The new, new, new, new plan
I think later I’m going to be kicking myself for not writing more entries this month. I’m now D+26– with D+0 being July 1st, the day I moved out of Bellingham and began living out of my backpack– and the memorable things are already piling up. Spent a weekend touring San Juan Island, another in Port Orchard visiting Jet and taking in the Bremerton Brewfest. Got to spend a day by happenstance with Ariel & John on Whidbey Island. Had a classic suburban 4th of July with Classic Mike in Lynden; that already seems like a long time ago.
Tomorrow will be my final day at the flour mill. In less than 24 hours I’ll be handing over the lonely last key on my keychain to Trevor. Then things will really get rolling. I’ll be driving down to Sea-Tac the following day, Friday, to pick-up my dad & sister for a week long introductory (for them) / farewell (for me) tour of Whatcom. And then…. a lot of blank space on my calendar, frankly. I’ll have nothing but time.
I’ve been saying that a lot lately. “I’ll have nothing but time.” It’s a pretty powerful thing to say.
I keep changing my mind about what do with that time, though, and where to head next. In the past six weeks I’ve gone through four full iterations of the basic plan. My original Plan A was a stuff-of-legends hike down the Pacific Crest Trail to Oregon… but a cold, wet summer following a cold, wet winter has left the high mountain trails still choked with snow. I’m already tired of fighting the weather here in the lowlands, so no go there. Plan B was to shift the route westward to the coast and follow the 101 along the beaches to Oregon… but, on further study of the maps, there doesn’t seem to be much public land in that area, and I don’t have much of a taste for trespassing on lumber claims, especially alone.
Plan C was one I just devised a few days ago: Instead of hiking towards someplace warm, why not *go* someplace warm, and then hike? I could take the Amtrak directly down to Northern California, then kick around in Shasta, Klamath, Winema, and Tahoe while looking for a winter job. I think that sounds lovely, but I’m scrapping that one too, because I think it runs a bit counter to what I’d started out to do this summer; namely, to do a lot of backpacking and pure, honest foot travel. Plus, I think it was largely driven by the impending freak-out about employment and money, now that my last day as a miller is looming large. I need to relax and trust my budget. My savings will hold out for the summer, and I have some available credit if that happens to run thin.
So then, Plan D, the new, new, new, new plan: Spend a couple weeks in August hiking around in the Mt Baker National Forest, then apply for & land a job at Stevens Pass Ski Area (I’m 99% confident that they’ll hire me back on the spot, since I spent a season there in ‘06-’07, and if anything I’m a better candidate now than then). After that, it’s just a matter of traveling around in September and October, waiting for the snow to start falling and the call-up to the mountain. Explore. Read a few books. Hike a couple sections of the PCT around Skykomish maybe. Head down to Portland in October for Horace Phair. Just relax. I’ll have nothing but time.
I like this plan best because it harkens back to my original intentions for this summer– i.e. leaving town on a long walk south, albeit only a few counties south– and it seems like much more of a surefire win. So that’s what I’m going with… Unless I change my mind. Klamath Falls seems reaaaally nice this time of year. I also glanced at Eugene OR’s Craigslist today and saw a part-time job posting at an organic food company that seemed tailor-made for my CV…. hrmmm…. you see my dilemma here, right? So many cool things happening everywhere. Shall I call that Plan E? ….
By the way, if you’re interested in knowing where I’m *actually* going in the long pauses between updates here, consider also following my Twitter feed: [twitter.com/mwkelley] . Dashing off quick updates to Twitter has been seductively easy so far, and since I can do it via text message, it works on the trail in even the most marginal of cellphone coverage areas.
On the homestretch towards the rest of a new best summer and beyond. Nearly levitating with excitement here, folks.
~ Mike
