The Next 32 Miles

Posted on November 25, 2014 by sheraaaa

The opportunity to help build the trail I will hike has been a driving force for the past 8 years. After finishing the Pacific Crest Trail in 2006, I knew something in my life had to change. Up until that point I had been working as a graphic designer in Portland, but the desire to make hiking my career had been stewing for months as I hiked north.

I met other hikers who had devoted their careers to the outdoors, including NOLS instructors, outdoor educators, guides, fire fighters and even the serial backpackers who would work a job, any job, during the winter months just to save up enough money to be able to hike the next year.

This guy. Lint manages to hike almost every year.

I returned to Portland and began scouring the internet for outdoor jobs.

What I became immediately drawn to was a position with the Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC) out of Durango, Colorado. They had a trail crew leadership development program where I could not only learn how to build and maintain trails (what a chance to give back to the hiking community!) but also lead crews around the state to…wait for it…build the Continental Divide Trail! SCC had been contracted to build/maintain many parts of the CDT in New Mexico and Colorado and the opportunity seemed perfect. Help build the trail I will hike next. Done.

I arrived in Durango in February 2007 and quickly dove into the training: chainsaws, pick axes, and rock bars filled our training hours, and we worked everywhere from Mesa Verde and Canyon of the Ancients, to the Great Sand Dunes and backcountry trails in the San Juans. What didn’t materialize, however, was the Continental Divide Trail work. That year Congress kept the funding for things like trail work caught up in their bi-partisan bickering when they didn’t pass the budget. Bummer.

Trail tools are fun

I had a great season though, My crew and I spent six weeks in a backcountry hitch building massive rock and log retaining walls. I worked with Zuni and Navajo youth from near-by reservations, and met some great friends that last today.

We built massive rock retaining walls

And log retaining walls, notching and sometimes cutting by hand

It was very satisfying and I have an incredible amount of respect for trail work now! This took about 4 weeks for 20 feet of trail

Now the Continental Divide Trail Coalition (CDTC) has taken matters into their own hands, and instead of just relying on the federal budget for their trail work dollars, has started a campaign to raise funds to build 32 more miles of trail in Colorado, and SCC will be one of their partners in the project. And they couldn’t hire a better organization.

Funding finally did come through for some CDT work in the Fall, but by that time I had already committed to thru-hiking the Colorado Trail. It would be a north-bound fall hike, when most hiked it south in the summer, but I found I missed most of the summer afternoon lightening storms and had amazing weather most of the hike. I did encounter one nasty storm when I got onto the divide near Stony Pass, but the next morning (after I surely thought I was going to die in an above-tree-line electrical storm) I found the SCC crew working on the CDT!

I love that crew, and not just cause they gave me candy.

I love that there will be trail built in a pristine area where I encountered dirt bikes and four-wheeled vehicles. Lets get some more trail built. You can donate here, and you can be assured the folks who build it will be some of the best out there. They love the wilderness and are probably former/future thru-hikers too!

10 Ways Thru-hiking is like the Peace Corps

Posted on November 19, 2014 by sheraaaa

I first learned about long distance backpacking while living in my village of Zogore in Burkina Faso, West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer over a decade ago. When someone joins the Peace Corps and has to decide what to bring with them, books are high on the list. Surely there will be time to read the complete works of Shakespeare or War and Peace, right?

And it’s true, I read well over 200 books during the 2 years I was there, but the book that made the most impact was There are Mountains to Climb. Not for the prose, or riveting story line, but it was the first time I learned about a trail that crosses the country, and the people who set out to hike it in just a few months.

It was September, 1999, I had just arrived in the Burkina 3 months earlier, but I already knew what I was doing in 2 years when my service was over. Hiking the Appalachian Trail!

When I finally made it to the trail in 2002 I realized there were LOTS of similarities.

Here are my top 10 ways thru-hiking is like the Peace Corps:

1. You will be covered in dirt almost all the time.

2. You will think about food non-stop.

3. People think you are crazy.

4. You have changed way more in a short amount of time than your friends and family at home.

5. You curse the postal system.

6. You talk about poop a lot.

7. You get giardia.

8. You make deeper connections with people faster than you ever thought possible.

9. When you return people always ask about getting attacked by bears/lions, but the wildest thing you saw was a porcupine eating someone’s shoe/a chicken tied to a bicycle.

10. You will never be the same again.

So after I posted this fellow thru-hiker and Peace Corps Volunteer, Lisa, posted her list. Wow! She must have had a lot of time on her hands Thru-hiking will do that. Wait, so will Peace Corps.

