Day 93: Angst
July 12, 2017
Mile 1284.48 Belden, CA to Mile 1297.98 Campsite
I have a confession. I usually really hate writing this blog. It’s so tedious and in my opinion uninteresting that it feels more like a burden than an enjoyable way to reflect on the day. I’ve never been one of those people that really enjoys journaling or anything like that nor do I even enjoy reading blogs. To me they’re mostly boring musings about irrelevant things. Then again, I suppose this is an irrelevant musing as well.
Every now and then I get really inspired to write something. The Scrabble story, for example was really fun to write about, or writing about the night we basically got blown off Mt. San Jacinto, or even more personal pieces where I delve into more emotional aspects of myself and get to be all melodramatic about what’s going through my head.
Mostly though, blogging about this trip just plain sucks. For those of you reading this, I’m sure it’s hard to understand, but hiking the PCT is actually pretty mundane. For instance, today we woke up, slept in a bit, ate food, hiked, ate food, hiked, and camped. It’s pretty basic. Well, that’s not completely true. There were things that happened and I’m sure they’re interesting (actually there was one very interesting thing that happened, but I’ll get to that after I go on and on about how much I dislike writing exactly what I’m writing right now), but by comparison to what I experience day in and day out they’re relatively mundane.
So many of the accounts of thru hikes that I followed before doing this hike were so dry. Podcasts, blogs, trail journals, documentaries, etc. I totally understand why, but for entertainment purposes they were all mostly snoozers. They were like reading Great Expectations; endless lines of dry details with occasional bouts of excitement like old women’s rotting wedding dresses catching on fire and stuff like that (literally the only thing I remember from that book plus something about Mr. Pip). So the point of me babbling incessantly about this is because 1) nothing much happened today and I’m sick of writing about the same boring shit day after day and 2) I’m really critical of my writing and want to post pieces that I’m proud of. Anyway, enough of blah, blah, blahing about whatever it is I just bantered on about. On to the one interesting thing that happened today.
So do you remember your teenage years or ever have a teenager (since most of you are over 40 and have children…I am one of those children)? Remember how your parents or the world in general never really seemed to understand you? Well I met a young man today who follows that description perfectly. Well, I met him briefly at least. His name was Teddy and he’s a bigger kid, about 400 lbs. and puberty has really kicked in with all the hair he’s got. When Teddy and I crossed paths he had just gotten done fighting with his mama over something. He didn’t go into details, but I imagine it was teen angst related and how he wanted to go fishing at the stream with his friends and she wouldn’t let him and probably ended with something like, “mom you just don’t understand!”
When Teddy and I crossed paths he was running away from his mother in understandable distress; a full sprint actually. In fact it was more like a bowling ball being hurled down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial due to his overweight stature. He was moving so fast that he didn’t even have time to talk to me as he bounded through the woods and across the trail ten meters in front of me. He just kept going with all of his angst built up inside.
You see, Teddy isn’t fully human. He’s actually not human at all. Teddy is a bear. Yes, you read that right. A fucking adolescent bear came pounding through the woods today, hurling across just 30 feet in front of me and continued sprinting down the hillside. All I remember was hearing the loud cracks of tree branches snapping and thunderous footsteps to my right and seeing a young bear stomping his way through the forest, angling his path towards me momentarily (I totally thought he was going to charge me) and adjusting course as he crossed the trail before resuming his tyrannosaurus rex like romp through the trees. Glowworm and I stood there, hearts pounding for a moment before busting out in a mix of laughter, shock, and disbelief. Many “what the fucks” and “holy shits” were spoken in the minutes following. So yeah, we saw a bear. And it was so damn awesome.
