{"id":629,"date":"2016-09-01T18:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T18:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=629"},"modified":"2017-07-01T16:11:49","modified_gmt":"2017-07-01T16:11:49","slug":"a-new-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/09\/01\/a-new-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, Sept. 1 A New “Normal”"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY:\u00a0 <\/strong>Just after we settled down for the night last night, a bit of weather blew through with some rain and wind. We were fine and comfortable, but I was listening to it and thinking about how frustrated I felt at our low mileage after hiking all day. Then I remembered the training we took on how to help disaster survivors, and part of it was “your life will never be the same and you’ll learn to live in a ‘new normal.'”<\/p>\n

OK, forget 25-30 miles per day, 20 is our “new normal” because this trail is so very tough. Today we spent 1 1\/2 hours bushwhacking over a mountain because we lost the trail. We also had awesome trail magic from the parents of Lucky, who is one of the Warrior Hikers. They gave us coffee, juice, and cantaloupes. And we finally got some views, not just forest. Some plants are beginning to turn fall red and yellow\u2014very pretty. We are camped about a mile from the highway to Elliston\/Helena.<\/p>\n

DETAILS:<\/strong>\u00a0 Last night we got some spatters of rain and also some very strong, loud wind for a little bit.\u00a0 No problem for us–we were very comfortable in our little blue tent, and enjoyed listening to it all.\u00a0 But at the same time I was getting frustrated by the fact that our daily mileages have been so low compared to the amount of effort we’re putting in.\u00a0 On the PCT, the effort we put out yesterday would have meant probably close to a 30 mile day.\u00a0 We barely made 21.\u00a0 Pathetic.<\/p>\n

Then I realized something.\u00a0 True, on the PCT we usually did at least 25 and often 30 miles a day.\u00a0 On this trail, it’s been more like 20 miles a day…or less. BUT–a few years back, Fixit and I did a training program put on by the Billy Graham Rapid Response chaplain team, so that we could learn how to effectively and compassionately help people who have just survived some horrible trauma or disaster.\u00a0 Let’s put it this way–we learned a lot about what NOT to do and NOT to say.\u00a0 But one of the things that stood out was that when you have survived some horrible experience, you come out of it a different person.\u00a0 Your life will never be the same, and you need to accept “a NEW normal.”\u00a0 If you keep trying to make your life the same as it was before, you will not succeed, and you’ll end up pretty miserable.<\/p>\n

So it hit me last night–I need to stop fretting and accept a “NEW normal”.\u00a0 This isn’t the PCT, it’s the CDT, and I need to change my expectations about miles-per-day.\u00a0 Maybe that sounds silly, but it really helped.<\/p>\n

Anyway, this morning when we got up, it was very cloudy and that made it stay “early morning dark” for longer than usual.\u00a0 It turned out to be a rather varied day!\u00a0 In the morning the trail went along the edge of a huge lava flow\/rockslide of large, clinkery rocks that came right down to the edge of the trail.\u00a0 We were leapfrogging again with Shepherd, so we saw him several times.\u00a0 I can’t believe we are keeping up with him!\u00a0 Another surprise today were the grouse–we saw several of them at various times, right in the trail.\u00a0 They made no attempt to fly away, just hunkered down and peeped.<\/p>\n

The trail at one point was a dirt road, and up ahead we spotted an RV.\u00a0 When we got to it, we saw Shepherd’s pack sitting outside.\u00a0 Trail magic??\u00a0 Yes, it was!\u00a0\u00a0 Turned out that it was the parents of one of the Warrior Hikers (trail name “Lucky”).\u00a0 They invited us in, and we got to hang out with them and Shepherd, eating cantaloupe (yum!) and drinking coffee and juice.\u00a0 Sounds weird, but it sure was good!\u00a0 We also found out that Lucky is known as the only Warrior HIKER.\u00a0 The rest are called the “Warrior HITCH-HIKERS” because they spend way more time hitching into town than they do hiking.\u00a0 Result: they are all way behind Lucky, who is determined to make it to Canada.<\/p>\n

In the afternoon, we lost the trail in a meadow, and it took us 1 1\/2 hours of bushwhacking to find it again, even with the help of the Garmin.\u00a0 After that, we nearly lost it again several times, because of twists and turns and unmarked junctions.\u00a0 To add to the fun, thunder was rumbling, and we could see occasional flashes of lightning, including a time when we were crossing the top of a broad grassy ridge.\u00a0 But most of the time, we were in forest, and while we were eating our supper, a dead tree came crashing down not far away.<\/p>\n

By 7:00, we could see the highway up ahead, and debated, “Should we push on and try to hitch into Elliston tonight, or wait till tomorrow morning?”\u00a0 We decided to wait–a good decision, as it turned out.\u00a0 We set up our tent with thunder still rumbling and lightning still flashing in the distance.\u00a0 And I didn’t worry about mileage.\u00a0 “New normal!” I kept telling myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY:\u00a0 Just after we settled down for the night last night, a bit of weather blew through with some rain and wind. We were fine and comfortable, but I was listening to it and thinking about how frustrated I felt at our low mileage after hiking all day. Then I remembered the training we took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-montana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1054,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions\/1054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}