With a strong and strange bittersweet feeling I have ended my adventure, or Vision Quest (look it up) with much chagrin and hesitation. I ended up looking for a job opportunity today that at this point in my life was attractive enough to end my search.
I am EXTREMELY grateful for all the support and encouragement from all of you who motivated me daily to keep riding…you know who you are.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Total miles: 177.4
Lessons learned: Too many overall, but here are some for my next time here (yes, I’ll go again)
POSITIVE:
Pre-planning: The research and preparation was pretty spot on. Nothing I carried or used seemed like wasted weight or unused weight. My resupply plan was pretty spot on for the few weeks I was fucking and I wasn’t missing anything, nor did I think I was fucking with unnecessary accessories.
Daily Planning – Every day I had a mileage goal set and I hit it regardless of terrain or weather. This daily planning is also negative later on.
Physical: Regardless of the terrain or elevation (up or down), I physically accomplished every challenge (albeit a little slower than most), but I did it and overcame it each day. Karen constantly reminded me every day before my trip, from a physical standpoint… «you can do it.»
Or as I was taught, «if you look at the ground you don’t know if you’re going up or down a hill» ha ha
Mental: Getting from point AB every day was easy mentally. Goal? Go get it. Also negative later.
Experience: I can’t really put it into words as everyone gets something different from the experience regardless of the days or miles traveled. I am not part of the experience of deep thinking or serenity disconnected from the world, but simply having 1 goal a day, being where you should or want to be no matter the challenges ahead and achieving that meant a lot to me and personally gave me a «great experience».
NEGATIVE: Either lessons learned or do it differently next time
Shelter Hop: I focused too much on getting to the next shelter as my daily goal. The weather, meeting people, safety or daily mileage seemed like a good plan to me. However, I missed out on a lot of potential miles and opportunities to camp in great spots and earn extra miles. I was very concerned about making a refuge my daily goal instead of looking into or beyond other opportunities/goals as a daily plan.
Mental: I’ve mentioned this before, but again I feel better with a partner. That seriously limited me overall in terms of my goals. I thought I could listen to music and just walk around, all day alone (I found out it wasn’t that easy) plus the Amazon Music app Sucks… call customer service… ha
Goal Focused: Again, I focused every day on… getting there, getting there, attitude. I should have taken what the trail gave me and moved on. Someone told me that I should be more spontaneous about the day, the photographs, the nature, the tranquility of the day. I tried and, embarrassingly, I couldn’t do it. I’ll take a different attitude next time.
END
People: This is for all my friends, family and people who were full of encouragement and motivation for me. It’s so hard to express how much that meant to me and cheered me up on the tough days. Every time I sent a photo to the group I received responses of motivation and encouragement. It made a HUGE difference every time. For you… THANK YOU!! And if it weren’t for this job opportunity, I could easily move forward with your support.
As Jim Morrison would say:
“This is the end”
Until next year
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