Endless P Summer

Day 28 5/27 23 miles

Ghost Ranch was pretty cool. The place had AYCE (all you can eat) meals 3x a day and the food was good, I ate more than my share. Besides Speed, Queen B and myself there were a handful of other hikers there including Moses and Operator. These two are both from California and also ultrarunners, they are really the only other hikers that seem to be going about the same speed as us. We all stuck around for the buffet style breakfast this morning and then headed out around 8:30 with super heavy packs. It felt like I was carrying a piano. A grand piano. There’s supposedly a bunch of snow in this section so I walked out of Ghost Ranch with snowshoes, microspikes and an ice ax. Plus, since I plan on going a little slower due to the snow, I’ve got 5+ days worth of food. Once we got back on trail we climbed steeply through a red rock box canyon. I had the eye of the tiger for a little while and was crushing the uphill, even with all that weight on my back, but was stopped in my tracks suddenly by a big scary beige and black snake crossing the trail. Queen B said it was not that scary but I disagree. The trail climbed pretty much the rest of the day and around sunset we found a place to camp in an aspen grove on the side of the trail. Queen B posing, Speed crushingSnake!!!I counted well over a million dandelions

Day 29 5/28 19 miles

As I was falling asleep last night it seemed pretty warm, unusually warm, but I woke up around 4:30 and was super cold. The temperature must have plummeted at some point during the night. I got going nice and early and until the sun showed up the temps were pretty low. I saw lots of animals this morning; including a good sized cinnamon colored black bear that I must have spooked because it was running in the opposite direction, lots of elk even one with a tiny calf and I saw a tiny deer fawn. The hiking today wasn’t the easiest though. Early in the day we came across lots of blow downs, I think there was a mudslide or something through this section recently. Around 9 am we got up over 10,500 feet and had to walk through snow for a few hours. We all wore our microspikes for the first time and this greatly improved my traction but I still managed to posthole a few times. This isn’t the most pleasant experience, especially while wearing running shorts. The trail eventually brought us down to a valley with the mighty Rio Vallecitos running through it. With a dangerous crossing ahead of us we decided to put it off until morning. There was good camping in the nice flat meadow next to the river and since we quit a little earlier than usual the rest of the afternoon and evening was spent relaxing. Speed and QB traversing a snow fieldI love this trailDon’t fall in!

Day 30 5/29 24 miles

Great day out here! Started off crossing the mighty Rio Vallecitos on an icy log. I felt like Dana with his slick shoes in Goonies. Right as I got close to the other end, I slipped pretty good and almost went in but managed to catch myself on a branch. That was close! The rest of the day was uneventful but just all around awesome. We climbed up through a pine forest and then walked for miles through a huge open meadow or a mountain park. The last few miles brought us through an aspen grove and then down to a meadow containing the Rio San Antonio. This was quite the picturesque place to camp, I felt like I was inside an REI commercial. Queen B carefully mapping out her steps across the mighty Vallecitos Lots of elk in this meadow, just not in this picturewalking through an aspen grovethis REI ad actually came out of a magazine

Day 31 5/30 19 miles

1 month on trail, and what a month it was!! This was also our last full day hiking in New Mexico as tomorrow we should be crossing into the Centennial State (Colorado). First of all, I love New Mexico! It’s a beautiful state and the trail has been awesome through here, very different landscapes throughout and anything but repetetive. What stood out the most to me was how few people have been out enjoying the outdoors in the Land of Enchantment. Anyway today was a good day although maybe a little tougher than usual. I woke up to frost all over my tent, probably because I was next to a river and in a low lying meadow, also my tent was out in the open. Rookie mistake. Oddly though, only a couple hours after waking up with frost on my tent, I found an alpine lake to swim in. It was exhilarating. As luck would have it during this last section, the trail passed by these primitive campgrounds with pit toilets everyday around 9am. Let’s just say I haven’t dug any cat holes lately. I guess sometimes it’s better to be lucky then good. Alright enough of that personal nonsense. Today we walked through a good amount of snow and the navigating wasn’t simple but the scenery was incredible as usual. We stopped a little early at a nice dry spot because if we carried on any further we’d be sleeping in the snow. QB trying to keep her feet dryswam/bathed here this morning Speed cruising through a snowfield CDT is so radthe beefy San Juans in the distance, the snow capped ones, not those little peaks in the foreground

Day 32 5/31 10 miles

Shortly after breaking camp this morning we found ourselves putting our microspikes on and walking through miles of snow. After a few hours we crossed from New Mexico into Colorado finishing our 1st state. This was a big deal and a major milestone on the hike. I love New Mexico. The scenery has been beautiful and diverse, the people are friendly, and overall I think the place is underrated. I spent a week in NM a few years ago and I really liked it then but after walking through it over the past month I’ve grown quite fond of the place and felt a really strong pull to the state. Maybe someday I’ll buy some land out here with access to some nice trails and possibly a hot spring and put a trailer or a shipping container on it to live in. Maybe not. Until then keep reading this blog and I’ll probably tell you about falling in love with Colorado again. Right now I’m relaxing in the town of Chama, NM. We got to Cumbres Pass, CO shortly after crossing the border and hitched left to the closest town that happened to bring us back into New Mexico. As always feel free to follow me on insta for more pictures. @endlesspsummer