More of the 1000 ways in which PCT hiking and Peace Corps are the EXACT SAME THING:
1. You meticulously plan your next town meal at least 4 days in advance.
2. Then you dream big about the first meal you’ll eat after finishing.
3. You look forward to maildrops and cry if they are late, particularly if they contain something delicious.
4. You lick the melted chocolate out of every wrapper crevasse, then suck on the inside corners for trace remnants.
5. If you’re vegetarian, you turn carnivorous after the second encounter with an outside barbeque and charred meat.
6. You wear one outfit every day until only bleached, soft shreds remain.
7. It’s bizarre to see your comrades in normal clothing.
8. You suffer from the half-way blues, daydreaming about the things you would do and eat if you went home now.
9. Intestinal parasites, diseases, and associated smells are the hot topic of conversation, especially during meals.
10. You are perpetually sweaty and dirty and the locals are clean.
11. Your toenails take on bizarre shapes and co-exist with semi-permanent layers of funk.
12. When you emerge into a new town, friendly and curious locals find you bizarre or interesting or exciting.
13. Kids stare at you and think you’re odd.
13. Random strangers invite you into their house to eat.
14. You consume things you would never touch under normal circumstances.
15. Kind tourists feel sorry for you and give you soda pop and toiletries.
16. The small pleasures in life are so wonderful and you are filled with gratitude.
17. You have too many ups and downs to count, but feel extremely lucky to be alive.
18. People think you’re crazy.
19. You start with a filter, then switch to bleach, then just drink the water straight.
20. You start with toilet paper, then switch to rocks and sticks, then switch to the water method. It’s just so refreshing.
21. You have weird-sounding nicknames and insert trail/local speech into your everyday language. e.g. “i didn’t mean to take a nero – it just happened” or “the prefect bouffed all the money”
22. You are elated when you spy edible fruit along your walk.
23. Ice is SO very exciting.
24. During siesta, you end up chasing the shade even though you tried yet again to strategically place yourself in the likeliest continual-shade-spot.
25. You become great friends with unusual and magical people.
26. You watch terrible TV programs whenever you have the opportunity.
27. You talk to yourself and practice rolling your r’s as you walk.
28. You give up on flossing.
146. You notice every phase of the moon.
147. You smell like mildew.
148. Your body loses the ability to digest dairy products in a smooth and elegant fashion.
149. You think you’re tan, then take a shower and realize that half of it’s dirt.
361. You finally come to the realization that your gastrointestinal issues are not just a “phase”.
362. Though you’ve never bought a copy of “People” and never will, you devour it at any free opportunity.
363. Local, tiny libraries are the best.
364. Ice cream is amazing, no matter how cold it is outside and how much it gives you the runs.
365. You either love or hate the postal service.
366. Large ungulates casually walk past your sleeping pad.
367. You hitch rides no matter how sketchy the driver or vehicle and sometimes sit with farm animals on your lap.

I won’t look at the Three Sisters the same anymore

Posted on November 17, 2014 by sheraaaa

We lost a friend to the mountains this week. When I say lost, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he’s been there all along. Certainly his spirit and passion has been caught up in ridge-walks and highty elevations for years. Many of us met him on a long trail or on top of a mountain; crossing vast landscape together can bring you to a level of intimacy some will never know outside of their family. But family is what you become after months of sleeping on the dirt, laughing at ridiculous things and marveling that the world can be so beautiful.

Sometimes you never need to actually hike with someone to know you are part of the same family, and know those shared experiences of hiking thousands of miles can almost always bridge the gap.

At the end of the day how can you mourn a life that has been absorbed by the very thing they loved so much? Life is too short. Yes, that is painfully true. And, I have to think that of all the places one could spend their last minutes, the mountain range that frames Central Oregon, the mountain range that is home, is a very fitting place.

I won’t look at the Three Sisters the same anymore. Ben is up there. He is part of that wilderness now. If anything, it makes my connection with the world that much deeper.

Technology is ok

Posted on November 9, 2014 by sheraaaa

I headed out to Eastern Oregon for another backpacking adventure this morning. My default weekend plans are going to involve backpacking…and hopefully a bit of packrafting…that is until the snow starts to fly… then it will be cross/backcountry skiing until April gets here and I head to NM for the CDT.

This week I choose my destination because my good friend, Sage Clegg, who was the first to hike the new Oregon Desert Trail, mentioned one of her favorite parts was in the Fremont Wilderness, near Paisley, OR. I went to my maps and found a ridgewalk loop I could do in the Fremont. When given the choice, I choose ridgewalking, views, and loops!

I am again trying to post from the trail using WordPress, in this case the Dead Horse Ridge Trail. The drive was more like 3 hours from home, as opposed to the hour last weekend, but I could still see glimpses of the Three Sisters near Bend, and was reminded of how I could easily spend a lifetime exploring all Oregon has to offer. The mountain ranges, wilderness areas and national forests are endless out here (hot springs too!).

This trip is another solo one, and same as last weekend, I found myself posting often to Instagram (@wearehikertrash) since I had 4G service. Even though I’m alone, the act of posting and getting immediate responses makes me feel as if I’m not that separated by distance and time as previous hikes, and I like it!

On the Appalachian Trail I carried a phone card and disposable camera. I only took about 200 photos over the whole trail, and each image I snapped was precious. I would call family and friends when I could get to town and find a phone booth. Those days are gone, along with the phone booths.

The technology found on the trail these days is incredible, and I’m joining in the fun. I’m still debating if I should only use my phone for a camera (the quality sure beats the disposable cameras of the AT) and the fact that I can upload images to my Flickr account as I go means I don’t have to send camera cards back and forth like I did on the PCT. I might take my GoPro to get video footage, and my ipod of course. All those things add up, but with my Secur solar panel, all can be charged from the trail. And there’s Guthook’s new CDT app of course.

Granted I can still turn off the phone and completely immerse myself in nature too, which I know I will want to do as well.

Even if I find myself alone for months at a time next year, my technology will help me feel much more in touch (and my parents will have a better time of it!).

All this technology is ok.

Fail

Posted on November 3, 2014 by sheraaaa

I spent the weekend in a near-by wilderness area, and as I was camping last night wanted to test my blogging-from-the-trail capabilities. I was using the wordpress app on my Galaxy 3 phone to type it up, but I went to post it today and it’s gone. Grrrr.

I was hoping a bit of technology would be a good thing on the trail. I’ll see if this method pans out, seems like maybe I should type it up in another application to make sure it’s saved somewhere on my phone. Anyway, here’s some photos at least.

23ish miles looping the Mill Creek Wilderness in the Ochoco Mountains east of Bend. Freaking gorgeous.