Ready…

Eastside Road, June 4, 2013—

SPENT MUCH OF the morning getting ready. Nikwaxed the boots, the lovely Vasques, which have walked from Lake Geneva to Nice, from Sausalito to Half Moon Bay, and innumerable day-hikes around Sonoma county, and look to have plenty of miles left in them. Found nearly all the paraphernalia: the tent and foam mattress in storage, where they've been since last September's assault on Mt. Shasta. The sleeping bag and the wonderful silk sleeping sack up in the loft. In the old camping box, unused for at least fifteen years, the little camp stove and a half can of propane for it — it fired right up. Most satisfactory. Out shopping, then, for the disgusting food, freeze-dried pouches of beef stew and eggs with bacon, and a half dozen Clif bars, and walnuts and dried apricots. And the few odds and ends still missing: a whistle, a match safe. The backpack, packed, runs to over thirty-two pounds, which is too much. (The shoes weigh a kilogram apiece.) And tomorrow is going to be an odd day — but I'll face it tomorrow, if you don't mind…