The Next Big Hike

As soon as I got back from the PCT, people kept asking me "what's next?" wondering what I could do to top that.  My thinking at the time was that a new job, a new city, a new life.  Maybe that would do the trick and I could finally make a place for myself, long term, instead of the slow descent into boredom and wanderlust.  Conversely, the PCT seems to have had the opposite effect.  Before hiking, I always wondered about all the incredible places on the planet and if it was even possible for me to do a long hike.  After hiking, I know I can do it and I still wonder about all those places so it simply enabled me to think even bigger. At the same time, I was blown away that trails like the PCT even exist, that you can literally walk on a continuous trail for hundreds or thousands of miles! Imagine all of the effort required to build, maintain and negotiate access for that! So while I want to get back out there, I also want to give back.

Here's a rough plan:

September 4 - 11 - The Wonderland Trail (93 miles)

September 12 - 18 - Volunteer Trail work on the PCT in the Goat Rocks Wilderness

September 22 - Mid November - The Arizona Trail (800 miles) - AZT

Late November - Early April - The Te Araroa Trail in New Zealand (2,000 miles - think hobbits!) - TA

Early May - September - The Continental Divide Trail (2,500 to 3,000 miles depending on route choices) - CDT

That's right, I'm planning to go hiking for a year, including a week of trail work on the PCT.  Not only that, but I will be fundraising for the nonprofit organizations responsible for creating, maintaining and providing information about these trails!  The fundraising campaign is here: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/fmYf1/ab/c3U9D9

Every year lots of folks hike for a cause and it's almost always an external one - cancer, lukemia, veterans, etc but without the trail those people would have no where to hike!  Few seem to stop and ask where the trail came from and how they can help make it better.  In the case of the CDT, the TA and AZT we can have a pretty huge impact on making these trails better.  They are still being established and better routes through private land are being negotiated or purchased.  The existing trail is often in need of improvement to make access safer and prevent erosion.  The money you donate will support projects to negotiate access across private land, extend conservation land, improve the trail tread and signage and help volunteer efforts for trail maintenance.  No one likes hiking on bushy, overgrown trail and private property rights always have to be respected.  Without these kinds of trail associations, we wouldn't have such incredible places to hike!  So even if you can't or don't feel the need to donate, please share the link on facebook, twitter, google +, whatever!  Just get the word out in the hiking community that the newest trails need help and we're the ones to do it!

I plan on taking a long break after (and possibly before) the Te Araroa to catch up with family and do some fast paced CDT planning since I can't really plan that far ahead.  I will have to keep things flexible and may not end up hiking 100% of all of the trails.  The end goal is to support the trail associations and get the word out about how amazing they are - not a speed record or continuous back to back to back through hike.

You can subscribe to my blog and keep up with updates on the fundraiser and my progress by typing your email in the "subscirbe by email" box at the upper left side of the screen.  Here's that fundraiser again!  https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/fmYf1/ab/c3U9D9

Day Hiker Extraordinaire

I'm sad to say that I haven't slept outside in several months.  I still hike frequently, generally every weekend but at the end of each day there's the car, the long drive home and the hot shower.  It's a very different mentality from through hiking.  Rather than a vague number of days to reach a road for a hitchhike with innumerable campsites in between, now I need a set course, a turnaround time, and time allotted for travel has to be incorporated.  Want to go for a 20 mile day hike? Better be up driving by 5 am and you won't be home until at least nine pm.  If it's winter, you'll be in the dark.

The other big change has been hiking with the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC).  When I returned to "normal" life in my new city of Boston, I decided to make my outdoorsey activities more social.  AMC had a volunteer run winter hiking and backpacking program starting about a week after I began my new job, so I signed up.  I already knew most of what they were teaching but it was a good way to meet some folks and do some hikes I wouldn't have done solo.  The course culminated in an above treeline workshop with a winter summit of the highest peak in the northeast - Mount Washington.  We used crampons and ice axes to work our way up the remarkably steep Lion's Head route, then up to the summit in 40-50 mph winds but at a balmy 20 degrees.

