How COVID-19 Effects Our Plan

As of right now we are having to reevaluate everything. I am devastated as I feel like if we have to postpone our hike then all of the saving, sacrifice, and planning will have been a waste.

Is it even possible get some kind of short term work right now and rent a cheap place in WA? Will we blow through our savings just trying to survive? We had planned to have enough to hike and then rent for 1 year, find employment, and buy a house. Is just surviving the pandemic going to wipe us to a point where it is hike or buy?

Part of me has a slim bit of hope that in the next 2.5 weeks things could get better. But every day that hope is slipping away. The following makes the idea of doing all of this all over again just daunting:

1. The townhouse is already in the process of being rented. We would end up with a little surplus from renting that can help with the cost of cheaper apartments in WA.

2. We will have to get new permits with no guarantee we will both be able to get them, let alone on the same day for next year.

3. A bunch of the food we made won’t last till next year. That is wasted money and will have to make a ton of new food. We already sold the dehydrator, most of our pots, the instant pot…

4. I’ll have to come up with a new curriculum for Maddie’s school.

And the list keeps going. Every few hours I spiral into a stressed circle of thought wondering if the last 2 years of planning was for nothing and will we ever get to hike the PCT… or will it be an embarrassing joke of that time we worked our asses off and quit our jobs with the worst timing in the world.

Up until this month we couldn’t believe how everything had lined up so beautifully. From all of us getting permits on the same day, the timing of Greg’s lay-off, to my sister taking our car and dog, to well literally everything…

The world played a cruel joke on us and now we are left with more questions than we can imagine and the real possibility that we won’t get to hike this trail for some time. And I sit devastated with no answers, jobless, soon to be homeless, and questioning if I will ever have the guts to take a risk like we did for this again.