at the beginning of the path along with the water. (They said no).

I left the boys to make a rain of ideas while sailing through a camp. I crossed the road to the 10th monument to the mountain division and there, sitting under one of the road signs, there was an unopened gallon of drinking water.

I was speechless. There was no note, no name, no indications of why I was there or who was it for. Technically it was not in the TC, so it made no sense that it was water in cache for hikers. I told the boys and vote. If I were still there after waiting for a while and establishing a camp, we would take it. Here, I was still sitting there 2 hours later. I brought it back to the dinner camp, and the four divided it and we had enough for the rest of the night.

How did a gallon of water appear in time and place when we needed it? Can it really be a coincidence? It seems so small, but if I think too much about how events could align as they did, it surprises me.

I love this about living on a path. The path ever provides anything to rely in. This is how it works, but a simple confidence in which you do the best you can, sometimes you will notice the most random situations for which to be always grateful.

Presence of the past

I am incredulous in the hiker community and how overlapping are our lives.

I was walking some beautiful miles one morning when a huge and familiar hiker came behind me. Why was he familiar? Because the PCT had also walked in 2022, and we had surpassed in Norcal for a few weeks. I have to be clear that we had never spoken. We never camped together, we didn’t know the names of the other. We had only jumped a little on a path three years ago, but I remembered his face. I remember who I was walking with. I was able to remember the details of your crimson excursion shirt with a giant tear on the shoulder.

Remember those details about a stranger and then run into him on the path of Colorado Hiking at the same year, month, day, mile, looks almost miraculous.

I don’t think there are any reason I met this hiker again, or how we could introduce ourselves and talk like old friends. I don’t think it’s destination. I do not completely understand what it is, nor do I need.

I think it’s just a mental presence that we can all take advantage of. There are so few distractions that we can pay attention to the signals that our brains and intuition are feeling out of our conscience. We are animals after all. Maybe I paid attention to a guy in the torn shirt PCTS because I could feel that I would probably join my happiness in the future for any reason?

Despite writing about this, I try not to think too much about what I cannot explain and instead find satisfaction to know that this form of «trail magic» exists. I’m fine saying «I don’t know» when it comes to this kind of thing. What I know is how happy I am to trust myself while I am here!

The west collegiate has been officially uploaded and I am full of gratitude. Be attentive to the rest of the Colorado path, including the infamous San Juan!

Always walking,

Whistles

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