fin.

"The best journeys answer questions that in the beginning you didn’t even think to ask."

- 180 Degrees South

I think it's often pretty easy to go overboard with our description of things. We throw words like "awesome" and "incredible" around without thinking twice that what we're doing is undermining the meaning of those words. 

That being said, my trip up the coast was life-changing.

I do not say that lightly or flippantly. It truly was the journey of a lifetime. It would have been impossible for me to convey the emotions I experienced through a few simple blog posts, so I didn't even try. I let the photos speak for themselves and kept the text limited to facts about where I was at that point on the trip.

I never imagined what an impact simply driving up the coast would have on my life, but it has, and I have already witnessed the change within myself as a result. I have never put my life on hold in waiting for someone to live it with, but now more than ever, I know I can do anything and go anywhere on my own.

I'd experimented on and off with the video function on my dslr during the trip, but nothing I'd gotten up to this point was really worth posting. I've thought a lot about whether I wanted to post this or not. It's just such a rare occurrence to be able to and have the ability to capture what might otherwise be one of the most private special moments I've ever had. Sharing it is my way of trying to convey even an ounce of the feelings behind those last moments at the end of my life-changing journey.

As I poked around on the beach the last morning of my trip, I came across a row of cairns built on a large log right by the water. I'd learned on my trip that these little piles of rocks represented wishes, which somehow made them seem a little magical to me. I couldn't resist adding one of my own to the row as I took a few minutes to reflect on the last few months and all that had happened along my trip. 

I'm a different person because of this trip and it truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that shaped me more than I ever could have expected.

Thanks again for following along and being a part of it with me.

10.18.13 : ruby beach.

The last day of my trip was a bittersweet one to say the least. It's impossible for me to adequately put into words the emotional changes I went through over the course of the time it took me to make my way from San Diego up to Vancouver. In between the legs of my journey, I left San Diego for good, saying goodbye to the almost four years of friendships and memories I'd made there. I can't think of a better way to have ended it than with the trip I unexpectedly embarked on up the coast.

Every day behind the wheel helped to grow my confidence in myself and being alone on such an ambitiously unplanned journey. For every moment of loneliness I felt, I had at least twenty more moments of intense happiness and gratefulness at my surroundings and the ability to be witness to the ever-changing scenery around me.

I've got one more special blog post coming from my last moments on the beach. For now, here are the last photos from my journey up the coast.

10.17.13 : back down the washington coast.

I had to give myself the goal of completing my "up the coast" blog posts before the year's end because of my recent slacking tendencies. In my defense, my life is just about as busy and exhausting as I've ever known it to be right now, so the last thing I want to do when I come home from a long day of work is sit in front of my computer screen and edit photos. Alas, it's my day off and I've found myself with copious amounts of laundry needing to be done, so I'm forcing myself to edit while I finish that task.

We're picking up in Washington on day nine of my second half of the coastal trip. It was my second to last day and a very full one at that. I left the cozy town of North Bend to head west and back to the coast. Taking a ferry across seemed like my best option, and I caught one just north of Seattle. Again, I kept up with my tradition of stopping for anything that looked even a little bit interesting, which put me very behind schedule and found me getting into my camp destination just before the sun disappeared.