I’ve been having a lot of vivid dreams recently – the type of dreams that you feel, the ones that are hard to distinguish from reality. I mean, not the suddenly changing scenery or the odd situations, but these days I often find myself wondering whether I actually did something or whether it just happened in a dream. It’s made for some interesting scenarios in the waking world, where I swear I’ve done something but haven’t quite actually managed it while conscious.

I think the exuberant activity of my slumbering mind’s a combination of the weather getting warmer and my workload ramping up and me actually getting occasional exercise and and and – life’s waking up after a long, weird winter¹, and my dreams are echoing the sentiment. All my friends are waking up, too – going on adventures, doing lots of hiking, taking lots of pictures. And as soon as I get through this last hard push, I’ll be doing the same thing.

I’m not kidding. I start the Pacific Crest Trail in less than a month.

Backpacker and Mountain Hardwear are starting an Adopt-A-Thruhiker program, and I’ve been adopted. I’m actually going hiking this year².

I keep thinking this is a dream – that I’m going to wake up to find that one of a million things have fallen through, that I only got the fantastic date for my permit in my dreams, that I’m going to be heartbroken. But this is reality – I’m a sponsored athlete, I get on the PCT in early May, and OH MY GOD I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO³. I’ll be keeping up with my prep, elaborating on gear changes, and generally dealing with the raging storm of emotions surrounding this business in the weeks to come.

And then, I hike.

[1] Two! Two April blizzards! Ah ah ah.

[2] Snorkel is also due an enormous amount of thanks – she slipped the idea into my head, and without her encouragement and willingness to go out on a limb for me, this wouldn’t be happening. Thank you so, so much. Go check her out; she’s awesome. (And another hiker of color!)

[2] Seriously, I don’t know that this hike at this juncture would be at all possible if I hadn’t done a lot of prepping in hopes of hiking last year -and- hiked the Colorado Trail last year. So. Much. To. Do.