These last few days I have really begun to sense the enormity of this hike, and how hard it just may be. I have been reading lots of blogs from this last season, and filtering through videos on YouTube and Vimeo, looking at interviews from all the long-distance hiking trails available in the US like the Appalachian Trail (AT) and Continental Divide Trail (CDT) as well as the PCT. There is so much information. I am really starting to realize that it doesn't matter if I have endless amounts of time to finish, or perfect gear. I could have a million dollars as a budget, or a simple grand. It still is going to take perseverance and drive to actually finish it. I'm going to have to dig deep inside myself to finish this thing, and that can be liberating and scary both at the same time. I cant just take it for granted that since I have the time to walk for 5-6 months, it will be a piece of cake.
Mother Nature is playing games with us right now. Dry as a bone. I know it will snow, and snow lots, but how long will it last? Will it be a quick season? Or will it draw itself out like it did last year? If I remember correctly, last year, we did have at least one or two good storms early, but the snow was BAD around the turn of the new year. We were in desperate need of more snow then too. It was extremely unsafe to go skiing anywhere around Tahoe, and people were getting seriously injured and in some cases, fatal accidents occurred. All the snow had turned to ice and it was scary. Then the new year came and POW it was on like donkey kong. So i am not quite ready to throw in the towel for a short snow season right yet....I will let January play out. It really does have a factor on when i may leave though. If it is an extremely low snow season, i may leave a few weeks earlier to be able catch what water there is melting and draining through the desert sections. Remember the first 700 miles of the hike through the desert and water sources are sometimes scarce....
