One of my goals in 2020 was to fastpack the Trans-Catalina Trail.
That sentence doesn’t make any sense. Let’s unpack it.
One of my goals - Goals were things people used to have in the Before Times. A goal is like a future desired outcome. It is the kind of thing a person can envision and plan for if and when they are confident that there is a future in which that outcome can be achieved. In times of adversity, it is normal for a person’s sense of the scope of the future to narrow to only a time when the adversity is over. There is a subset of people who have been able to plan and make progress toward non-adversity-related goals during the pandemic and those people are called sociopaths.
in 2020 - Math and science will tell you that there was once a calendar year that took place between 2019 and 2021, but sociologists will more accurately explain that in a bizarre and unheard of twist of fate, the year 2020 was actually replaced by the year-long month of March 2020 and that somehow simultaneously absolutely nothing happened and everything happened in that month. No one yet knows how this was possible, but physicists suspect dark matter or mass delusion. See: The New Chronology.
was to fastpack - Fastpacking is like backpacking, but very fast. It can even involve running. It requires packing as little food and gear as possible, allowing a person to cover as much distance as possible. It necessitates almost obsessive planning and reflection on one’s needs and abilities. It is one of those activities that forces people to be honest with themselves, because if they lie to themselves about their needs and abilities, they could freeze to death at night trying to sleep on a mountainside with the wrong gear and not enough food or fire.
the Trans-Catalina Trail - Catalina Island is a little bean shaped island about 26 miles off the coast of Long Beach. It is surrounded by clear waters and deep kelp forests. The island itself is rocky and hilly and there is a trail that runs up and down along the spine of the island. The trail is about 40 miles long and only has a few specific way points for sleeping and refilling water. The interior of the island is populated by wild boar and bison. An elevation map of the island looks like a worrisome cardiogram.
So that sentence has obviously been rendered meaningless by the black hole suck of the supposed year 2020. Let’s replace that sentence with this one:
One of my goals in 2021 is to fastpack the Trans-Catalina Trail.
See? That’s better. The sentence makes sense now.
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