Day 16: 1.6 miles / Total miles: 12.31mi / Days left: 163 / Time: 48:31min
Today was just another regular grey drizzly day here in the Pacific NW.
Not enough rain to use wipers, but just enough to be annoying not to use them.
I have lived in the same area my entire life. I do not own an umbrella. I have them. But I do not use them.
Unless its during cheer season and I am sitting on a bleacher in the pouring rain watching my girls cheer.
When raindrops fall from our sky, either in a mist, a drizzle, showers, sideways rain, thunderstorm rain, torrential downpour, well you get the point.
When it rains, I head straight for the couch.
And it rains alot here.
No wonder I have a bunch of extra fluff.
Anyways, when it rains, I avoid doing anything and in the rain. I cannot stand being wet. It is too much of a hassle.
Wet clothes. Wet shoes. Wet coat. Cold feet. Cold hands. Soaked hair. Soaked everything exposed.
Which is a problem. Because in the PNW, it rains. Alot. Most of the year. Some form of grey sky covers us and some sort of moisture falls.
I am training for a major hike in less than 6 months. If I were to stay inside every time it rains…. I might as well stop now.
And that is just not an option.
Obviously, if it is a torrential downpour or thunderstorm, I will get comfortable on the couch. Obviously.
But I need to get used to hiking and being in the rain. Because this is the PNW. It very well could rain on my solo* backpacking trip.
And if it does, I might as well prepare for it.
So that is exactly what I did.
I had a different trail planned for today. But I forgot about my counseling appointment.
It took me pretty much all day to finalize which park I would go to today.
I had narrowed it down to a park I went to 2 weeks ago, or a park that I have been at with the kids to play on the playground, but never went on any of the trails.
I chose the latter. And I am glad I did.
Unfortunately, this park was not in the AllTrails app. So I wasnt sure how long it was going to be.
I wasnt flying completely blind. I had downloaded the map for this park last night. But I did not know exactly how long the loop I wanted to do, was going to be.
Thankfully, I had plenty of time. My kids are back to their normal routine. Which meant I could relax.
Or at least go at a relaxing pace.
This wasnt a difficult trail. But I learned I cannot stand hiking on gravel paths or bark chip paths. It’s like walking thru sand.
Actually, this is the first trail where I just put one foot in front of the other and kept moving.
I paused slightly here and there to take some pictures.
I didnt stop. Oh but trust me, I wanted to.
But you see, it was raining. And we were outside. And all the benches were *gasp* wet.
Having a wet butt was not on my list. Sitting down and taking a breather, was definitely not worth a wet butt.
So instead, I paused for a heartbeat or 5, and took pictures of every wet bench.
Today’s hike was not about thinking deeply. Or having some sort of epiphany, or philosophical vision? discussion?
Today’s hike was about learning how to be comfortable in the rain.
Today’s hike was about learning how to walk without sitting every half mile.
Today’s hike was about learning how to persist when I just didnt want to.
Nothing grand about today’s lessons.
But I did take another little step toward being more confident in my self reliance.
So there is that.