Summit of Mount Washington in February

Afterwards, I hiked with an old friend-of-a-friend on a moosileake ski in and hike up and Osceola summit.  I alternated my time between winter hiking, XC skiing and snow biking on my new 4-inch wide tire'd fat bike - a Surley Pugsley.  This was an excellent winter for XC skiing, we had a solid month of weekly snow storms to build a solid base of snow and create perfect skiing conditions on the weekends. No fun for driving to work during the week but perfect for skiing!

By early May the snow began to melt and hiking up north meant post holing a slushy monorail all day, which is no fun so I kept to some lower elevation hikes.  I took the spring leadership class through the AMC and can now co-lead hikes, basically assist the leader with logistics and help make sure no one gets lost. One of the AMC leaders I had met, Pam invited me to a few hikes afterwards too.  We ate sandwiches (and lasagna) on the sandwich range and a week or two later did 12 out of 13 mini-peaks on an 18 mile day in the Belknap range.  I then co-led my first AMC hike with Pam and a few other leaders up Mt. Cannon in the White's.  It was a beginner hike, so we took the "fast" group and it was nice to see people who are new to hiking enjoying a perfect day up to their first 4,000 foot summit.

View of Franconia Ridge from part way up Cannon

Last weekend brought another, bigger, AMC day hike.  I originally hiked the northern 13 miles or so of the Wapack trail and back as a training hike for my PCT through hike but missed the southern 9 miles or so.  A while back I saw a trip listing with the AMC for a full day traverse - 21.4 miles and about 5,000 feet of climbing.  A single traverse like that isn't easy solo since you have to get back to your car somehow. Camping isn't allowed along the Wapack, except at the middle in a lean-to at my favorite XC ski spot which makes a two day out-n-back too long.  The single day traverse went well, and as usual there was the typical range of hiking speeds in our group of 12.  It seems no matter how accurate the trip description there are always a few who bite off a little more than they can chew, but there's nothing wrong with that if they don't mind losing the ability to walk the next day.  We had a slow start with too many breaks at the beginning but eventually things sped up after most of the climbing was done over North Pack Monadnock. I finished with the lead group at around 7 PM but we were waiting until 7:45 for the rest.  It was a good hike and I even met an AT 2012 through hiker who's aspiring to do the PCT in 2015, so it was fun nerding out about the PCT with her.

The Wapack was perfect training for this weekends big day hike - a Presidential Traverse.  We'll be going over 10 of the Presidentials in a 20.6 mile hike with 8,600 feet of elevation gain.  That may actually be more elevation than my biggest days on the PCT, which seemed to top out around 7,000 feet in a day but had more miles.  This is a highlight of hiking in the White's and I have barely spent any time in the Presi's, so I'm looking forward to it.

I don't plan on staying a day hiker for very long though.  I'm planning an overnight trip with a friend and another solo trip both in the Whites.  The next big trip is right around the corner as well...

Blowing the dust out

I originally put this blog together fairly hap-hazardly for my PCT through hike.  I just made some big design changes after doing some googling so they will be ongoing.  I moved the map of my PCT hike to the bottom a while back, now it's off the front page entirely.  Instead, it's been shifted to the PCT tab which you can access by the link up at the top of the page.  I'm trying to figure out how to make it more obvious that my blog has tabs, and I'll use them for future adventures.  Feel free to comment with ideas! I'm also giving Google Adsense a try. It probably won't generate much of anything but we'll see.

Inspiration

Once in an odd while someone calls me inspiring.  I usually don’t know how to respond since I don’t think what I do is all that difficult since I’m already doing it (so how hard can it be!).  I honestly just want to live an interesting life, see amazing places and do incredible things.  How hard is that? So instead of prattling on about myself like normal I’ll list a few people that I find inspiring which may inspire some of you.

