hobolog :: Outdoor Adventure

Time for outdoor lovers to defend the federal roadless areas created in 2001 in state-by-state battles. Idaho first, then Colorado, then…

Take Action Here

It’s hard to see from Colorado what the proposed California state park closures would mean to visitors, so it’s nice to see some personal comments on the parks in an outdoor enthusiast’s blog.

I’ve kept my eye out for a good hot springs map for a while. Free Geography Tools found it for me! Draw a box to zoom in, select the information tool, and click on red dots for info on hot springs. Orange dots are warm. Yeehaw!

A bookmark for me: I must read about Buck Nelson’s solo traverse of the Alaskan Brooks Range. Thanks to besthike.com.

Gruevy & Donna’s last CDT journal entry is an excellent trail tale. They hiked nearly the entire trail with an unanswered marriage proposal, and a concealed five-pound stone. Cheers to them.

My Dad was born further down the Salween in China in a Lisu village, and I’ve always wanted to visit the area. I had even dreamed of being the first to paddle it. These folks stayed in Tibet to keep it legal, but I’ll still want to read the whole trip report.

(Via Adventure Blog)

There a lots of through-hiker journals on the internet, but I don’t see too many posts about the difficulties of starting life in the mainstream world again after a long hike. Garret the Onion has a good post on his general status after his CDT Yo-Yo.

Update:Another one I’ve been looking for, Jason of x360 briefly describes being back in society after his 13-year expedition.

I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, especially White Crow, but journeys aren’t governed by wishes. Ouch, ouch, ouch. Get well soon, Crow.

Francis Tapon has finished the first documented yo-yo (through-hike in both directions, in one season) of the Continental Divide Trail, with Garret The Onion finishing soon after. Congrats to them both for an amazing and inspiring feat!

Maybe this mile-by-mile account of groceries and lodging on the PCT is only fascinating to those who have done some miles on the trail. I loved it.

Jason of Expedition 360 is nearing the end of his 15-year saga, and has posted some of his reactions. I know from much smaller journeys that the end is like a taste of death, and I’m feeling sympathy for him.

Glenn Dunmire is attempting to hike the continental divide. Not the trail, the actual divide - an unfathomable difference. He’s been underway since April, time to catch up on his journals.

Emma and Brendan finished walking the Great Wall of China while I was out on a walk of my own. Theirs has been a travel blog to aspire to. The final post has the twinge of grief that I think is inherent in the finishing of large, earnest endeavors. A cyberhobo bow goes out to them.

This 16-year-old Ozark kid describes it, after he caught the offending snake, put it in his bait bucket, and drove himself to the emergency room.

NEMO and Pouch have made it through the rough Cumbres to Wolf Creek section without ditching the trail:

Day 3 was completely socked in, we could not see more than 100 feet in front of us sometimes, walking through snow up to my shoulders that was sometimes consolidated and sometimes soft, thus postholing, following just our wits and good old fashioned map and compass combined with the one waypoint we had on Mr. Leys map on Pouchs GPS. At one point we were almost in a white out and could have walked off a cliff and not known it. I was a wreck. I felt like an animal going into the forest to die, just wandering around in the mist.

Bethany paid the price for incredible scenery:

the scenery was amazing. i found myself trying to remember anyplace i had hiked that was as beautiful, and had a hard time coming up with anything… endless snow-capped mountains… had a hard time keeping pace because i was just looking around gawking so much. at one point, the trail was a little crumbly and i lost my footing and landed on my face. ended up with a bloody nose and some scrapes across the bridge of my nose… but i guess that’s a fair price for looking around instead of watching my feet.

Bethany also gives a summary of the breakup of “Team F Yeah”:

- shaggy is continuing north through the snow
- haiku is flipping up to cenral wyoming to hike south to here, then will return to finish his hike northbound
- tarn is skipping up a couple hundred miles and continuing north
- star is off to see a boy for a week or two
- d=rt is hiking south from denver on the colorado trail, opting to add an extra couple hundred miles to his summer’s itinerary
- i’m taking some time off to go back to north dakota for my grandmother’s funeral. i’ll be back here next week to hopefully continue north.

Some southbounders are gettin started, including WILDCAT:

The group learned recently that they would have to wait till Saturday to begin their hike. (The rangers will only let a few hikers in each day, so the campgrounds aren’t crowded.) However, according to Wildcat’s phone call tonight, the only way the rangers would let them in was if they’d hike north to south! So…in order to avoid a whole day of sitting around tomorrow, they’ll start: hike north-to-south through Glacier National Park, take the shuttle south to where they left off, and then begin their southbound hike!

The mountains of southern Colorado are spitting out northbounders in packs, just like they did to us in June of 2004. From Haiku:

In the five minutes that we sat and ate some snacks, the sky turned grey and clouds rushed across the sky from the direction of the mountains ahead of us. We suddenly couldn’t see some of the peaks because of the clouds (remember, we’re at 12,000′, so clouds are pretty much level with us). We decided it would not be safe to be clinging to the side of a snowy mountain in the fog, and perhaps rain and hail, when we needed to be able to see in order to navigate. We needed a way down off the mountain now, but the slope just to our east was a sheer cliff. We backtracked to a saddle we’d passed a half mile ago, and made our way down, mostly by glissading down snowfields. On the way down Bethany and I also taught some ice axe self-arrest techniques, and we practiced self-arresting while sliding head first, and while glissading. Better to practice now than while sliding down a steep snow face!

The snow wasn’t the end, next comes stomach trouble:

I didn’t sleep at all last night. A series of trips into the woods all throughout the night meant that in the morning I was severely dehydrated, and had no food in my body. Both Shaggy and Bethany also had whatever bug it was, and we were very miserable in the morning.

They made it to Pagosa Springs, where they’re recovering.

For Jason of x360, a tiny grass hut is paradise on a hot Sudan afternoon (watch the video). Reminds me how happy I once was to find a dilapidated old bus in the Mojave desert.

More poetry from White Crow as he emerges from the lonely Wyoming plains to find some Wyoming hospitality and companionship.

Good things move away fast; fantastic things are a breath, a gust of wind we try to hold in our mouths, minds determined to never breathe again for fear of the loss of it…and then it is gone. The breath is exhaled and for lack of anything else to do, we sigh. Eventually, if we are lucky, and if we are easy in this life, we smile, turn, adjust our hats, and step toward the next breath, hoping.

Nocona’s newly started journal is quite promising (and includes quotes from other writers as inspirational as her own):

In my heart, I’ve wanted to cross the Rockies, just like Bridger or Coulter, since I was able to think. It’s something I’ve known, inside of me, and no matter how distracted I have become along the way, my internal compass always swings me back around to this. Traveling on foot through the Rockies is where I should be, where I belong.

Bethany on the privilege of hiking:

thruhiking is a privileged way of life. some days feel more so than others, but every day hiking is one that i’m not working, one where i can carry everything i need to live comfortably. i walk through beautiful places. and i meet beautiful people.

And Shaggy on the Pizza Hut buffet:

We made the pizza hut buffet. It wasnt so good as we hoped, but we got full.

What is it with Pizza Hut that even a starving hiker is disappointed? I made the mistake of visiting the Pizza Hut buffet in Gunnison after 8 days on the trail, and succeeded only in making myself so sick I was doubled over for two hours afterward…

The GOP knows how to squeeze money out of liberal hikers: throw a cowboy breakfast on the CDT. From Haiku:

We all ended up back at Doc Campbell’s to use the phone, and then we saw that there was a “cowboy breakfast” being put on across the road. It was sponsored by the New Mexico Republican Party, but food’s food so we all went over and ate under the giant GOP elephant banner. Those cowboys know how to cook: bacon, biscuits and gravy, baked beans, hash browns, and eggs, all kept warm over a fire. Fire-brewed coffee, too. Delicious.

“Hot and dry” New Mexico is treating this year’s northbounders to some water. Bethany has joined up with Shaggy & Haiku’s crew for the soaking:

then, about 130p, the daily thunderstorms blew in, including some pea-sized hail for good measure. it rained for a few hours and just as it was letting up our route left the gravel road for a minor forest track. and in about 10 steps, each shoe was caked with 3 inches of very heavy mud. it was comical at first, but quickly lost its novelty and just became exhausting. we slogged up the road for an hour and a half to make litle more than 3 miles before giving up early for the day. in order to reap the benefits of group travel, you have to keep the group together, which meant stopping early today.

The whole while, visions of Pie Town dance in their heads:

Star thinks she can eat a whole pie in Pie Town. I am saying that I can eat 1.75 pies in Pie town. The rules are that it has to be in one sitting, we have to pay for the other persons pie(s), if we fail. If we both forfeit, the person with the most of their portion left, loses. So its going to be on in 4 days. I hope Star knows who she is messing with… May god be with her.

And of course the real joys of reading New Mexico trail journals are the horrifying descriptions of the drinking water:

We got down into a valley, which was near where we could look for water, so some of us took the water bottles for the rest and headed toward the water, which was labeled “G C Tank No. 2″ on the map. A “tank” as we’ve learned means an earth embankment built up to contain a seep or a spring into a small pond, so that cattle can drink from them. This was some scummy water. When Shaggy dipped his water bottle in, it came up with a leech attached to it. There were sea monkeys swimming in our water bottles. I’m not joking. I was really glad I had my filter, but the others were treating with chemicals, so they had some sour faces when they saw the water.