-Endless

PS All My Love!!!Me, Speed and QB at the NM/CO borderone last New Mexican sunrise Looking north into Colorado

1 Comment

Posted on May 31, 2017 by endlesspsummer

Hiking, Thru hiking, travel

cdt, colorado, continental divide trail, Hiking, new mexico, Thru hiking, travel

Day 25 5/24 19 miles

Yesterday afternoon Speed’s friend Brian came and picked us up in Cuba and he and his wife Jan put the 3 of us up at their house about an hour outside of town. Brian and Jan were great, they both retired young and spend their time having adventures, mountain biking, rafting, and raising a 1 year old golden retriever named Scout, all while living in a dugout house on a beautiful piece of property in a canyon outside Jemez Pueblo. Getting to their house we drove through San Ysidro village and past Jemez Pueblo, both places have been inhabited for hundreds of years. The 6 of us(including Scout) went to dinner in nearby Jemez Springs and I ate some authentic Northern New Mexican food. I slept in their camper van that acts as an extra bedroom and this morning Jan cooked us a substantial and delicious breakfast of French toast, sausage, and scrambled eggs with cheese and green chili. After breakfast Brian drove us back to Cuba and we got on trail around 10 am. The trail climbed out of Cuba and before long we were up over 10,500 feet. We walked over snow and through ankle deep icy cold water that was a result of recent snow melt. We then descended for awhile and climbed over and around countless blowdowns(trees that fell onto the trail) begore finding a suitable campsite. Brian and Jan’s awesome dugout house Scout! In the San Pedro peaks QB practicing walking in the snow Queen B and Speed splashing around

Day 26 5/25 25 miles

It was a windy night and it sounded cold outside my tent but it was surprisingly warmer than I expected as I faced the day this morning. The trail was quite pleasant as it dropped in elevation a couple thousand feet through a spruce forest and then climbed for awhile with views of red, yellow and orange rock walls. Eventually it opened up into a gigantic valley with sandstone walls all around, it was awesome. In the evening we crossed the mighty Rio Chama, a tributary of the Rio Grande and also the largest water source we’ve come across. This river was ripping and way higher than usual according to the locals. After the river the trail splits with an option to go east towards Ghost Ranch, so we headed in that direction for a few miles before finding a place to tent next to the Rio Chama. I love New Mexico in the morningSpeed powering up a steep climb I can never remember either h uge sandstone cliff walls crossing the mighty Rio Chama(on a bridge)

Day 27 5/26 9 miles

Last night I thought I was in the direct path of a tornado. I mean I didn’t really think that but since I’ve never been in the direct path of a tornado before I wasn’t quite sure that I wasn’t. All of a sudden, as I was resting peacefully in my tent, it got wicked windy for a few minutes and even collapsed my tent, but that might have been due to my shoddy tent pitching skills. The wind only lasted a few minutes then subsided but it did come back with a vengeance a couple hours later just to wake me up again. Eventually I made it through the night and walked the 9 miles to Ghost Ranch this morning. I know what you’re thinking and the answer is; I don’t know if this place is haunted or not but it probably is. It’s a resort with people visiting from all over and famous for being the home of the artist Georgia O’Keefe as well as the setting for many movies. I think Ghost Ranch is a bit of a milestone on the trail, not unlike Kennedy Meadows on the PCT. North of here the trail gets into the Southern San Juan mountains and lots of snow, higher elevations, and variable conditions. What I’m saying is; after Ghost Ranch the trail gets tougher. There will be lots of decisions to be made in the next couple of weeks. In a perfect world I would like to continue right along with the CDT but it’s possible I’ll have to audible and switch it up for safety’s sake, especially since it’s a higher than average snow year. I just picked up a few things that I mailed myself ahead of time including snowshoes, microspikes, and an ice ax, so I’ll be a little more prepared for the upcoming challenges but I still might have to seek alternatives. One thing we can possibly do is take the Creede cutoff and that would put us at lower elevations, this would be continuous footsteps north but we would be going around some pretty dope mountains that I want to see. Many people do this thing where they flip up to Wyoming and do a stretch of the trail up there while they wait for the snow to melt and then come back to the San Juans later on. Another option is to flip all the way up to the Canadian border and start hiking south until we get back to where we jumped off trail. The option I’m most interested in, if it doesn’t make sense to plow right through, is to hitch over to Southern Utah or Northern Arizona and do a little exploring for a couple weeks. Stay tuned and I’ll let you know where I end up. And like always feel free to find me on insta for more pictures @endlesspsummer.

