I am departing from the trail! I know, this is likely a surprise (even to me, in the sense that I note below). My thoughts:
I think I have gotten about as much out of the hike as I could with regards to my physical and mental health. My fitness levels are the best they have been in years. Mentally, my mind is rested (so much so, I think, that part of the reason I have periodic insomnic nights is because my mind is wide awake from being on stand-by during the day's miles).
I can go further in improving my body's health, but that will require consistent and consecutive nights of high quality sleep, and a diet that isn't dependent on periodic infusions of massive quantities of refined, processed calories.
While the mental satisfaction of finishing the trail would still a reward, in order to get there, I'd need to incur the physical and mental costs that would accompany another 1,000 miles of hiking. I, however, am not returning post-hike to retirement or to a defined role or to the known task of hunting for employment. I am on a limited period of unpaid leave, with my former role having been filled. My thinking is to take some time to rest off-trail and catch up with friends and family, and then use the end of this leave to focus on finding a new role and figuring out the associated living logistics.
Originally, I was planning to hike to Crater Lake and end there, about 1800 miles in. On Wednesday, however, the trail became enveloped in smoke, limiting visibility to a few miles, and leaving a smoky taste in the throat. The forest fires in northern California and southern Oregon are throwing off vast amounts of smoke being carried far afield by summer winds.
So, I decided after hiking in smog for 40 miles to stop at the town of Etna, nearly 1600 miles in. It felt strange, after I had mentally been preparing to push on to mile 1820, to suddenly stop. But every time I revisited the question of continuing, I just looked up and saw the horizon obscured by smoke, and then checked and saw the weather forecasts called for no changes for the next week and for smoke over at least the next 120 miles, and I reached the same conclusion. (Even if my fellow hikers were pressing on.)
So, I have come off the trail and will be focused on a different kind of break and family time. Thank you to everyone who followed along! I imagine that I will have another post or two as I adjust to Life Without Hiking 20 Miles a Day, so this blog isn't entirely complete, even if the hike has ended...
