Happy Trails

When I'm leaving home, one of the things on my mind is (to no one's surprise who really knows me) what food am I most likely not to have and will miss over the next n weeks.*  Normally, it's pizza with garlic but this time a cheeseburger was weighing heavily on my palate.   Was the cheeseburger worth a three terminal change and a 15 gate walk?   This was this question I pondered as I was sitting in the international terminal last month.

In four months, I had yet to have a cheeseburger in Buenos Aires so I made the trek.  It was 6 pm and high traffic for commuting and dinner yet I managed to take the last table at Grindhouse.  I had just placed my backpack in the chair and was standing when a man asked me if the table was taken.  I said that it was but I wouldn't mind to share.

I ate in silence while reading the news.  He was talking on the phone checking availability on size 15 hiking shoes.  When he finished the call, he thanked me again for the seat and he started a conversation about favorite burger recipes.  This headed to the traditional "where are you headed" and "what do you do" conversation zones and with this year, I have a pretty un-average response.  As it turns out, so did he.

The young man sitting opposite from me had plans to quit his job and had secured a pass to through-hike the PCT.  According to the stat sheet, the Atlanta airport services on average 275,000 passengers per day.  I had to know this figure in order to calculate the odds that two persons with engineering backgrounds would come to decisions to have burgers at equivalent times on February 20th and who also shared the goal to effectively put their career on hold...to walk...a lot.

In 2016, 5657 permits were issued to hike the PCT with visitors from 41 countries.  Like the 277,854 pilgrims on the Camino last year, only a smaller percentage walk the distance over 500 miles.  (It was  12.11% for the Camino using St. Jean as the starting point and 12.25% for the PCT if we use the self-reported finisher numbers.)

So there we were.   It was one of the most enjoyable dinners of my life.  We talked strategies and shoes and life and books and blisters and people who are our cheerleaders.  Immediately I felt a kindredness that's quite impossible to capture with these few words.

So wish my new friend luck in the next month as he finishes preparations for his journey and best wishes, sir, that I will see your name on the 2,600 mile list.

*where n = value between 3 and 12 in 2016