-Endless

PS All My Love!!! At Ghost Ranch QB and Speed walking over a suspension bridgethe mighty Rio Chama near our camp last night

Grants, NM

Day 16 5/15 23 miles

I spent most of the day yesterday and last night at the Toaster House in Pie Town. This place is a really cool old house that Nita, a local trail angel, owns and lets hikers and bikers and travelers spend the night at. It was weird that after barely seeing any hikers for a week on the trail, there was about a dozen others staying at the Toaster House. I ate twice at the Pie Cafe yesterday and this morning I stuffed my face with a delicious breakfast burrito before leaving town at the Gatherin’ Place with Queen B, Silver, Trooper and Quiksilver. Queen B and I then headed out and walked along a dirt road into the desert. Shortly after leaving town we took a right onto the Cebolla alternate to head towards the El Malpais National Monument. About 15 miles out we stopped and had lunch and refilled our water at the Thomas Ranch. John and Enzy Thomas are an older couple that let hikers come by to fill up on water and while there they entertain us with the stories of their life. Tonight we’re cowboy camping under a juniper tree right on the edge of a huge open range. Also camping here are a bunch of fellow PCT ’15 alums including Catwater, an Alaskan snowboarder, as well the Ravens, a family of 4 that thru hikes together.

Day 17 5/16 27 miles

I woke to a chilly morning with a rather spectacular sunrise on the horizon and the sound of coyotes howling in the distance. The trail followed a dirt road along the open range for about 7 or 8 miles until climbing up through Armijo canyon and then back down through Sand Canyon into another huge open range. There were menacing clouds all around us but we managed to outrun (or outwalk) any type of storm. Plus Queen B is like a millimeter taller than me so I wasn’t too worried if it did start to thunder and lightning. We reached the road and out of harm’s way and there we filled up our water bottles at a cow tank. There was plenty of algae in the water and one of my bottles looked like it was full of Ecto Cooler circa 1990. After a few miles of road walking (the highway kind) we reached El Malpais National Monument and ascended up the rim trail. The rim trail was pretty awesome. Lots of great views of some massive lava fields and eventually we got to a rocky outcropping that overlooks La Ventana Arch. This is where we stopped for the night, eating our dinner at the ledge and camping a little further back in the trees. It was quite an incredible day. La Ventana Arch from our dinner ledgeQueen B hiking along the rim trailsurrounded by thunderheads

Day 18 5/17 25 miles

There was no rush to crawl out of my tent this morning since it was pretty cold so I got a later than normal start and didn’t begin walking until 6:45. I guess it was pretty windy up on the rim but I didn’t notice because I put to use some ear plugs that I found and slept soundly. Right away we walked or rock hopped down a steep drainage to the base of the magnificent La Ventana Arch. From there we followed the highway for a few miles before taking the Acoma-Zuni trail that travels across 8 miles of lava fields. Ancient Puebloan people set up cairned trails across these lava fields that still exist today to connect neighboring pueblos by trail. The lava fields were made up of hardened black molten rock with huge caves and crevices all over the place, it was a good place to be paying attention to where I was walking. We then turned onto the Bonita-Zuni alternate for about 15 miles before finding a campsite tucked in some woods at the base of a canyon wall. QB crossing the lava fields windmill producing some high quality H2Oview from our campsite

Day 19 5/18 10 miles

Last night was cold, maybe the coldest night yet. It had rained and sleeted through the night and the top of the canyon was covered in white once I faced the day. I followed a dirt road for about 10 miles as I walked towards Grants, NM and a few cars passed me covered in snow. It warmed up a little as the morning went on but not by much, it’s supposed to be unseasonably cold tonight so a good one to be inside. Queen B and I checked out the New Mexico mining museum in Grants and then ate some authentic New Mexican cuisine at El Cafecito. This place was legit! The sopapillas with honey are my new favorite food. Our friend Speed is meeting us here in town tomorrow and joining us for a section, so we’ll be spending the rest of the day relaxing and doing town chores; eating, bathing, eating, laundry, eating, resupplying, and eating. Walking out of Zuni Canyon this morning this could be me but I don’t have a motorcycle enjoying sopapillas and honey

Until next time,

Endless

PS All my love!!!

PPS Feel free to follow me on insta @endlesspsummer

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Posted on May 18, 2017 by endlesspsummer

Hiking, travel

cdt, continentaldividetrail, el malpais, Hiking, la ventana arch, land of enchantment, new mexico, thruhike, travel

Pie Town, NM

Day 8 5/7 22 miles

Sunday morning I treated myself by sleeping in until 7 in the loft of the A Space gallery in Silver City. Before leaving town I stuffed my face at Vicki’s Eatery for breakfast then relaxed for a little bit at Javalina’s (it’s a coffee shop, get it?). Queen B and I walked out of town around 10 through a residential neighborhood before getting back up into the Gila wilderness. After a few miles we took a left and started on the Gila River alternate route that will link back up with the CDT further North along the trail. We met up with Trooper, a hiker from Pittsburgh, at a little creek in the late afternoon and walked with him for about the next 5 miles or so. The three of us camped on some flat rocks near Hell’s Canyon spring. Ironic that it is called Hell’s Canyon because due west of us we watched the sun drop into some clouds along the horizon depicting what looked to me like the stereotypical version of heaven. The version of heaven depicted on prayer cards given out at funerals. If such a place exists, this just might be it.

