Twig Adventures

HayDay 3: Tom and the Tortoise

Monday, April 3rd, 2023, 0840-1730Moab to S2 mm 5 BLM camp near Colorado River16.5 miles, elevation 3950′ I heard the wind beating at the door all night and didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning. The forecast called for 50 kt gusts through the day, and rain then snow overnight. Tuesday might have some more snow and then temps in the 20s overnight. Boo. The problem was, if we waited around town another day or two, we’d miss our permit for Canyonlands NP. It cost us $46 for the privilege of pitching our tents on bare earth, and no pit toilet at the site. It was the same deal we got every night free camping, the difference[…]

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HayDay 2: The Great Wall

Sunday, April 2nd, 2023, 0730-1500Arches National Park, S1 mm 11.7 to mm 24 Lions Park\Moab12 miles, elevation 4,000′ A coyote call to dawn was a great alarm clock in the morning. It was 32 degrees as I awoke but I felt pretty warm all night. We climbed out of the wash to begin an alternate across the slickrock and the sun hit us almost immediately. It warmed pretty quickly and soon we were stripping layers and donning sun protection. The slickrock alt was very cool and fun. We didn’t actually follow the line on the map but rather made up our own. Comments warned of the cryptobiotic soil but we managed to keep out of it by weaving from the[…]

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HayDay 1: Arches April Fools

Saturday, April 1st, 2023, 0630-1800Arches National Park: Devils Garden to S1 mm 11.7 BLM land.17 miles, elevation 4,300′ After all the running around, planning, and fretting, it was finally time to start the trail! It wasn’t too cold overnight and I slept really well…with earplugs to drown out the highway noise. We were up and moving before it was barely light. We walked 2 miles on the bike path to get to the park entrance. A nice lady picked us up just beforehand but her timed entry permit wasn’t until 9 am. The ranger asked her to turn around and wait but let us go in, since we were on foot. But now we needed another ride, as it was 18[…]

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HayDay 0: Ramblings

This is a long post, done so mostly for my own recollection of my preparations and travels prior to the hike. It encompasses several weeks, just to give an idea of how much pre-planning the hike involved. It was a good couple weeks visiting family and friends…good training at altitude in Colorado, too. Stellar and I had planned to head to Utah sooner, checking out some day hikes as we placed our food and water caches. But it was so bloody cold and snowy, we extended our stay in sunny (and kind of warm) CO. We spent the extra days at our friend Jolly Rancher’s home near Westcliffe \ Rosita. I met him on the Colorado Trail in 2017 and[…]

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2023: Introducing the Hayduke T̶r̶a̶i̶l̶ Route

See here for my gear list. It seems like I’ve been stuck in the past for bit on this blog but it’s finally onto 2023! I did have a lot of catching up to do after last year. But really, I’ve also been preparing for another busy season of hiking. The Hayduke Route is the mother-of-all for eating up planning time and resources. Stellar, once again my hiking buddy for this rugged desert SW route, and I have actually been eying it since 2020. It was a no-go that year, for obvious reasons, but so too because I was still recovering from a blood clot in my brain, suffered after a long and tough 2019 hiking season. For one reason[…]

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2022 Year In Review

I wanted to do recap of all my hiking in 2022, which is something I should’ve been doing since I started this blog in 2017. Maybe I’ll do some back-posts over the next winter season to cover years 2017-2021. I like collecting stats in one tidy place. Call it ego or whatever, really I just want to keep track of everything for personal reflections. 2022 was a pretty busy year! I thru-hiked one specialty route, the Mogollon Rim Trail (MRT, courtesy of Brett Tucker and Melissa Spencer) and also one official National Scenic Trail, the Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT). These 2 thru-hikes were quite different from each other and afforded a very wide array of habitats, conditions, and experiences. They[…]

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2022 ALDHA-West Gathering / Triple Crown Awards

Saturday, September 24th, 2022, Keystone, Colorado I just wanted to do a quick post about the 2022 ALDHA-West Gathering. This is an annual event where hikers are honored for having completed the Triple Crown of Hiking: the Appalachian Trail, Continental Divide Trail, and Pacific Crest Trail. I actually completed this trilogy the year prior, but given my Aug-Nov southbound hike of the AT, it was too late to submit my accomplishments for that year. I guess it was meant to be, since having the Gathering in CO aligned perfectly a visit to my home state after the PNT. A hiker friend, Tim Sharp (aka Nine Lives), gave me a ride to and from the event. I only attended one day[…]

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CDT/CT Bonus 2022: Grays Peak, Argentine Spine, & Searle and Kokomo Passes to Leadville.

September 15-20, Thursday- MondayDay 1: Hermit Gulch TH to Grays and Torreys TH, 6.7 miles, 1600′ gain, Elevation 11,245′Day 2: Grays and Torreys TH to Webster Pass, 17.5 miles, 7100′ gain, 6500′ loss, Elevation 11,500′Day 3: Webster Pass to bench near Blair Witch Trail, just before Breckenridge, 24 miles, 3900′ gain, 6300′ lossDay 4: 5 miles into Breckenridge on the road, then 1 mile outside of Copper Mt ski resort.Day 5: Copper Mt to Tennessee Pass, 22 miles, 4000′ gain, 3700′ lossDay 6: Leadville to Denver via car This is trip report of a hike I did with my friend Suvi, who I first met on the PCT in 2018. This year she was hiking the CDT southbound. My pit-stop[…]

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PNT Flip-Flopper’s Guide

Breaking Rank by Breaking the Line (Flip-Flop Flilosophy) Everyone knows that a thru-hike is done by following a long trail continuously from end to end, and that there could be no other way, right? (Those most stuck in this mindset might also insist that northbound is the only possible direction…’NOBO or NOGOs’ may want to just stop reading here since the PNT is an east-west trail, which might be too mind-blowing:) Admittedly, a continuous line is usually the most logistically-easy and strategic plan, but also the most instinctual and traditional. Such journeys have their roots in religious pilgrimages, where the whole point is walking an unbroken path to arrive a place of significance, hopefully finding enlightenment along the way. A[…]

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PNT Trail Angels & Trail Magic Recognition

The PNT was a real joy when it came to Trail Angels and Trail Magic. There’s a pretty amazing network of people dedicated to supporting the trail and hikers. The trail towns are generally small and quaint, with many businesses striking a nice balance between providing for-profit services and being generously giving of their time and amenities. As such, many of the examples I’ve listed below came from kind proprietors and organizations, not just individual Trail Angels. I wanted to recognize these many instances of kindness and support, and also hopefully urge future hikers to patronize the hiker-friendly businesses and organizations. My apologies if I neglected to mention something or someone. I do my very best to list EVERYTHING, even[…]

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