Piper returns to the PCT

Piper returns to the PCT. Now as a section hiker.

This weekend I will be hiking a small section of the PCT from Walker Pass to Canebrake Road. It was a tough section and this time around I will not be in as good shape as I was and I won't be acclimatized to the elevation. But I won't be putting in any 13 hour, 23 mile days, either.

I plan to bring some fruit to provide a little trail angeling to any sobos along the trail. I hope we meet some. This could be the time of year that south bounders come through.

I will be bringing my full-sized sleeping bag, not my quilt. Nighttime temps at the 5000 foot level are projected to be in the upper 20s and low 30s. I will need the extra feathers.

I'll be hiking with two people I have never met, too, which should be interesting. I've met them through the PCT list but not in person. We'll see how it goes.

Too many job opportunites right now

Here we are in a downturn in the economy and I find myself with too many job opportunities.

Just yesterday I was offered a job. I will go there today and begin. It's a very small job; just something to do until something more comes along. I will help out at the Menagerie, a store that sells birds and supplies for birds and has a noisy bird sanctuary in back.

Meanwhile, I've been involved in the interview process for a corporate gig doing web development. It will probably pay well and give me an opportunity to learn more new things in web development. Right now it is serving as a sort of incentive to see if I can get my own freelance business going. I would really rather freelance.

I am not finding a lot of work freelancing. I am thinking I need a new strategy for finding clients. Perhaps I could make a flyer and post it where potential customers like to go. I want to provide web dev to people with tiny businesses. Right now, I think people with home businesses or other small businesses probably never go anywhere but the grocery store. But maybe they visit art supply shops, too. After all, part of the reason for running your own very small business is having more time and balance in your life and being able to do things that matter to you.

Most people with very small businesses try to build web sites themselves or else they hire students. They end up with crappy web sites. I can make them better. Since the PCT taught me a lot about living simply, I don't feel compelled to charge a fortune. Just a reasonable rate that doesn't shortchange other web developers. Being quick, my rate is affordable because I can get a lot done in a short amount of time. And I don't know the meaning of the words "it can't be done" like inexperienced web developers.

I suppose I can still work on my own on the side if the corporate gig comes through. But I'd rather continue toward my own business.

Powering forward on a new trail

I've been surprisingly excited about the idea of freelancing my web development skills all of a sudden. The excitement has had me back in my programmer's chair, slaving away at a new incarnation of my personal web site. I feel that I have a lot more ideas lately about how to sell myself as well as an answer to what exactly I have to sell. I wonder if that is a result of the experience of the trail.

I enjoy reading the PCT email list discussions. The list is starting to get 2009 hopefuls, writing in for advice about gear. It's fun to see how they usually start their emails off with "I'm hoping to maybe hike the PCT next year." That kind of hesitance rarely gets by the seasoned PCT hikers. They will tell them, "Stop hoping and just do it!".

Stop wondering what it would be like to work for yourself and just do it. That's what my mind has been saying lately. Living your dreams seems to be a universal lesson learned among PCT hikers. Just go to the terminus and start walking.

In order to support my dream, I've read several books on starting a small business. I've been toying with Wordpress again, investigating its content management abilities, and learning its templating features. I have a plan for a new blog, one that will not have a lot of articles, but the articles that it does have will be focused and purposeful, designed to market myself. I've been learning a little about copywriting, although I have almost no skills in it. I have seen some bad copy and know I could improve it with the limited, untrained skills I already do have. All of these things I'm doing to myself are things I will be able to do for others.

It is disconcerting to realize that I have not been employed since March. But I feel better about that because I am giving myself an education, checking out books at the library in order to learn what I need to learn to run my own business and improve my marketable skills. The small number of gigs I've already had have helped me move forward. No job has been too small. They have all helped me focus. I have learned what kind of people I enjoy working with, what kinds of things people need help with, how much valuable knowledge and skill I posess.

And in this crumbling economy, what other choice do I have anyway? Corporate gigs are becoming harder to find, and you know they aren't becoming more pleasant in this atmosphere.

I feel kind of like I've walked into Idyllwild. I've gone far enough to feel like I have a direction now and that I am really going somewhere. I fell off the edge after I got off the trail, and now I'm finally walking forward again. Power forward.