Day 9 5/8 25 miles

Early the next morning Queen B and I walked about a dozen miles before the Trail reached the Gila River at the bottom of a canyon. The alternate follows the river as it serpentines through a beautiful red rock canyon for miles. In all we will end up crossing the river something like 200 times. Queen B said she would keep track but lost count after 4, I didn’t even try. It’s slow going with all the river crossings but it’s been incredible. We walked for the rest of the day crossing the river countless times and dropping our packs to jump in for a swim whenever we felt like it. In the evening we found a nice soft sandy beach to camp on that even came with hot springs! There was a small waterfall into a hot pool with a muddy bottom surrounded by vegetation.

Day 10 5/9 15 miles

Tuesday I had no reason to jump out of bed too early because I was picking up a resupply box at Doc Campbell’s outpost and it didn’t open until 10. We did a few miles of river crossings in the morning before the trail reaches a bridge. That road skirts along the canyon for awhile and eventually to Doc’s store. A nice little pit stop. I ate some food, did a little maintenance and picked up a box of junk food I mailed myself a couple weeks earlier. We carried on with every intention of checking out the Gila Cliff Dwellings but the sky threatened T-storms and since it was 5 miles of road walking out of the way, and not guaranteed to be letting people in because of the potential for weather, we decided to skip it. The trail then drops back into a canyon containing the middle fork of the Gila. We found a hot spring right away with super hot water and laid in it for awhile looking up at the huge canyon walls. This day was awesome! The red, yellow and orange canyon walls were quite the sight. We continued to cross the river over and over while craning our necks to look at the walls and spires that were everywhere. The day ended with another stellar campsite just up a short path from yet another hot spring. This one a little cooler but cleaner and clearer and perfect for a good soak after a long day of walking. I swear hot springs are good for the soul. The Gila is an amazing place, borderline magical. It should be considered a national treasure. And there’s nobody here! 2 nights in a row we got a campsite with our own private hot spring, it’s unbelievable.

Day 11 5/10 24 miles

Wednesday I spent another full day walking along the Gila and we’re camped just at the edge of the wilderness boundary. This place is on my short list for favorite places ever visited, and we’ve had it practically all to ourselves. Today was the coldest it’s been so far, so less swimming in the river but we still had to cross it like a million times. And I’ve had wet feet constantly for the last 3 days so my toenails will probably grow extra long this week. Queen B got stuck pretty good in quicksand today, less than an hour after we were talking about how every kid grows up with a built in fear of quicksand. What are the chances? She lived though, but apparently she was in it pretty deep, up to her thighs and had to rescue herself a la Indiana Jones(not sure if this even happened in the movies, I never saw them). With all the river crossings it’s tough to move quickly through this section but that’s fine with me. The Gila River has been thoroughly enjoyable and I can’t believe how well kept a secret it is, I actually feel a little guilty broadcasting this.

Day 12 5/11 30 miles

It was freezing this morning when I woke up. I know this because my shoes, socks and gaiters were frozen stiff. I had no choice but to put them on anyway and start walking. Eventually they thawed out once I started walking. The trail crossed the icy river about half dozen more times as we climbed up to Snow Lake. Right as we got up to the lake we saw a herd of about 30 elk also out for a walk this morning. There’s a national forest campground at the lake and I learned from a camper there that the temperature got down to the 20’s last night. Luckily, it warmed up considerable as the day went on. The trail climbs up through another canyon and then travels over vast rolling plains(think Dances With Wolves) for about 5 miles before joining a forest road for awhile. On the forest road I met Johnny from Germany, the first thru hiker I’ve seen in days besides QB. I walked with him for a couple hours and he planted some ideas in my head like riding a bike all around the Mediterranean and hiking the Dream Path from Munich to Venice. Today was a good day, nothing spectacular, but it was enjoyable and a good day to crush big miles as we ended up going over 30 for just the second time of the hike. Best hot spring ever!!!

