A seven day solo was the plan, but we all know that the word “plan” has absolutely no value when it comes to wilderness tripping; too many variables to deal with and flex to. I have been on a couple of solo trips before, but have always found myself exiting early, feeling lonely, exposed and vulnerable. This time would be different, I would not be deterred. I did trim it down to six days as I was scheduled to fly to Guatemala the day I was going to exit. That would have been schedule suicide. I decided to amend the “plan” and come out the morning before my flight to Guatemala so as to have plenty of time to tie up loose ends and get packed without pulling out all of my hair. The adventure and excitement that ensued was neither planned, expected, or rejected; it was GREAT. I had invited a few people, but it seemed that I was meant to travel this one solo for a reason. I knew that reason deep within me. I had become uncentered and jaded with life. I needed to realign myself, with myself, and get back on top of life before I spun wildly out of control. I needed to escape the spiritual ambiguity I had existed in for quite some time. As weird as it may seem, I had to take a psychological and polygraph test the morning I left. It had been part of a very long job application process. I had thought of it as a hindrance, but as I answered the 300 questions and sat through the one hour interview, I began to see that this too was happening for a reason. I emerged from that test with a very clear picture of who I thought I was. It shot right to my core and exposed the true me that I had lost touch with.