Interface - Sunday, April 6

We passed through it. I was anticipating it. I knew it was coming and for the past few days had been getting grouchy as I knew it was coming and was tired of waiting for it. But just 20 minutes ago, at 11:36, Sally and I broke through the surface to the other side. The most difficult part of the trip is now behind us. We passed through the interface.
Nerd Alert! Read at your peril!
An interface is the boundary between two media, such as where ocean water meets the atmosphere or ice touches the water it floats in. Crossing interfaces can be difficult. Think what happens when an airplane tries to enter the water or a ship like Titanic tries to enter an iceberg. At the interface some parts makes it through and some bounce off. Pieces of the plane penetrate the water's surface, but on initial impact most of the plane bounces off.
The greater the difference between the nature of the two media, the more difficult to penetrate the interface. Titanic might have left a few shards of metal and flecks of paint imbedded in that iceberg, but most of the ship bounced off.
Sometimes a "surfactant", a type of "impedance transformer" is used to "smooth" the difference between the two media. Clothes in a washing machine are quite different than the water that surrounds them. The water cannot adequately penetrate the clothes and therefore it cannot remove the dirt embedded in the fabric. A surfactant is needed to lessen the boundary between water and cloth, so we add soap. It allows the water to wet the cloth thoroughly and remove the dirt.
End of Nerd Alert!
So what does this have to do with Sally and I hiking the PCT? The interface we crossed this morning was from the media of home: drawers full of clothes, electricity in plugins, food in cupboards, cars available at the turn of a key . . . to a pack with a few essentials and a pair of feet to walk on.
We all cross these interfaces everyday. Leaving a warm house to get firewood from the adjacent woodshed. Leaving a warm car to go skiing in the snow. Diving from a sun warmed boat into an icy lake. Sometimes we use an "impedance transformer" to help us make it through the interface. We pull on barn boots and a warm coat to slog through mud and rain to get our wood. We twist and contort to put on warm clothes and heavy boots in the car seat before opening the door of the car and stepping into the snow storm. And a wet suit makes diving in a cold lake more tolerable.
Sally and I were dropped off by Jeff and Jackie at 11:36 at the Kelso Train Station and as we walked away from the car with our packs on our backs we snapped from one media to another, both familiar, yet very different. And the impedance transformer that eased the transition? The past five months of frantically packing food, buying and repairing gear, obtaining maps, plotting routes, mailing resupply packages, finding someone to live in our house (thank you Mr. Huffman!), getting finances and paperwork in order and contacting agencies for route information and water sources.
We are here. It feels great to FINALLY be on the other side!