Day 13 5/12 30 miles

Last night I dreamt of scrambled eggs smothered in cheese. What a weird thing to dream about, that’s not even part of my regular diet. My appetite had started to increase the last couple days but I guess that makes it official; if I’m dreaming about food then my hiker hunger has most definitely kicked in. It was another cold one last night, not frozen socks in the morning cold, but still cold. Probably because we were camped pretty high, up above 8500 feet. The trail climbed up over 9000 feet this morning and for the first time I saw snow on the ground. We rejoined the official CDT from the Gila River alternate just a mile into the day and of course I went the wrong way for half a mile before noticing and had to bush whack up a steep hill to get back on track. The rest of the day went smoothly, lots of single track through pine forest climbing and dropping over and over while eventually dropping down to just below 8000 feet where we are camped near a cow pond 35 miles south of Pie Town. Walking up out of the canyon

Day 14 5/13 26 miles

Another cold morning but a really nice relaxing day. Today was mostly a dirt road walk through pine forest but included some nice climbs. We topped out around 9600 feet on Mangas mountain that even had a working, staffed fire lookout tower. I checked that out of course and spotted a wildfire in the distance. Not about to pose a threat to my hike though. The forest service worker Mike, has a pretty cool job, probably on par with being a lighthouse keeper.

Day 15 5/14 9 miles

Pie Town! My first shower in 11 days, my record’s 12 but I’ve gotta strike while the irons hot, or when my pits are smelly, or when there’s a shower available. Like today. Pie Town is this tiny little town in New Mexico with a couple of restaurants that serve pie of course and home of the Toaster House, a really cool little hostel for us hikers with toasters all over the place. It’s been 5 days and 130 miles since I’ve had any kind of civilization and now I’m about to enjoy the fruits of my labor and relax for the rest of the day. Feel free to follow me on insta for more pictures of this adventure @endlesspsummerthe Toaster House

-Endless

PS All My Love!!!

Silver City, NM

On Thursday I got up early to get a good start for the walk out of Lordsburg. A continental breakfast slowed me down a little, but I was okay with that. The Econolodge in Lordsburg is kind of like the unofficial headquarters for starting the CDT. Volunteers who are running the shuttle service stay for about a month and hikers beginning the trail usually stay there the night before as well as hikers who have walked into town from the border. Also some hikers are laid up there due to an early injury waiting to heal before getting back on trail. So the breakfast room was pretty busy at 5:30 in the morning with hikers eager to start which made for a fun way to begin the day. Queen B and I knew we had about 15 miles of flat, hot, dry desert before the trail started to climb into the cooler mountains of the Gila Wilderness. We also planned on crushing big miles that day (which we did) so wanted to get a jump on the day.

We ripped across the flat waterless section walking fast and rationing our water because it was a total of 18 miles to the first water source (a windmill that pumped nice cool clean water from the ground). Carrying water can be a tough balance. It’s something I’m always aware of especially in dry sections. How many miles until the next water, and how much do I have left are questions I need to know the answer to at all times. I never want to carry too much because it’s heavy but also don’t want to carry too little because I’ll dry up. I eat salty foods to help stay hydrated and look out for signs of dehydration. A liter is roughly 2 lbs and I try not to carry more than 3 at any given time. That’s pretty much my max. If I’ve got a 20 mile waterless section I’ll camel up at a water source and then take about 3 liters with me. Ideally I’d like to carry a liter or less and that’s definitely manageable in wetter areas. On the AT for example I rarely carried more than a liter and usually about half of one. I apologize for all this boring water talk but it’s a subject that’s often discussed. The rest of the day went smoothly and at 31 miles was our biggest day so far. We camped at the trailhead for Burro Peak where we met Colleen and Robert who were just beginning a motorcycle trip back and forth across the US, sounded pretty rad. Non-hikers take note.

Friday was pretty non eventful except that it was a really beautiful day as the trail rolled through Gila Wilderness. We finally encountered our first natural water sources but we never came across another human being all day, it was desolate out there. If the day was uneventful, Friday night was a different story. We dropped down into Saddle Rock canyon around 6:30 and this place was sweet! There was a water source here and the canyon walls provided coverage from potential wind while the floor was sandy soft and flat. A primo campsite, besides the fact that it was in an arroyo or a wash. The skies were clear however and we took our chances that a flash flood wasn’t coming through. Plus I had an escape route planned just in case.

Around 1 am I woke up to some rustling and looked up to see a gigantic black bear about 20 feet away, first I thought it was a cow but then realized this was a huge bear. Biggest I’ve ever seen. If I was alone I probably would have tried to yell it off right away but I didn’t want to wake QB (you gotta get your sleep out here). I watched it for about 20 minutes and it didn’t pay any mind to us but still made me uneasy. Then it moved to a ledge just behind us but out of view. I layed still for awhile and after a few minutes of not hearing anything I got up out of my sleeping bag and on my knees facing the bear who at the same time propped himself up and was staring right back at me. I think this is when he first noticed me. We stared at each other for what felt like 4-5 minutes in a New Mexican standoff but was probably more like 30 seconds. Finally I blinked, I clapped my hiking sticks together a couple times and the bear took off up the canyon while also waking up QB. I should have just done that in the first place. My adrenaline was pumping and I definitely had trouble sleeping the rest of the night. Queen B unsuccessfully attempted to lull me to sleep by reading Huck Finn but in the end she just put herself to sleep. I spent the next 4 hours trying to sleep but also looking up at the stars and enjoying tons of shooters. That was a real night; sleeping on a canyon floor, getting visited in the middle of the night by a huge bear, and being entertained for hours by shooting stars. I’ll take that over tossing and turning in my bed at home anytime.

