Technology is ok

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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Fail

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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.

I Move to Keep Things Whole

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One of my favorite poems of all time, Keeping Things Whole by Mark Strand speaks to the insatiable desire to move through the landscape. I can’t say it better myself.

In a field
I am the absence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.

When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in
to fill the spaces
where my body’s been.

We all have reasons
for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.

by Mark Strand

A Solo Hike

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I’ve done a lot of my long distance hiking solo. Well, that is to say I’ve started out many of my trips solo. As much as I like to plan I’ve given in to the philosophy of, “the trail provides,” even when it comes to hiking partners.

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Average Joe and I on Katahdin

I hiked with a good friend, Average Joe, on the Appalachian Trail, but when I had a foot injury that took me off the trail for a few weeks in northern Virgina and she had to keep hiking to meet family, I spent the next month and a half solo hiking and coming and going in different hiking groups as we traveled north. When Average Jo got Lyme Disease later I was finally able to catch up and we finished together.

NEMO and She-ra reach Canada

NEMO and She-ra reach Canada

When I left the Mexican border on the PCT in 2006 I had started the trail as a solo woman, but didn’t find myself alone all that much. In fact by the time I had reached the Saufley’s at mile 454 I had found one of my best friends to this day, NEMO. The trail magic that a hiking partner can bring has the power to make or break a hike, meeting NEMO and lots of other hikertrash made my PCT hike.

When I chose to thru-hike the Colorado Trail in 2007 after a summer of leading trail crews out of Durango, Colorado, I had spent so much of my time in close proximity to other people that I craved time alone in the wilderness.

Maybe it was growing up in the backwoods of Wisconsin climbing trees or exploring the shores of near-by Fountain Lake, but I thrive in nature alone. I didn’t count the days between seeing people on the Colorado Trail, but I do remember thinking three weeks was long enough to go without much human contact. Now, after having spent the last five years working long hours, living in a city, and not hiking more than a few days at a time, I can’t imagine a more delightful way to spend three (or more) weeks than walking alone.

Inevitably the first question I get asked when people find out I’ll be starting a thru-hike alone is if I’m scared. Sure, the first few nights out I’ll jump at noises in the night. I’ll sleep with my hiking pole by my side ready to turn it into a deadly stabbing device if bothered in the dark of night, but after realizing nothing is out to get me, after relaxing into the pace of days spent walking and watching the world pass by one step at a time, I love it.

Because the Continental Divide Trail is less traveled than the Appalachian Trail or Pacific Crest Trail, I know the opportunity to hike with others will be fewer and farther between, but on the otherhand I followed a few hiking journals this year and was surprised to hear how many people were on the trail. The word was an actual “tread” was getting developed through the New Mexico desert because so many feet had traveled the same path.

I’ll take it!

I hope to travel long segments of the CDT alone, but I also hope to meet and hike with others.

Much of the magic I find on the trail is other people. The point is, I like hiking alone, and I’m not scared…much.

I take lots of selfies when hiking alone

I take lots of selfies when hiking alone

Soundtrack to a Hike

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I fired up my old Ipod Nano for a walk along the river today. These fall days in Bend have been nothing short of blissful. While the sun warms the air, the shadows remain cool and the mountains occasionally emerge in the mornings with an early dusting of snow. I left the house in a tank top and shades, and put on the soundtrack to my Colorado Trail 2007 thru-hike.

I am a big fan of thru-hiking with music. I started the Appalachian Trail back in 2002 before folks carried cell phones and ipods. I had only my thoughts to keep me busy, along with a constant soundtrack of 3-4 songs that had gotten stuck in my head. I needed inspiration, and picked up a small radio mid-hike. It changed everything.

My strides began to match the beat of the music. I would catch periodic snippets of news between the static, and fly down the trail completely absorbed in a landscape of sound and sight. Random radio stations hovered over valley skies, and regularly I would nurse the dial of the tuner ever so slightly to catch the faint beat of another local station.

Music rocks my world!

I happened upon this little ditty when I needed it most. I was dragging up a long climb in Vermont when it popped up on a college radio station.

Did I get up the mountain? I practically ran.

After the Appalachian Trail I hadn’t learned my lesson quite yet and started the PCT without music. Again I picked a radio up somewhere on the trail and rocked out whenever I could.

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Carson Pass

I begged precious time from my dear trail friend Nemo’s ipod, and when I was low, a song could turn my whole day around.

I wised up and brought an mp3 player on the Colorado Trail in 2007. It was a 2GB AAA battery model with radio, and perfect for a solo hike northbound in the fall. I didn’t see people for weeks at a time.

The Pepe Deluxe Beatitude album was one of my CT soundtracks, and on constant repeat. How can you not listen to this song while walking here?

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Or this song while walking here?

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On the Arizona Trail, another solo hike 2 years later, I had a different relationship with the landscape as it seemed to demand a different kind of soundtrack.

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So when I dusted off the ol’ Ipod Nano and shuffled through the sounds of my last few hikes I realized I would need new music for the CDT next year.

I’ve been listening to some of this, and a bit of that, but what kind of music will my CDT landscape demand?

What do you listen to?

ALDHA-West

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This weekend was the annual ALDHA-West Gathering. The American Long Distance Hiking Association gathered over 100 long distance backpackers for a few days of talks, triple crown awards and lots and lots of trail stories. 34 triple crown awards were given out this year, and I’m excited that after the #CDT next year I’ll be one of them!

Photo by Jeff Kish

Photo by Jeff Kish