Dear Diary

August 17, 2014-I thought that the physical challenge of hiking, adapting to  extreme weather and different environments, and the constant exposure of living in the wild for five months would be the most difficult parts of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. It turns out it is also a serious mental challenge for me to deal with problems I create for myself.

Yesterday I hiked until sunset and in the dark, I sat on a tree stump to eat my dinner. It turns out the stump was oozing sap and my hiking shorts, my only shorts, are now covered in sap. My butt smells pine tree fresh, but I can't sit down without leaving a film of sap and I just look stupid walking around with blotches of sap, dirt, and pine needles on my rear end.

A second, more serious problem is today I lost my hiking poles, my expensive carbon fiber hiking poles. I was hiking 5 minutes after a bathroom break when I realized I didn't have anything in my hands. I spent the morning searching, talking to other hikers, giving out my phone number, praying, and crying, but finally I had to abandon the search and start hiking.

I know both my shorts and poles can be replaced, but I'm really bummed. I don't like making mistakes and am hard on myself when I do. Earlier in the hike I lost my headlamp. (I know where I left it, it was just too far to go back.) But after hiking 2,000 plus miles, I thought I was done with silly mistakes. I'm an expert now right?

Since I'm hiking alone, I spent the day brooding while I hiked the 20 miles to Mt. Hood. It would have been nice to listen to music or even the Bible on my MP3 player, but my earbuds are broken and need to be replaced. Tomorrow is a new day and I'm only two days from my next resupply where all these problem can be fixed.

At least I haven't run out of pop tarts yet. Now that would be serious!