I couldn’t sleep so around 5:30 just got walking. It was cool for awhile, hiking through Saddle rock canyon during sunrise but after about 5 miles the trail reaches the road and you have to follow that into town. It’s a 13 mile long roadwalk to Silver City, the highway kind. It was tedious and I was tired, but since we didn’t dilly dally we ended up getting into town around 1pm and were able to enjoy the rest of the day in town.

Silver City is sweet! This place is a blend of artists, musicians, hippies, eccentrics and outdoor people. We met this guy Jean-Robert who let us crash in his incredible art gallery. This place was awesome, I can’t do it justice by describing it so check it out on insta @a.spacegallery. Easily one of the coolest indoor places I’ve ever spent the night. Oh and I got a new shirt at a thrift store here in town. Lots of turquoise for the Land of Enchantment. My other one was literally falling apart at the seams, I even had to patch a big hole before leaving Lordsburg with a piece of a pillow case I found in a hiker box and some superglue.

This morning I spoiled myself by sleeping in until 7 which was nice and I’m super excited about the section coming up. I’ll be hiking along the Gila river, supposed to be awesome! So stay tuned, and follow me on insta for pics of this adventure @endlesspsummer

-Endless

PS All my love!!! The desert leaving Lordsburg In Saddle Rock Canyon Queen B enjoying the sunrise walking out of the canyon Roadwalk to Silver City, the highway kind A Space Gallery Silver City, NM

Lordsburg, NM

Hashtag Bootheel! Currently sitting in some nice cool air conditioning inside an Econolodge in the small southern New Mexican City of Lordsburg. I spent the last 4 days walking here from the Mexican border across the state’s bootheel. The sun during the day down here is hot and shade is hard to come by but it’s nothing unreasonable. At night and early mornings are cool and crisp with the morning hours providing some of my favorite miles to walk. The sunsets and sunrises have been impressive and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Milky Way with such clarity before. The stars at night are big and bright, in New Mexico. The best is when I wake up in the middle of the night and look up, it’s indescribable really, just lots and lots and lots of stars. Let me bring you back a few days and explain how I got started on this hike.

I’ve been traveling and hiking with my friend Queen B and on Saturday the two of us took a shuttle from El Paso, TX to Silver City, NM. Silver City was hosting a festival for the hikers put on by the CDTC(Continental Divide Trail Coalition) and we caught the Saturday evening portion of it. It was cool, I ran into some old friends and got to watch a presentation from Pepper about his winter thru hike of the PCT. We were hoping to start our hike the next day and Wizard from the CDTC was very helpful getting us rides down to the Mexican border. First, Peru gave us a ride to Lordsburg where we stayed Saturday night (this is the same place I’m at now, sorry for the confusion) and the next morning Radar drove us down to the Crazy Cook monument where the trail begins. It was an eventful ride. It took about 3 hours for Radar to drive a total of 5 hikers in a big 2500 pickup to the border. About half of the ride is bumpy back roads off the highway that aren’t really maintained. I drank a ton of coffee that morning and had to pee so bad.

There’s really not much down here, besides the tiny town of Hachita that we stopped at while driving down and maybe a cattle ranch here or there in the distance. That doesn’t mean the desert isn’t alive. It’s greener than I thought it would be and I’ve seen a fair amount of wildlife including: a couple javelinas, a few herds of pronghorn, jack rabbits, cottontail rabbits, red tailed hawks, turkey vultures, small lizards, horned toads and a big gopher snake or something that I apparently missed stepping on less than an inch. I’m not sure what kind of snake this was and I wouldn’t even had known it was there if Queen B didn’t stop in her tracks and say, “Endless! What are you doing? You almost stepped on that snake’s head!” I wish she didn’t say anything because now I’ve been worried that snake is following me and will try to slither into my sleeping bag at night to cuddle. I’ve been a little more cautious since then.

This section has been tough but a really good start to the hike. Tough in that it’s hot and not much water and navigation can be difficult but the elevation profile has been mild and the miles have been fun. At times it can be a little uncomfortable but it hasn’t yet been unenjoyable. I’m really glad to be thru hiking again and it’s been fun to be back among the other hikers. There has been probably about a dozen other people in this stretch and I think all have thru hiked the PCT or the AT before, but mostly both.

We did about 15 today and got into town before noon for a nice long half day break with a shower, hot food, and clean clothes. Planning on getting up and on trail at the b-crack of dawn tomorrow and continue walking north to Canada. Next stop: Silver City!

-Endless

PS All My Love!

