August 16, 2018 All In

My feet are frozen on this middle ground
The water’s warm here but the fire’s gone out
I played it safe for so long the passion left
Turns out safe is just another word for regret

So, I step to the edge and I take a deep breath
We’re all dying to live but we’re all scared to death
And this is the part where my head tells my heart
You should turn back around but there’s no turning back now

I’m going all in
Headfirst into the deep end
I hear You calling
And this time the fear won’t win
I’m going, I’m going all in
(I’m going, I’m going…) all in
(I’m going, I’m going)

I believe that one day I will see Your kingdom come
And I wanna hear You say, “Welcome home my child, well done”                                             So, I step to the edge and I take a deep breath
I’m not turning back around ’cause there’s no turning back now

All to you Jesus, I freely give
As long as there’s breath in these lungs I will live
With reckless abandon, my heart in Your hands
I surrender it all, I’m going… (I’m going all in)
(I’m going, I’m going all in)   All In by Matthew West

There is no turning back now for Mission, he can almost see Canada from some of the passes he is climbing in the next few days.  Mission says he is looking forward to trail’s end but also very sad that this adventure is coming to a close.  His heart had to rule over his head a couple of times, in the Sierra Snow and the Smoky Detours (which are still happening in Washington).

Granny Hat remembers some crossroads in life where she had to decide, do I listen to my heart?  or my head?  It can seem a bit reckless to follow our hearts, after all our heads are usually the rational, intelligent voice.  Thru-hiking the PCT seems “reckless” to so many of us car driving, door locking, indoor sleeping folks.  Like Matthew West sings though, “with reckless abandon, my heart in your hands”.  There it is!  The key to keeping our hearts and our heads lined up!  Thank you Jesus, for holding our hearts in your hands.

Huckleberries for Hikers

“We catched fish, and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it warn’t often that we laughed, only a kind of low chuckle. We had mighty good weather, as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all, that night, nor the next, nor the next.”
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mission was surprised by thickets of Washington huckleberries ripe for picking along the trail, one of nature’s best anti-oxidants and fresh fruit!  He couldn’t enjoy them while floating down a river with nothing to do and nowhere to go but a handful of  juicy berries made the trekking more pleasant. Granny Hat reminded him that where there are bearries there are usually bears.  The Huckleberries aren’t just for the PCT thru-hikers.

Cracker/Kracker Barrel or Beggars Can’t Be Choosers

For many miles, Mission and his trail buddy Nocello were looking forward to Cracker Barrel on White Pass, the ski resort area southeast of Mt. Rainier National Park. Since Nocello hails from Tennessee, he was listing his favorite Cracker Barrel comfort food menu items as they hiked.  They could almost taste the buttery cheesy deep-fried goodness.  Imagine their disappointment to find that a very enterprising 76 gas station mini mart owner had simply named his establishment Kracker Barrel.  There were Huckleberry Shakes though, so all was not lost!  Beggars can’t be choosers…..

Mission remembers his dad saying “beggars can’t be choosers” often when they were backpacking and couldn’t find the perfect campsite without mosquitoes or when the turkey and dumplings wouldn’t warm up fast enough on the camp stove.  Somewhere in the snow drifts of the Sierras before PCT mile 1000 Mission stared at a meager hikers supply box at Muir Ranch and the light dawned, he finally understood the idiom.  Nothing like a hunger march over extreme elevation and uncertain weather conditions to shed pickiness, makes Top Ramen and Quaker Oatmeal packets look and smell like steak and potatoes.  Granny imagines that those Huckleberry Shakes were ambrosia from the gods.

Still Searching for Sasquatch

Mission’s sister Candace is obsessed with all things Sasquatch, she even reads books about sightings and apologetics for Big Foot existence.  In Florida, they have their own version, the Florida Skunk Ape so she searches the Everglades too whenever she gets a chance.  Mission has been on the lookout ever since Lake Tahoe but so far…..nothing.  From Candace’s favorite Big Foot expert/author, Ivan T Sanderson in his  1961 masterpiece, Abominable Snowmen:

“It is so easy to sit back in one’s own home, surrounded by all the normal, known things of modern life and say ‘Phui’, but get out in the woods and get hungry.  A person will begin to see a lot of things he never saw before and would never have seen if he had not got lost and run out of food.”

Sounds like the expert himself doesn’t quite believe, thinks such apparitions are the product of fatigue and hunger, or maybe Granny Hat better read the rest of his book. But it is no lie that thru-hikers have to fight cracker barrel insanity and other types of fatigue or hunger related mirages.  With 325 miles or so to go, Mission is running out of Sasquatch sighting chances although friend Buddy Krueger from Wenatchee says he saw the elusive mountaineer several years ago in the Cascades and I’m pretty sure he was well fed and in his right mind at the time.  Or maybe he was pulling sister Candace’s leg?

Last night Mission camped at PCT mile 2321 (thanks to cousin Bruce Grivey for faithfully adding up the miles for Granny Hat) and was up hiking at 3:30 am this morning, hope we can look forward to some sunrise photos of Mt. Rainier.  Mission says the smoke from fires have cloaked the peak in mystery, still hoping for a better view.  His GPS last night was: 46.85545, -121.48723

this is the part where my head tells my heart……

time to go back to school!!!   Granny Hat wants to know if counseling is offered for thru-hikers who have to leave the Natural World to re-enter the Real World.