A Walmart Cowboy Hat
My name is Daniel Babin and I am about to hike a 1300 mile section of the Pacific Crest Trail. The Pacific Crest Trail is one of three American Long Trails that makes up what hikers call the Triple Crown. It stretches 2650 miles from Mexico to Canada through the San Jacinto, Sierra Nevada, and Cascade Mountain Ranges (hence "Crest") in California, Oregon, and Washington.
I believe this cowboy hat that I purchased at Walmart is properly symbolic of this trip. Grossly underfunded, probably poorly planned, but it has the right feel to it. Despite the impracticality of this piece of gear and its likely lack of functionality as sun protection, its $12.97 price tag and Lonesome Dove level nostalgia captured my heart at first sight. Hopefully I fare better that the cowboys and pioneers who first ventured west touting these bad boys. My water treatment system filters giardia cysts and the United States massacred most of America's native population, so I should be okay.
While I will mostly likely survive, I fully expect this hat to blow off of my head into the abyss of some crevasse or canyon within the first two weeks of this trip.
Wish my girlfriend Abigail Lallande and I luck as we hike from the middle of the Mojave Desert to Crater Lake in Oregon! We will certainly need it.
I believe this cowboy hat that I purchased at Walmart is properly symbolic of this trip. Grossly underfunded, probably poorly planned, but it has the right feel to it. Despite the impracticality of this piece of gear and its likely lack of functionality as sun protection, its $12.97 price tag and Lonesome Dove level nostalgia captured my heart at first sight. Hopefully I fare better that the cowboys and pioneers who first ventured west touting these bad boys. My water treatment system filters giardia cysts and the United States massacred most of America's native population, so I should be okay.
While I will mostly likely survive, I fully expect this hat to blow off of my head into the abyss of some crevasse or canyon within the first two weeks of this trip.
Wish my girlfriend Abigail Lallande and I luck as we hike from the middle of the Mojave Desert to Crater Lake in Oregon! We will certainly need it.
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