Bronze's Expedition Log

My stay in Oregon has been productive and most pleasant, allowing sufficient time to complete my remaining tasks, develop a solid resupply strategy, and enjoy the hospitality and warmth of family and friends.  Tomorrow at dawn I will depart for the PCT trailhead just east of Hoodoo Mountain along Highway 20.  Heading south, I will begin at a conservative pace, aiming for merely 2 or 3 miles to start.  A successful day and night on the trail will be considered a great victory, on which I can build to 2 nights, then a week.  Should I prosecute a successful 2 weeks of travel, without major mishap or calamity, I will have done much to bring the ultimate goal of reaching Big Bear Lake out of the realm of mind and paper and into a feasible reality.  

From this point forward expedition updates will no longer be posted in the Sutler’s Journal.  Photos, videos, and journal pages, will be posted in the Expedition Log at roughly two week intervals.  Please check back at that time–I hope to relate tales of triumph and success over these first two uncertain weeks on the trail!  Thank you for your interest, your support, and your well-wishes.  See you in November!

My affairs are sufficiently in order–5 months of bills, insurance payments, assorted registrations and fees have been attended to.  My supplies are neatly stowed in my Jeep, for departure at first light.  My mule awaits in Oregon, no doubt enjoying the rich grasses of the Willamette Valley, and the freedom to jog about and frolic that she could not enjoy in her small corral in Los Angeles.  I have a month’s quantity of food and supplies awaiting whomever will resupply me during the southern portion of the expedition.  It appears that all is in order.

At present I feel neither excitement, nor a particular sense of trepidation at the coming journey, but rather a sense of inevitability which likely is the product of so many hours spent in preparation and contemplation.  The expedition, at this point, being merely the logical extension of my labors heretofore.  I hope to be able to muster such equanimity in the face of hardships to come!

I will take the coastal route north, stopping for a day in Half Moon Bay, where I will drop another month’s worth of supplies for my Central Californian section.  From there I will continue up the coast to Oregon, hopefully to arrive in Corvallis no later than Friday.  Further journal entries will resume at that time, as I make my final preparations in Oregon.

I have but a week left until my last day of work. I find that my to-do list is much reduced, to the point that I often find myself racking my brain for some form of industry or preparation to set upon. Surely there must be some small task or activity that, one month into the expedition, I will curse myself for not having had the foresight to complete. It is an unsettling feeling to have spent the last 15 months in near constant preparation only to now find myself with a surfeit of leisure time.

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