I bought a van. A giant beater of a cargo van with a bed platform inside and a mechanically solid engine. It’s dark and cold in there but I sleep amazing in the glittering Southern Oregon nights, buried under a thousand blankets and my zero-degree sleeping bag. In the mornings I’m groggy and stiff and I heat water for tea and go running on the trail through the oak savannah, warming my body from the inside out while the sun slowly stretches over the earth. My little dog bounds alongside me like the adventure fox that she is and after running we eat breakfast and then I switch to the bakery van, a hulking diesel beast, for my long day of deliveries. Kinnikinnick comes along on my route through the winding country roads, curled in a donut on the passenger seat, exuding her small, warm smell.
The van life! It’s not a perfect situation but it’s an experiment and an adventure and it works for now. I am saving money, I am working on my manuscript, I am preparing…
to hike the PCT again. This year.
I’ll start May 1st and I plan to finish in four months, instead of five. My intention is to hike the trail faster this time, with more focus, and with less money. I have most of my gear already and since I’ve hiked the trail once I have a much better idea of my resupply strategy, of the towns I want to stop in, of how many zeros I actually need, of how hard I can push myself/when to let myself rest. I won’t be blogging every day, so that will save me several weeks of zeros. And this time I’m actually training beforehand. I’ve been trail-running 45-50 miles a week and in March and April I’ll go on as many 20 mile day-hikes as possible which, now that I have a vehicle, I can actually do.
I won’t be blogging consistently this time but I might start some other sort of project, like a photo documentation project or…? I don’t know. There are so many things, my love for the trail is endless. My love of thru-hiking is endless. If I could thru-hike every year and write in the winters, I would be the happiest and most fulfilled creature ever.
What else has been happening? I went to the ALDHA West Winter Ruck in Cascade Locks, and it was fun and surreal to be around other “hikers” in the off season. Talking about gear, doing pack shakedowns, sitting around a campfire… it was beautiful and sad. All of us just waiting, waiting until we can hike again. Putting in time in this other world until we can go back to the one that we love.
pack shakedowns at the ruck
I’ve also been querying literary agents re: my manuscript. It’s thrilling and exciting, a previously unknown part of the publishing world for me. I’ll let you know how that goes.
I’m so excited to thru-hike again. It makes my heart pound just thinking about it. Nothing has ever made me feel as happy, inspired and fulfilled. Nothing.
CARROT QUINN 
I’m excited for you – I can feel your enthusiasm!
Great meeting you at the Ruck! Good luck in your adventures!
Awesome!! Can’t wait!! So happy for you. We all are behind you. 🙂
It’s good to hear from you again. So glad that you seem to have found a way of coping with the post/pre trail blues. Thru-hiking is the easy bit. Stopping is far harder.
Carrot,
Please count me in to support you in any way I can next summer.
Reading of your journey has inspired me deeply.
Thank you!
What great news! I am so happy for you! Best wishes for an awesome journey.
Carrot, I’m curious what made you decide on hiking the PCT again when there are other thru-hikes available. Also, have you considered SOBO? I think it gives a new perspective on the same trail. I’ll be heading SOBO this year. Seems inevitable we will cross paths. Good luck.
I began fulltiming in 2009 and never regret it. Living in a van causes you to reevaluate many things . . . and some people. It puts things in a different perspective and you is unmatched in some ways for showing you what you didn’t know about self. Enjoy the journey for you never know when it will take an unexpected turn.
Sounds like you are doing a great job of preparing for this next adventure! A good example for all of us! Thanks for updating and explaining your lifestyle that allows your thru-hikes and writing, inspiring in the way of Thoreau at Walden, living to suit inner goals and publishing as well, not the conventional rat race. Ultimately we all benefit when people like you go in such a direction.
Will see you out there
Hey, that’s great you are going to hike again!
I’m still planning on a 2015 thru-hike, so I’m very interested in your revised resupply strategy. I hope you will write more about that.
Great to meet you at the ruck! Have an awesome time out there this year, especially Washington! Thanks again for blogging this past hike. Enjoy the van … and the freedom.
It was so fun to meet you, and have you shakedown my pack. I’m happy to hear that you’re hiking it again this year. I hope our paths cross.
Congrats, I’m so excited for you! Your updates always put a smile on my face.
I’m so happy to see the you are going back to the trail. I look forward to seeing what you do this year. Best wishes.
congrats on the wheels! why not a new trail im curious.. no hunger for trip crown?
Yeah, Carrot! Can’t wait to read about your next trail adventures.
You should go for the CDT.
So pumped for you!!!!
Hi Carrot,
I have been following your adventure since May of last year (from Sydney, Australia) when I decided to thru-hike the PCT in 2014. I will be starting on April 11. It is surreal to me that we might actually meet on the trail (and I sincerely hope that we do).
Happy trails.
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