The moment my RATS48 Ride officially ended on the AZ border
It's been two months since I returned home from my long and grueling 8000-mile journey around the United States on my motorcycle, and while I only spent two weeks away from home, I'm finding that the "return to normalcy" has been difficult and similar in many ways to my return from a long thru-hike.
There is an indescribable contentment that comes with these long endeavors, that is hard to verbalize. Each day is defined by a very simple set of "rules" and "tasks," and life becomes...well...just more simple. On a thru-hike, the only real goals for any given day are to walk, and to maintain your body. You carry your entire world, and all that you need, in a small pack on your back, and you become hyper focused on the task at hand. What matters is to absorb what is around you, and immerse yourself in the world that you are experiencing. It's not like you don't ever think about what is happening in the world, or your loved ones, or other burdens you know you will have to deal with at some point, it's just that the task at hand becomes paramount. It brings out the most raw and pure form of experience...and coming back from that is a difficult transition.
These past two months have been a whirlwind. There have been family trips, semester planning, and logistics for a big move that is coming in a few weeks. On top of that, I had to deal with a broken ankle that I had incurred on the motorcycle trip (unknowingly). This has meant a lot of PT, and very careful and slow rehab (something I've never been particularly good at given my lack of paticence). My running has been put on hold until my ankle can handle it, which has meant canceled race plans, and a real sense of loss for the time being. Running and hiking are an enormous part of my life, and without either, it has been difficult.
All this is to say that I've been restless....restless at a time that I should be fulfilled and relaxed given my recent adventure and my upcoming sabbatical. I'm not sure how I will solve this stirring within me, but I am sure that like all periods of restlessness, it too will pass.
In the meantime, I will strive to be as patient as I can be with my healing ankle, and focus on what smaller adventures I can perhaps tackle. There are a lot of interesting and fascinating places to explore out there...
-j
