It is happening!

It’s only 17 days to take-off to Sicily, those last few month past by very quickly and it’s about time to keep everyone up-to-date. So here we go:

Since my last posts in May I really enjoyed my time with my friends and several activities. Besides lots of work I did a lot of preparation for the upcoming adventure. Starting in August I rode my bike alongside the Rhine-river here in Germany taking the EV15. I started out in Switzerland, enjoyed most of my tour. However, I wasn’t too well prepared for this. My bike wasn’t the right choice and my choice of gear wasn’t neither. But with this taking into account I was able to push myself a little bit to get an idea what next year is maybe about, not always being in the comfort zone and still being able to push through. To be honest I didn’t ride as far as I wanted, but far enough to call it a success.

In November I went back to California visiting some old friends from high-school, friends from my PCT and the Camino. It was a time of sharing anecdotes and excitement, it was also a time for me to do a little bit of more research, think through my gear (again) and starting to get really focused. Apropos talking about gear, a detailed gear-list will be online soon and I don’t want to spoil but I am not an Ultra-light hiker. You wanna know why? Stay tuned!

Now it’s already mid-December, my flight is booked, the hostel for the first few nights in Sicily is booked, all maps and gps-data are up to date and I am looking forward to meeting my friend and hiking-companion Jared. Last week we took some time to make our last talk about questions like “Are we really gonna do it?” and “Are we mentally prepared for it?”. After throwing around some alternative hikes we could do instead, we concluded to stuck with our plan and really go for it.

It’s going to be adventurous, it’s going to be strenuous, its going to be long and it’s also going to be awesome. And awesome is just another way to express how livin’ is done!