When I left India, I sold or gave away most of my belongings. Practically speaking, I had nowhere to store them, nor did I have time to receive a shipment in the U.S., as I was planning to hit the trail two weeks after returning. Many items weren't difficult to part with, but others held more value, and took a second thought or two. Now, on the trail, I have to carry everything in my pack. The weight creates incentive to shed belongings, rather than accumulate them.
Still, when stopping in town to resupply, I find shopping fun. Top of the list is food. It's challenging to eat enough calories on the trail, so town meals trend toward the super-sized, in response to the body's demand for fuel. In terms of trail provisions, I've added candy to my mix, and I'm revisiting the sweets of my childhood: Runts, Skittles, jelly beans, and, from the Idyllwild candy emporium, root beer sticks, gum drops, and Choward's violet mints.
The towns so far have been tourist towns. The local artwork galleries have been a treat for the eyes, which, on the trail, have had an extended break from the dizzying parade of images and text that usually march across glowing screens throughout the day. The dresses and tops presented for sale, while designed for women, are a stylish contrast to the functional, wickable fabrics and shiny ultralight down jackets of the trail.
Shopping is in particular a break with the daily routine of the trail, which, to my corporate-trained mind, I find myself now thinking as a set of standard operating procedures (in acronym terms, SOPs). I wake up around 6ish, and, depending on the temperatures, may remain in my sleeping bag for a bit longer. Then, a cold breakfast in my tend, followed by packing up my sleeping bag, changing clothes, and then repacking my bag and taking down my tent, all in that order, and each step with its own set of sub-routines. This always seems to take at least an hour.
The day's hike will be on the order of 10-11 hours, including breaks, with planned stops for water and an end point objective in mind. Throughout the day, I'll consider my pace, distance to travel, and time remaining (like tracking required run rates in limited overs cricket). At water sources, filtering water requires what I consider its own eight-step procedure (from which when I've deviated I've knocked over the water bottle twice).
At the end of the day, I've often been stretching to the last bit of daylight, so I arrive at a flat piece of ground, put on a jacket, set up my tent, eat some food, and change out of my hiking clothes, exchanging my boots for a pair of Locals flip flops (possibly the unofficial official footware of the Hawaiian Islands), all the while racing against the clock and the cold and wind that have typically accompanied sunset. In my tent, I plan or rereview the next day's schedule, and then it's a mixed night's sleep, interrupted by the wind or constant shifting in a search for a more comfortable sleeping position. And then, it's morning, and time to start over again.
I imagine many hikers, after a few weeks, will note that they find something comfortable about the daily routine, and that town stops, while something different, are welcome only as a break, and there's quickly a yearning to return to the trail, and to hiking and to scenery and accompanying thoughts.
Still, when stopping in town to resupply, I find shopping fun. Top of the list is food. It's challenging to eat enough calories on the trail, so town meals trend toward the super-sized, in response to the body's demand for fuel. In terms of trail provisions, I've added candy to my mix, and I'm revisiting the sweets of my childhood: Runts, Skittles, jelly beans, and, from the Idyllwild candy emporium, root beer sticks, gum drops, and Choward's violet mints.
The towns so far have been tourist towns. The local artwork galleries have been a treat for the eyes, which, on the trail, have had an extended break from the dizzying parade of images and text that usually march across glowing screens throughout the day. The dresses and tops presented for sale, while designed for women, are a stylish contrast to the functional, wickable fabrics and shiny ultralight down jackets of the trail.
Shopping is in particular a break with the daily routine of the trail, which, to my corporate-trained mind, I find myself now thinking as a set of standard operating procedures (in acronym terms, SOPs). I wake up around 6ish, and, depending on the temperatures, may remain in my sleeping bag for a bit longer. Then, a cold breakfast in my tend, followed by packing up my sleeping bag, changing clothes, and then repacking my bag and taking down my tent, all in that order, and each step with its own set of sub-routines. This always seems to take at least an hour.
The day's hike will be on the order of 10-11 hours, including breaks, with planned stops for water and an end point objective in mind. Throughout the day, I'll consider my pace, distance to travel, and time remaining (like tracking required run rates in limited overs cricket). At water sources, filtering water requires what I consider its own eight-step procedure (from which when I've deviated I've knocked over the water bottle twice).
At the end of the day, I've often been stretching to the last bit of daylight, so I arrive at a flat piece of ground, put on a jacket, set up my tent, eat some food, and change out of my hiking clothes, exchanging my boots for a pair of Locals flip flops (possibly the unofficial official footware of the Hawaiian Islands), all the while racing against the clock and the cold and wind that have typically accompanied sunset. In my tent, I plan or rereview the next day's schedule, and then it's a mixed night's sleep, interrupted by the wind or constant shifting in a search for a more comfortable sleeping position. And then, it's morning, and time to start over again.
I imagine many hikers, after a few weeks, will note that they find something comfortable about the daily routine, and that town stops, while something different, are welcome only as a break, and there's quickly a yearning to return to the trail, and to hiking and to scenery and accompanying thoughts.