PPS Check out my insta for more pictures of this last section @endlesspsummer

Day 1 Crush City all the way to Canada, I hope! Queen B unsuccessfully securing a ride to Lordsburg from Silver City

I eat whatever I want and call it lunch

Shade fort

You’re never gonna make it! I sat on a piece of cactus the other day, cartoon character styleSnake!! Mexico on the left US on the right Crossing a road in the middle of nowhere Pyramid mountain

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Posted on May 3, 2017 by endlesspsummer

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cdt, continental divide trail, Hiking, land of enchantment, new mexico, thruhiking

El Paso, TX

Oh hot damn! About to head west for hopefully another wild and wooly summer of walking and living in the woods.

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated this thing so let me catch you up, my faithful reader, since my last post. I got back to Massachusetts at the end of September last year and got right into living what has started to become a bit of a routine life off trail. First of all I work as much as I can during the off season in order to be able to live this lifestyle. Ive really got no complaints, I had a good winter outside of work too. I ran trails all over Lynn Woods whenever I got the chance, started climbing indoors, and skied the East as much as my schedule allowed me too. I also took a trip out to Colorado to ski for a week in January and it was incredible!

One minor setback I had was in January when I took a terrible tumble on the slopes at Sunday River in Maine and did something to my knee. I’m not even sure what I did, I mean after awhile I got it checked out and stuff but the doctor gave me some long scientific name for it that I couldn’t remember even right after he said it: patella something or other. Anyway it slowed me down but didn’t stop me. I had to take a few months off from running but I still skied the rest of the year and was able to snowshoe. The knee is feeling pretty good now after I’ve been running on it for over a month and hopefully I’ll be firing on all cylinders for my upcoming hike. Undoubtedly the highlights of my off trail life this past season was becoming an uncle not once but twice. First to my nephew Will who was born last summer but I didn’t get a chance to meet until he was 2 months old and most recently to my niece Sawyer who is just a few weeks old and still just a little tiny peanut of a human. Alright enough about all that, let me tell you my plans.

This year I’m planning on hiking the Continental Divide Trail or the CDT. The CDT goes from the Mexican border through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, a little slice of Idaho and through Montana to the Canadian border. My plan is to start in the boot heel of New Mexico and travel north hopefully making it the whole way. The CDT is approx 3100 miles but there’s many different alternates and detours and what not. It’s a little different than the AT and the PCT in that sense. For instance on the AT there’s white blazes the whole way through and it’s relatively easy to follow from one end to the other. The CDT has a lot more variations, I may take one alternate route that will add 50 miles and another that might cut off 50 miles. We’ll see, it will be easier to say how many miles it actually is when I’m on the other side of it. My intention is to walk continual footsteps from Mexico to Canada and using the CDT as a guideline. Or at least cover the distance, like I might have to southbound a section then return by vehicle to that point(that’s kind of hard to explain so more on that little footnote later). If there’s something really cool to see and it’s not necessarily on trail, I’ll incorporate it into my route. On the other side of that if I have to get off the main trail and take other options for safety’s sake(such as avoiding severe weather or wildfires or other unknown reasons) I’ll do that as well. This trail goes through all kinds of different climates and I’ll potentially be facing many obstacles. It starts in the desert around 4000 feet and doesn’t get any lower. There won’t be much water and I will probably be encountering my most fiercest rival: the rattlesnake! as well as scorpions and tarantulas. In Northern New Mexico and Colorado I’ll get up over 10000 feet and be walking through snow covered mountains. I’ve mailed myself snowshoes and an ice ax to get through some of the more intense sections. I’ll drop back down into the Great Basin in Wyoming and once again be facing water shortages. Then I’ll be getting back into the mountains and hiking through places I’ve only heard of and seen pictures of; the Wind River Range, Yellowstone NP, and Glacier NP before crossing into the Waterton lakes region of Alberta. Parts of Wyoming and Montana are grizzly bear territory and also home to other predators such as wolves and mountain lions. Most animals can be dangerous but these ones especially so. Let’s just hope I don’t have any ‘very’ close encounters. Seeing a wolf in the wild however is one of my main goals in life. For real. I might even carry a tennis ball during these sections and if I do get the chance I’ll try to engage a wolf into a friendly game of fetch. In this plan, or dream, my new ally will then proceed to join me for the rest of my walk fighting off enemies and curling up into a ball at my feet when I lay down to sleep at night. This is just what I’ve heard of the trail and what I’ve learned while researching it. People are always asking me questions about it but besides the 300 or so miles that coincide with the Colorado Trail that I’ve already done, I don’t really know what I’m getting myself into. I have an idea of what it will be like, but I’ll have much better answers after I walk it. So can I let you know then? For now I’ll just tell you my immediate plans. I should be getting to El Paso this afternoon where I’m meeting my friend Queen B and we’re staying at a hostel in EP tonight. Tomorrow we’ve got a shuttle lined up to get us to CDT Days in Silver City, NM. (CDT Days is like a kickoff festival for the hikers. Lots of gear, food, trail angels and hikers. I’ve gone to these on the other trails and they’re fun) from Silver City we’re planning on getting down to Lordsburg where we originally had a ride lined up to the border for Sunday but that just recently fell through. Don’t panic though, we’ve got options. We’re either going to: a. hitch as close to the border as we can, then walk south to get there and turn around to start our northbound hike or b. southbound the first section from Lordsburg to the border then line up a ride to get us back to town or maybe c. take an alternate route altogether to start the hike. I’ll let you know, but I’ve got faith it will work out. After I figure that out I’m walking north until I get to Canada. We’re planning on meeting up with our friend Speed in Northern New Mexico so we’ll have a legit grownup with us when the trail starts to get real dicey. That’s the plan anyway, if you keep reading this blog I will literally keep you posted.

