The trail ebbs and flows. Sometimes I have been in a lot of pain, but lately, it seems more like flowing for me. Jen’s had some foot pain with new shoes, but generally we’re moving quickly, easily and faster than before. We did a 27 mile day, then a 20 mile day with a full laundry, shower, resupply, blog post and a few job applications launched off in the middle. Then woke up to catch the sunrise over Crater Lake and during the day today we’ll polish off 28 more.

There will be more ebbs, but for now we’re coasting (ok, 28 won’t be a coast). It is easy to get stuck in comparing ourselves to others though. Some people (mostly younger by a decade or more) are moving faster than us and we’re cruising along compared to others.

We hiked with one gal down near Mt. Whitney, but she’s now ahead of us by a week. There’s no comparing. Comparing is an all-encompassing, all-losing battle and there are no winners, just losers. Begs the question: When is comparing helpful and when is it not so great? When comparison gives you a leg up and helps me complete a task, that can be powerful. When it is just helping me beat myself up or letting me judge the merits of others, that’s inelegant and makes me not proud of myself. The distinction seems to lie primarily in the realm of judging. When I can compare and note that I can be better still, that is useful. When I’m simply using it as a blunt tool to beat myself or others up, not useful. I’m working on that. The trail provides an interestingly stark metric, but the same can easily be said about dozens of other things: happiness, ease, tranquility, fun, looks, body image, intelligence, whatever. I’m spending time staring at trees and lakes and trying not to compare Oregon to California, the Cascades to the Sierra, the mountains to the city. Everything rocks. Everything is wonderful. Everything is full of blessings and gifts.

Speaking of counting our blessings, we just had the most amazing marionberry cream cheese stuffed marionberry muffin at the Crater Lake lodge overlooking the lake. Life is just so darn rough sometimes.

A little trail mail artwork and message from fellow PCT hiker Starfox:

The mystic beauty of Spanish Moss, which paradoxically is neither Spanish nor moss.

The next generation of Douglass firs coming in after a burn:

Jen and the sunrise over Crater Lake: