After nine days on the trail we are enjoying our first zero day at the home of our friends William and Colleen who run the Los Manos Bed and Breakfast out of their home in Buena Vista (lovely place - beautiful straw bale house totally off the grid, amazing mountain views and a B and B friendly resident feline).
“Buena” or “good” to you gringos does not even begin to describe the views (vista) from the town or the nearby Continental Divide. Most definitely an understatement. But, then again I think that words, and even photos, fail to adequately portray the sublime alpine scenery. From micro scale: Moss Campion, Stone Crop …
We’re in Grants NM; generally, our halfway mark, about one month and almost 400 miles done and about the same to go this year. June sure went by fast.
Since leaving Reserve, for the last week we have been mostly hiking on roads, some asphalt, some gravel, some dirt, some slippery clay, but all were made for other purposes.
Water - either not enough, or too much, has been a constant concern. It has been a long dry sections of “trail” where there is no natural water. We’ve had to rely mainly on stock tanks fed by windmills and have had to deal with the uncertainty of their availability by carrying 2 …
From the CDT trailhead at Crazy Cook (on the Mexican border) to Lordsburg we walked through 84 desolate miles of dry, arid desert along a route marked by a few posts, following old jeep roads or cactus whacking all the way. It was a physically, mentally and emotionally challenging bit of hiking, pushing us to certain limits of endurance. The heat, rocks and rough terrain took their toll on our legs and feet. Carrying 2+ gallons of water, while necessary, added weight and stress.
Our approach has been to rise at first light and walk until late morning, find or create shade for a long mid day break from the …
Dear Friends and Family,
After finally clearing some potential hurdles, Deb, (the Walking Carrot) and I are taking off again this summer on another long hike. Our intention is to walk an unbroken path which will cover roughly the “southern third” of the CDT. We plan to spend June and July along the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), starting at the “official” CDTA monument at “Crazy Cook” at the Mexican border and heading north. We intend to be hiking until the end of July and aiming, if all goes well, for Spring Creek Pass in Colorado, about 8 weeks and 820 miles of hiking. You can check our …
Deb and I are back home, at least for the time being. We left Togwotee Pass (pronounced “TOE-guh-tee”) on Sunday with the intent to spend 9 days hiking through the Wind River Mountain range.
“Togwotee” means “from here we can go anywhere”, so named for its promise and possibilities. The Absoroka Mountains to the north are eroded volcanic formations, the Wind River mountains to the south are granitic. Dubois and the Wyoming “badlands” lie to the east, while Jackson Hole and other large valleys with lots of water lie to the west. Togwotee pass is more than a geologic crossroads, it’s at a convergence of wildlife habitats, forming both natural …
