Hello, nodegel. Here's a cross-posted announcement that I put up on my website last Monday and onto Facebook on Wednesday afternoon. Thought it'd be good to share it here for good measure.

Noders of a particular vintage might recall that I made a similar announcement all the way back in March 2005, but had to abandon those plans due to a lack of funds and experience. I moved to Arizona instead (as chronicled here), then to the PNW a year later. I'm five years older and five years better prepared now; it's much more of a sure thing this time. And it's got me excited as hell. ~RP

The big news

So, I won't bury the lede here. The big news is this: On Friday July 1st 2011, I will be leaving Bellingham. I'll be leaving with a backpack, a change of clothes, 30-odd pounds of carefully selected and tested gear, and some boots. Good, well broken-in boots, because my car will be staying here. I'll be leaving on foot.

I'm planning to take a shakedown hike through the San Juan Islands, then later in July I'll be meeting up with my dad and sister at Sea-Tac and I'll spend a week touring around NW Washington with them. After that I intend to hike the PCT from Mt Rainier to Cascade Locks, and west up the Gorge to Portland. From there, I'd like to hike farther south on the PCT from Mt Hood to Crater Lake. From there, who knows. I see trails, trains, and many long-missed friends and family members in my future.

I'd like to end up Back East eventually-- I've never seen many of the east coast states, and most of my family lives in Florida now. I have old friends in the Carolinas and in Maryland who I haven't seen in half-a-forever. Of course I'd love to get back to Michigan for an extended visit too. I likely won't be able to fit all or most of that into this year, but starting this summer I aim to have lots of time on my hands and few obligations, and thus fewer excuses not to keep right on travelling. With luck, that'll carry over well into next year and beyond. Remember: it's always summer somewhere.

I plan to get back to Bellingham eventually-- I love it here, after all-- but it won't be for quite some time, and it probably won't be to stay.

I informed Kevin (the miller / my boss) on the first of the year; I've told my sister, mom & dad, a bunch of my local friends. They've all taken the news quite well. That's been incredibly encouraging, thanks you all. (I'd been wanting to tell the rest of you all weeks ago, but haven't had the time or energy to write this properly until now.)

I'll try and explain my motivations more in later posts, but it all comes back to old ideas of living simply combined with post-industrial ideas about making a living through ingenuity. To quote an influential document: "Appropriate technology, green thinking, machines doing what machines do best, people doing what people do best."

Those of you who know me know that I've been harboring such notions for quite some time. The big news isn't that I'm leaving town on an extended backpacking trip to tromp around the States on foot. The big news is that I've picked a date.

July 1st 2011! Fourth of July weekend, baby. My phone has a little home-screen display that I've programmed to countdown the days. Today is D-165. Only twenty-three and a half weeks until July. In the meantime, I have a lot of preparing to do.

As I cryptically alluded last time, I have a New Year's Resolution going to sleep outside 1 day out of every 7. Every Saturday, to be precise. It's been coooold the past two weekends and I've chickened out, but this weekend I'm hoping to drive up to Lynden with some gear and camp out in a friend's backyard at least.*

*Update 1-23-11: Turns out, this bit didn't happen. It's been in the 40s and raining steadily all weekend. Blah. ~RP

This week I've also started switching my everyday diet over to trail foods-- natural dry milk, good ol' granola, organic dehydrated potato flakes, trail mix. Not a huge stretch away from my usual diet really, but I may as well start now.

I'm also leaving my car parked at home again this week and getting back to my daily routine of taking the commuter bus to Burlington then walking from Cook Road Park-N-Ride to the flour mill each morning. That's about a 1.5 mile hike along the railroad grade-- or 3 miles round-trip every day, with a light pack that I'll gradually be filling to full travel weight. I put up some photos of my daily commute on Flickr yesterday; it's actually quite a lovely walk most days (and of course I'll be saving hundreds of dollars in gas money in the process). Have a looksy.

In five and a half months, I aim to be ready to leave my cozy home here in the top-left corner of the map and get back out into the wider world again.