YOU GUYS! Almost 20% funded in less than 1 day?? Holy Cats!!!! Hail to your generous souls. This WILL come back around for you.

While I pulling weeds this afternoon, I was worrying about whether or not this fundraiser deal will make it off the ground. Second-guessing whether my cause was important enough, since I'm not dying, or injured, or terminally ill. (Although your donations will fund a GPS device I can use in case any of these things sneak up on me). And then I thought about how I am generous too and give when I am able, and I swallowed hard and plucked grass around the hellebore starts and thought, dammit, I am worthy.

From what I've found scouring the internet, hiking the AZT thru cost one fellow $2300 in 2012, and a woman I reached out to earlier this year who has existing gear and is testing some, has budgeted $1350. Read her blog; it's awesome and Artemis has been super helpful to me. Since I stared with a sleeping bag, what I have learned in putting this trip together is that gear is expensive, even discounted, sale, and clearance gear. I'm trying to pack as lightweight as possible, and while I'm sure I won't quite be the cultish ultralight range, I don't want to wear zillions of pounds on my back in a desert either, with a 100,000 foot elevation gain. Just saying. Additionally, all of the gear I am able to purchase is an investment in many more adventures, and a solid packable mini-habitat in case shit hits the fan.

There is also food for the trail/resupply, some camping permits, the inevitable replacement of malfunctioning of something, and two months of not earning an income.

The Universe is so big and bold and beautiful sometimes I can hardly stand it. But if I get to see the desert bloom this spring, I’m pretty sure that rivals the face of any god. And I know if I follow my heart to the desert, the ideas and creativity and insights just under the surface will have space and time, lots of time, to expand and grow and manifest.

A week ago a woman told me that I have a charmed life. I laughed because I thought it was ironic. She said, no, not like charmed, like, charmed, where things work in magic ways around you.

I couldn’t deny it.

Thanks for being part of my magic.