I got into Portland around 3:00 pm and Kelley and I organized our resupply boxes. Chaos reigned as fruit leather, bags of almonds, packets of peanut butter and tuna fish, bags of dehydrated meals, and packets of granola littered the floor. Eventually we got it mostly figured out and placed in the correct bags. My brother Donald will be resupplying us at Timothy Lake and Timberline Lodge and cousins Laurie and Mike will be resupplying us at Indian Springs.
Then I realized I forgot my sleeping pad! Disaster! Luckily I had John's that I was planning to loan to Grace when she joins us at Timothy Lake, but she has another sleeping pad she can use so the catastrophe was averted. I thought I brought down my sleeping pad with my sleeping bag last week when I left a load of stuff here but I didn't.
I drove over to Donald's and dropped off everything. It had heated up to a blistering 95 degrees. Back at Kelley's I double checked the weather forecast and discovered rain is now expected on Monday and I should have also dropped my rain poncho off at Don's. Grr. Another extra thing I have to carry.
It was a restless night as I stressed about what else I was potentially forgetting, the details of meeting everyone along the way, money, heat, mosquitos, tennis shoes vs. boots, river fords, rain, etc. At 3:30 am I began to even doubt my ability to hike for two weeks.
Finally at 5:30 am I got up, took my final shower for about a week, and resolved that I wasn't going to let fear get the best of me. One of the best things about our trip last year was overcoming our challenges and fears. I know it will be the same this year.
I am wondering the meaning of all the rain and trials, and I expect now that it is about the challenge. If PCT was easy then everybody would to it. It takes determination and will to receive the reward of completing something that was hard and wonderful.
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