Today is the startfm of my PCT adventure. True i won't actually start the trail til Saturday, but today is the day i leave Paris. Leaving Paris and, more importantly, saying goodbye to Sophie turned about to be a lot harder than I thought it would be, and i'm trying not to think about too much. Instead i'm focusing on the 3 flights i have today. The first is a relatively short hop from France to Iceland, the second a rather longer hop to Seattle, with the third being another shorter flight to San Diego. As i write i am somewhere over Canada about an hour out of Seattle, and i'm starting to feel the tiredness kicking in. It is about 2am Paris time, and i've been up about 20 hours. I never really sleep on flights, so i know it'll be another 8 hours or so before i am able to get some real sleep.
We've just taken off now from Seattle and in the fading evening light i can see the cascades below me. I know most of the prominent peaks by sight from all the research i did months ago but seeing them on Google earth isn't quite the same as seeing them for real. So far i've managed to pick out mt rainier, mt st helens, mt mcadams and mt hood. There are dozens if others down there, but the aforementioned are all extinct volcanoes which really stick.out from the surrounding forests. It'll be months before i see them again, and when i do i'll be on foot water in them get closer and closer day after day, it sounds pretty horrific now that i think about it, but i'm sure it'll amazing watching them come in go in my rear view mirror.
Final thought from my first day : The flight from Seattle to san Diego takes about two and a half hours, the hike back will take 5 months, what have i got myself into?
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