If you followed my blog on the CDT this year, you will know how much I loved wearing my Oboz shoes on the trail.
Rain, snow, and mud were no match for my Oboz Lunas.
I shared some of my initial thoughts on the hike with Oboz…read more here!
You may have been voting daily since I posted about this contest towards the end of my hike, but the voting is still on and the CDT has a great chance at winning $25,000 to make trail improvements in New Mexico.
PLEASE vote for the Continental Divide Trail every day through 10/31 here: http://superiortrails.michelobultra.com/
How have I been home for 2 1/2 weeks already? Good news is that my list of things to do is getting shorter even though I continue to add to it.
I’ve been playing the hermit since getting home, probably a direct result of spending most of the last 6 months alone…I find it’s sometimes hard to make small talk, hard to sum up my 160 days in a few bite-sized snippets, hard to go right back to being the extroverted well-socialized and excitable hiker. I know that side of me will emerge again, probably once I have more of a direction with what I’m going to be doing now that I’m off the trail.
As for work I have a few irons in the fire, some exciting opportunities that I’ll be happy to share once confirmed, so really, this time can be devoted to relaxing, easing back into the fast-paced whirlwind of off-trail life, and just being. Except that’s hard to do…I find myself gravitating towards the more existential questions of life…and perhaps that’s because when I’m busy I never really give myself time to meditate on the deeper subjects.
Ok, that probably sounds a little doom and gloom, but that, folks, is post-trail readjustment.
A few of you have asked about my gear list…I’ve put together a page here...I need to get my hands on a scale to weigh all the miscellaneous things that don’t have listed weights on the product website. I never weighed my gear, so it’s kind of funny to be doing so now after the fact.
Time to keep on keeping on…
I have been sifting through the thousands of photos and hundreds of video clips I took on the trail this year and found these two from my time on the skis.
The shoe-bindings worked extremely well on the light-weight touring skis. I ended up skiing about 40 miles in the Southern San Juans…then I found steep avalanche-prone slopes were too risky for the late May-early June time I was there. Never fear, I’ll be working on putting some short films together this fall, should be a lot of fun!
There is almost too much to do, so I choose to do nothing. It’s as if I were preparing to hike a long distance trail, and the thought of 2,000 miles makes the first mile unimaginable. That is what getting home after an almost 6 month absence is like.
I want to look at my 6,000+ photos and hundreds of little videos and make movies. I need to unpack from our 2 week road trip. I want to see friends. I need to go through all my mail. I want to go to yoga. I want to read all the magazines I missed. I want to veg in front of netflix. I want to go for a walk. I need to work. I want to write lots of blogs and reviews. I want to packraft. I want to make things.
So I don’t do any of it, or I do it slowly and distractedly.
Did I just hike across the country? Man, seems like years ago now.
We’ve been putting some miles on our boats and I’ll share more later when I’m in front of a computer. It’s been kind of nice to leave the writing for a bit, but I also have lots on my mind and look forward to getting home and having the time to dive in.
In the mean time here are some photos of adventures so far:
First of all, thank you to everyone who followed along on my hike this year! All of your encouraging and support has definitely fueled my miles.
I’ll be writing up my gear list, writing reviews of everything I used, diving into life after the trail, making some short movies…but first Kirk and I are taking a couple of weeks to road trip back to Bend. We have our packrafts and hope to get up to some adventures I can share with you.
Feels so amazing to be done!
It was a late night alright, but it was really the screeching of the trains during the night that left me haggered and gritty feeling in the morning. Luckily there is coffee. Coffee and indoor plumbing at the Summit Lodge.
I packed up my camp, pitched in the forest by some of the cabins with the other thru hikers, and was ready to head back to the trail with Mountain Spice by 8 in the morning. We said our goodbyes to people we may not see ever again, or will run into randomly on a trail some where, and hopped into Beacon’s car, another hiker who had so generously offered to take us back to Many Glacier.
While Mountain Spice dozed in the back, I furtively tried to get a few last things done on my phone as the 4G connection went in and out with the curves and hills of the road. By 9:30 we were back where we had been just the day before and preparing for the last 2 days of the trail.
I had already gotten my permit to camp at Elisabeth Lake, and once Mountain Spice had her permit lined up (we would be finishing at different spots on the Canadian Border), we set off, saying our goodbyes and hiking up and out.
The wind is fierce today, and at times I couldn’t hear anything but the rushing of air as I climbed up towards Ptarmagin Tunnel. This was a popular trail and I passed many day hikers out to enjoy their version of Glacier. My hike would take me through a tunnel that had been blasted through a mountain. As it is closed some parts of the year due to snow, I counted myself among one of the lucky ones that got to walk underneath the rocky pass.
The far side
The other side showed a gently sloping trail leading to my camp at Elisabeth Lake. It would be a short day, and I am grateful for that. Still tired from my lack of sleep I envisioned getting to camp about 2pm, setting up my shelter, taking a nap, and reading the afternoon and evening away. And that’s just about exactly what happened.
I’m on the shores of the lake, but the wind is so strong I feel as though my tarp will be ripped to shreds. I’m enjoying this last night on the trail as a solo experience. It seems a fitting way to end the hike: I began solo, spent 90% of the trail hiking and camping by myself, and I’ll end this journey the same way.
I am hiding from the wind and imagining what it will be like to see Kirk tomorrow after 5 months, I’m so excited!
I’m glad I took the time to do this hike. I can’t imagine not backpacking, it has become as much a part of my identity and sense of purpose as anything else one is compelled to do again and again in their life. I am not sure what my next hike will be, but I will hike, and I have a feeling I’ll need it as much as I needed the CDT.
But now, life at home sounds so delicious!
It was a day of not walking. We made our way down to East Glacier through a series of hitches and found ourselves back at Brownies, the bakery/hostel.
We ran into Malarky who had finished the trail the week before and was hanging out waiting for the hiker hoopla party tonight. We all grabbed lunch and ran into Chimi, Chiltin, Hedgehog, Messed Up, and Dayglow…they were just getting in and had all of Glacier to look forward to.
We spent the afternoon on the porch of Brownies and soon Rick, HD Mama’s husband and CDT trail angel extraordinaire, picked us up for a ride to the hoopla.
The spread was awesome, the Montana Trails Association put on a great event with live bluegrass, great food, plenty of beverages, and a killer raffle (with some donated hikertrash swag!)
I spent the night telling story after story…a bunch of hikers had come from the border having finished today: Delightful, G, Funk, Sam, Picker, Day Man and La La had all made it back…it would have been cool to have been done in time for the big party too, but now I’m glad I still have another night on the trail.
I went to bed late…but it was worth it!
She-ra Hikes 