Kurt Sandiforth of Bike Grease and Coffee

Kurt is probably the most traveled of travelers that has ever travelled.  He spent his younger days hitching hiking cross country then evolved to hopping freight trains.  He has a map of the lower 48 somewhere crisscrossed with the dozen or two freight lines he’s hopped.  Kurt further evolved to road bike touring and has crossed Europe multiple times, as well as the US, North Africa and parts of the Middle East.  He then became a mountain bike ultra racer, taking 4^th place in the 2,700+ mile long Tour Divide race across the spine of mountains making up the Continental Divide through Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado and New Mexico.  All of this is done on a shoestring budget; dumpster diving, hitch hiking and doing the odd wrenching in bike shops to support himself.  Now Kurt is 15 months into a circumnavigation of the globe by Fat Bike.  Last I checked he’s ridden from Maine to Tierra Del Fuego – the southern tip of South America and is looking for a cheap way by boat to South Africa.  His route will continue up to Mongolia and beyond.  Amazing! 

Lint - http://www.linthikes.com/

Clint (aka Lint, he dropped the C to save weight) has through hiked a long trail every year since 2006.  That is the kind of dedication I can only hope to achieve.  He’s currently working on his third through hike of the Appalachian Trail. Since he completed his third PCT last year, where we met, I’m guessing 2015 will be his third CDT to become a “triple” Triple Crowner – someone who has hiked the PCT, CDT and AT three times each.  Lint inspired me to go stoveless and really dive off the ultralight deep end.  The last time I saw Lint, it was 100 degrees in the shade in the Tehachapi Mountains.  Two other hikers and I were sitting the heat out, sweating in the shade of the few pathetically thin trees we could find.  Lint casually strolled by, umbrella in hand as if nothing was wrong.  After a short exchange he told me “it’s just walking” and hiked on.  Ever since then, the gravity of that statement has slowly sunk in.  All of my obsession about gear and planning and water comes down to “it’s just walking”. 

Jill -http://www.jilloutside.com/p/about.html

Jill’s blog was the first “adventure blog” I started following, not long after my first bike tour back in 2008.  Back then she lived in Alaska, and her blog was “Jill up in Alaska”, now it’s just Jill Outside (doesn’t have the same panache but se la vie).  Jill has gone from adventure bike touring, to snow biking when snow biking was new, to ultramarathon running and more.  She documents her trips so consistently it actually inspires me to do more blogging.  Well, not really since you can see I don’t do much these days.  Jill has made going outside the centerpiece of her life, which is what I really find to be inspirational.  She has made numerous career decisions and moves based on where has the best outdoor activities.  Unsurprisingly, Jill now lives in the Bay Area in California.

Carrot Quinn – www.carrotquinn.com

Carrot is a different sort of inspiration.  She published a book several years ago, which sadly flopped, but has since bounced around the Pacific Northwest in search of some life direction.  She came to through hike the PCT last year, where we met.  Carrot through hiked the same trail as I but with so many more challenges.  She is gluten intolerant and seems to have continuous problems digesting most normal hiker food and has the usual lady hiker issues (both biological and creepy dudes).  The way she writes is wonderful and hiking sounds like such an incredible struggle for her, where it was mostly meditative for me.  Our timing on the PCT was similar, but she ended the trail hypothermic in northern WA after four days of consecutive freezing rain and snow. When I read Carrot’s blog and see what she’s able to push through, it makes me believe in myself.  Carrot is through hiking the PCT again this year and her blog is an excellent read.

Wired

Wired is another serial through hiker.  She wrote an excellent blog about her 2011 through hike of the PCT which I used to help plan my own hike.  Our hikes ended up differing enormously – she hiked in record Sierra Nevada snow fall and I hiked in a drought.  Her video of Forester Pass was pretty incredible: http://www.walkingwithwired.com/2011/06/day-50-forester-kearsarge-pass.html compared to my own snow free photos: 

Wired has now completed the CDT and is about a quarter of the way through the AT.  She blogs literally every night and I can relate to her need to not be surrounded by people all day.  The fact that she’s enjoying the AT, a trail known for massive numbers of through and section hikers, makes me wonder if it wouldn’t be so bad one day.