I understand that hiking the long trails isn’t exactly a mainstream activity so when I’m off trail I get a fair amount of questions about it and I tend to get the same ones over and over. I’ll try to answer some of those here:

1. I don’t carry a gun. First of all I’m not a gun person, second of all those things are heavy and I believe in traveling light.

2. I eat junk food and lots of it, as much as I can. I try to go light on gear so I can carry more food. I stop in town whenever I’m near one, stuff my face while I’m in town and then resupply on however much food I think I’ll need until I get to the next one. When I walk all day everyday for months on end, I’m ravenous. When I’m not eating food I’m thinking about food. I love to eat. And I don’t carry a stove, for dinner I usually eat tortillas with tuna fish or pepperoni or salami. If I’m feeling froggy I might cold soak some ramen in a talenti gelato container, add some peanut butter and call it pad thai. If I’m lucky I’ll find a mountain house in a hiker box and for a last resort I’ll eat cold Idahoans.

3. I don’t take showers, I don’t wear deodorant and I wear the same clothes everyday. I smell like a wild beast, a feral animal. Probably worse. I let my pheromones run free but so does everybody else out there, thru hikers anyway. It’s one of the easiest ways to tell if somebody is out for a weekend or a summer, their b.o. or lack thereof. You probably won’t believe me but you get used to it. I shower and do laundry when I’m in town but that’s only about every 4-5 days. My record’s 12 days but I know some real dirtbags that have gone longer than that. I do swim in rivers and lakes whenever I get the chance and I like to think my off trail hygiene is decent.

4. A bunch of people hike these trails. I’m not out here all alone. For the most part I like to spend a lot of the actual walking by myself and at my own pace but I prefer to travel in a group or with a partner and I usually always camp with others and like to take my breaks with others.

5. I carry a portable charger, and it’s not a solar charger. I’ve tried a solar charger before without much luck. I charge up both my phone and charger in town and then keep my phone on airplane mode and low battery mode. I try not to run out of battery but it does happen. It’s something I’m constantly monitoring and making adjustments to.

I hope this helps, these seem to be the most common questions I get asked. If you’ve got any other questions about thru hiking, by all means fire away. No promises on the right answer though. I’m not quite sure I’m any good at this I’ve just done it a lot. To learn more about thru hiking and the long trails you can listen to this podcast that I’ll be featured on called Sounds of the Trail. If you don’t know what a podcast is, ask a millennial and they’ll set you up. My friend Hey Girl was a correspondent last year on the AT and she suggested that I should be the guy this year for the CDT. I sent in some interviews and an introduction to Gizmo who runs the show and it looks like I’m in for this season. So anyway I listened to the introduction episode last week and of the 5 people that will be correspondents this season there’s 2 others from Mass. A husband and wife team doing a flip flop hike of the AT, Erin and Adrienne are from Beverly. I suggested we meet up before we hike since they’re only 10 miles away so we did just that. I rode my bike up to Beverly the other day and met up with Erin. As coincidence would have it this was a long lost buddy of mine that I used to tend bar with at Bennigan’s like 12-13 years ago. I haven’t heard hide nor hare of him in years, I mean this was before the age of facebook and everything so we never kept in touch and now we’re both going to be correspondents on the same hiking podcast. I always say the truth is stranger than fiction and as crazy as it seemed to me at first, I wasn’t too surprised. This kind of stuff happens to me all the time, my life is a series of eerie coincidences.

So now you can read what I write here, if you want to see my pictures you can follow me on instagram @endlesspsummer and if you’re still not sick of me you can listen to me on the Sounds of the Trail podcast. I’ll provide a link to the first episode I’m on and you just might be hooked. soundsofthetrail.com

Here’s to a great summer! Stay tuned and feel free to subscribe to this blog. If you wish to contact me, instagram is probably your best bet. @endlesspsummer

-Endless

El Paso, TX

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Posted on April 29, 2017 by endlesspsummer

Hiking, Thru hiking, travel

cdt, elpaso, hike, Hiking, thruhike, travel

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Endless P Summer

Chama, NM

Ghost Ranch, NM

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Pie Town, NM

Silver City, NM

Lordsburg, NM

El Paso, TX