Traumas of preparation

My approach to packing for long distance walks passes through several phases.  Bill Bryson describes them in his account of walking the Appalachian Trail 'A Walk in the Woods' (which he reads with trenchant humour on CD - highly recommended).  The first stage involves identifying and buying every conceivable item of equipment, almost beggaring oneself in the process.  Attempting to pack it all into the chosen receptacle - suitcase or rucksack - and realising that it won't all fit and that most of it is unnecessary anyway is the next stage. The final pruning stage is the most stressful: what if there are wild boar in Derbyshire and I didn't pack that pheromone repellent?  I'm consoled by remembering my decluttering guideline: if, within a week after a big clearout, you don't find that an indispensable or irreplaceable object was culled, you didn't do a thorough enough job.

Days like this have a particular quality. You're not going to work, nor are you yet on holiday and the usual weekend activities have been supplanted by a mixture of excitement and trepidation.  This transitory feeling mounts as the piles of clothes, equipment and just-in-case fancies gradually migrate from the bed to the floor to the suitcase.  It is a sense of waiting, of imminence, of expectation - a pause between two realities - which is more associated with the tedium of childhood than the tessellated timetabling of adulthood.   

Now the packing is done. So after this enforced hiatus, what lies ahead over the next three weeks? The Pennine Way is 250 miles of uplifting pastoral and rugged scenery, interrupted only by idyllic villages.  Or not. One guidebook entices the walker with a description of 'treacherous moorland wildernesses where slimy quagmires wait eagerly to suck in not only your boots but most of the lower half of your body.'  Charming.  Although it is a recognised and signposted path, the distance I walk, provided I escape the voracious bogs, is likely to be rather more than 250 miles.  Despite my map, compass, guidebook and GPS, I rarely manage a day on even a well-marked trail without going astray at least once.  And the overnight stops are usually located off the route, typically adding another mile or so to each day's trek. Plus I have intercalated two rest days, during which I will no doubt accumulate a few extra miles.   

© David Thompson 2012