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New Mexico felt like a distillation of everything I learned in Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado combined into one 700-mile challenge. By this point, I’m ready for anything.  It was the coldest state, but I was used to that from Colorado. It rivaled the Montana heat wave in July, where I experienced 100 degrees very closeContinue reading “CDT Part 15–My first steps in New Mexico”

You know that feeling when you’re going somewhere you’ve never been, so it seems like it takes longer to get there? Well, the opposite is true as well. The return home from a place always seems to take less time. I’ve returned home to the mountains that I love and time is flying.  But, finishingContinue reading “CDT Part 14–Twin Lakes to New Mexico”

September in Colorado. I did a lot over the 2 nights and 3 days I was in Denver. I had a wedding to go to and the last 1000+ miles of a thru-hike to prepare for. I had holes in my shorts, socks, shirt, wind pants, and tent. And the zippers on my tent weren’tContinue reading “CDT Part 13–Copper Mountain to Twin Lakes”

I’m really trying to finish this CDT blog before I start my next adventure in March. Stay tuned. I think I can do it! Things got pretty busy with writing for other people (I’m a full-time freelance writer for money), but I’m working on getting caught with writing for myself.  I crossed into Colorado atContinue reading “CDT Part 12–Northern Colorado”

Life is a long series of boring parts with the occasional exciting part. Savor the good parts, obviously. But, those less good parts can be fun.  What is the point of blogging a thru-hike? Especially during the boring parts. I suppose I could have recorded the entirety of my inner monologue while I was walking southContinue reading “CDT Part 11–The Rest of Wyoming”

After the Wind River Range, the Continental Divide splits in two. And, the CDT route goes through the Great Divide Basin, the basin that sits in between the two Continental Divides in this part of Wyoming. Any water that happens to fall in this area has nowhere to flow. But since it’s surrounded by mountains,Continue reading “CDT part 10–The Great Divide Basin and my first 50-mile day”

It started out rainy, turned snowy, then it got sunny and I lost my sunglasses. Then, it all melted.  Wait, I lost my sunglasses before the sun was bouncing off all that fresh snow, but does the order of events really matter? Maybe a little. Well, I spent two days hitchhiking from Denver back toContinue reading “CDT Part 9–Wind River Range”

Yellowstone National Park is big. Like, really big. But, it’s not just big geographically. It just is big. Standing on a ridge looking into the park, I could just feel that Yellowstone was special–big, wild, untouched.  We hiked into the park from the north side, skirting the edge of the park that first day. ItContinue reading “CDT Part 7–Yellowstone”

This thru-hike I’m trying to eat as healthy as possible. Granted, when you’re carrying everything on your back, and filling it with food from small grocery stores and gas stations, that might not be all that healthy. But, I’m trying.  One of the nice things about the Big Sky Alternate is that there are aContinue reading “CDT Part 6: Baby Carrots to Big Sky”