It is something I have never told anyone, except Dyl three days ago. I have gone through most of my life so far believing that I was imbued with some sort of super human qualities. Fortunately, I am not asinine enough to see past the arrogance of such a belief; and, consequently, I have kept it to myself. Never that I can remember have I quit something. This belief and this practice have probably caused me great amounts of undue anguish. The irony does not escape me that this, the greatest undertaking of my life to date, will be the first thing I contentedly lay down short of my original intent.

Dyl made some calls which only served to comfort his already made mind. Camella was relieved, he was noticeably relieved. I was too. Dyl’s uncle sent him some photocopies about back pain that seem to suggest that his chronic hip pain is the result of a pinched nerve in his lower back. The physical feat aspect has long ago eclipsed the enjoyment of a relationship with nature. To continue at such a pace would have ruined us, possibly to the point of stopping early anyway. We didn’t give ourselves enough time. This we would have known with a scant more wisdom. Our puerile ambitions ruined us from the start. This walk, however, has given to us generously what we have sough from it. The ability to lay down a burden is perhaps the missing piece to my manhood. For that is really what our goal was. To become adults.

We went ahead and refigured a slower pace to Hyatt Lake forty miles over the Oregon Border. It is time to enjoy the sixteen days we have left with the trees. “There is no hurry now.” Dyl uttered before crawling in the tent. It was really no surprise when we arrived, strictly mathematically, upon July 19th as our end date. Dyl’s birthday. It was the date we had previously agreed to rejoin in order to finish twenty-four years from now. The pact will be solemnly put in writing in the Hyatt Lake trail register. This is actually turning out to be much more of an adventure than our initial plans could have ever accommodated.