PCT Day 71 – SoBo Flip – Is This Bravery

Bucks Lake General Store (mile 1268, plus three miles on the Bucks Lake alternate) to Fowler Lake Junction (mile 1243)

Total PCT miles hiked: 995

Due to our early start Keith (Starman) and I arrived at the Sierras when there was still a lot of snow, and decided it wasn’t safe to attempt a crossing given my skill level. We elected to flip up to northern California and hike southbound (SoBo) back to where we left off near Lone Pine – giving the snow a chance to melt out. During this flip the PCT milage will be counting down, but I’ll include a tally of our total milage hiked so that you can keep aprised of our progress in a linear fashion.

 

I’ve been reading the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas, and let me tell you, I’m obsessed. Not busy because this style of YA fiction is just what my tired brain wants to zone out on at the end of the day, but because Maas is doing what she can to make women brave. And I freaking love it!

But first, a preamble.

The trail just south of Bear Creek is a little washed out. It’s also a little covered in dry leaves that slide under your foot and make it feel like you’re almost, but not probably, going to fall. As I cross one of these sections today—eyes focused on the trail, moving with short deliberate steps—I wonder if this qualifies as bravery. It doesn’t really feel brave, more like functionality pragmatic, it feels like doing what needs to be done to address the situation at hand. Most of the difficult moments on the trail have felt that way. Yet, before I left for the trail people loved to tell me how brave I was. It was the single most common reaction I received. And I can understand the perspective, quitting a job, leaving a city life, heading out to hike a trail for five months, it all seems big and daunting. But my primary emotion was excitement, enthusiasm, but not bravery.

I was thinking, if this was a TED talk, now would be the part where I would tell you how to become brave and do cool things, but that’s not where I’m going with this. Because I’m pretty sure I’m not responsible for my alleged bravery, my parents are. Growing up my dad taught me how to cook a chicken and how to work on a car. My mom taught me it was cool to be smart and that the patriarchy was a real thing I’d have to fight against. They told me it was ok to explore and have adventures and they modeled that behavior in their actions as well. They still do. However, when I look back on a lot of the media I loved as a child, the adventurous protagonist was a male, while the female characters were often secondary damsels in distress, or else the love interest without any real desires of her own.

In a TED talk called to raise brave girls, encourage adventure Caroline Paul talks about how parents tend to caution their girls to be careful, far more than they do with their male children. How media and advertising backs up these messages. And how this results in adult women who in general are more wary and cautious in the world. Of course, once you’re aware of this is something that can be overcome. Yet it’s frustrating that it’s happening in the first place.

Which is where we wrap all the way back around the the work Maas is doing. Because one of the joys of reading YA fiction as an adult is being able to understand what the author is trying to do. To be able to see behind the narrative curtain to the moral that lies beneath. Maas’ main character, Celaena, is a total bad ass, and yet is plagued by self doubt. But, because of the type of book this is, in the end she concurs the bad people despite her doubt. The reader then feels like, if Celaena can do all these incredible things despite the doubt, then maybe they can too. Maybe the girl in the book can save herself, can do challenging things, can be brave. And maybe young women will see that they can do remarkable things too.