Since I left the AT I have been a sedentary pile of lumpitude. I haven't hiked since I left Blue Mountain Shelter and the idea of walking is unappealing to me now. I've spent a lot of the past three months trying to figure out what was stopping me. I thought it was the general crappiness of the past year that was bringing me down but this didn't ring true. Then I figured it out.
I have been walking in earnest for the past ten years. I started hiking in 2007 with the goal of hitting the best trails in the Ventura county area (The link in the original post probably doesn't work ... the fluidity of the internet). 2007 also happens to be the year when I first heard about the Camino de Santiago. Since then I have hiked towards goals of one fashion or other.
First I hiked to complete the list of Ventura county hikes. Then I hiked to prepare for my first Camino. This transitioned to training for my second Camino, completing RAGBRAI, and hiking Rocky Mountain National Park. All of this hiking combined together to prepare me for the AT (prepare me physically but not mentally). For ten years I'd been working towards distant goals and now, with me walking off the AT, all my goals were finished - not meeting my last goal ended it all with a sour note. When I got home I no longer had any hiking goals and without goals the motivation to hike withered.
So it's time to set new goals. The first will be a simple one. Trek Up the Tower. I've done it before and it will give me a reasoned to get off my butt. After that ... who knows. I have a couple ideas of long hikes that are easier than the AT and closer to home.
I have already started training for Trek Up the Tower. I'm riding my trainer nearly everyday. I will start walking again some day. Unfortunately it's been just too hot and humid to walk lately.
I am now fifty-four years old. Let's see if I can make this a new start.
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