Tonight, David asked about the Desolation National Wilderness. I told him where it was in relationship to the lake.
He pulled up pics, and one of them struck terror in my heart.
Whereas yesterday’s little jaunt out into the woods soothed me, and knowing that I can conceal carry a handgun eased my mind, that picture, the scale, the scope, all of a sudden became real again – I’ve snowshoed up towards that part of the trail in the winter and have experience what “steep” really looks like – extrapolate THAT out to a X# of miles segment… holy sh*t!!!
But, my mantra…. I keep reminding myself that the main point of this exercise is to be “comfortably uncomfortable” – to stretch my comfort zone in a way that gradually, consistently moves it out on all fronts, without BLOWING it out (translated… blowing it out means certain failure)!!
That means that even looking at pictures of the territory, and become mentally acclimated to the idea of it, over and over and over again, until just the pictures lose their terror-power, is all part of the process.
Layer onto that a sane plan to tackle the distance, and finding ways to take out as many of the uncertainties as possible (eg reasonable hiking distances each day, plotted out against the elevation maps, where I’m camping each night, where I’m able to reliably find water each day along with plotted out backup water sources, my meetup points to get supplies from David with a built-in food and water cushion, daily “escape routes,” etc) and suddenly I’m able to make the unknown known.
I want to demonstrate to myself that, with this approach, the “impossible” becomes possible rather quickly.
Smarter-Not-Harder U 