In just over a month, I’m going to be hiking over 100 miles of the Idaho Centennial Trail from Nevada border. The Owyhee Desert.
And so, while I want to make sure that I use what I’ve learned from the depth workshop going forward, I am putting less priority on writing than I am on preparing physically and mentally for the challenge of the early season desert hike. It’s been a snowy winter, and a wet spring, so I have hope that there might be decent water supplies. But the truth is I’m likely to encounter less water than would be ideal.
I’m increasing the amount of running I’m doing to try and prepare my legs. This weekend will be the start of hiking conditioning where I’ll seek out trails if it’s dry and go for the incline treadmill at the gym – with boots and pack – if it’s wet.
Writing is still important for me, but it’s not a high priority at the moment. I’ll be keeping up with my blog entries and there’s two stories I really want to finish along with three more from the workshop that I really ought to start. Plus there’s the nonfiction project of writing up a kind of guidebook for the Chamberlain Basin Trail and there’s also work to do putting some works into wider distribution.
There’s plenty to do. And I know I need to set goals if I want to get it done. But I’m not setting any strict ones until after this solo trip – and, of course, after the solo trip I’ll have a write up to do. I am thinking about another fiction writing challenge for the summer, along the same lines as last year, but more words. I could start May 8. Go for 750 words a day on home days and 250 words on backpacking days. Fiction words – I won’t count the work on the solo trip.
But for now, it’s all about conditioning, training, mentally preparing for a dry, desert hike with little water access. Planning the meals, planning the meet ups with my husband. Getting the maps I need and figuring out the places I would want to camp. Solving the puzzle of my journey.