Twig Adventures

DWTH Day 2: The Highpoint of the Trail

February 4, 2025 kaulua26 Desert Winter Thru Hike

Thursday, Jan 30th, 2025, 0730-1630Sabino Canyon entrance to Romero Canyon pools, Section 1A mm 3.516 miles, elevation gain 3k Josh once again went out of his way to drive me to my (2nd) start point at Sabino Canyon. This would have been where I started the day before, had it not been for the weather. We arrived just after 7 am, as it was getting light. I so enjoyed the conversation with Josh on the way, plus the warmth in his car, I didn’t want to get out. I realized I was stalling, trying to soak up as much human interaction as possible because I knew I was going to be alone for almost 2 months straight…one of the major[…]

DWTH Day 1: Rainmaker

February 1, 2025 kaulua26 Desert Winter Thru Hike

Wednesday, Jan 29th, 2025, 0750-1700Catalina SP fee station to El Camino del Cerro (Sweetwater) TH SNP, Section 1A mm 8.5 to 27.519 miles I stayed up way too late trying to sync all my last minute plans and then had a terrible time trying to sleep. For some reason, all the negative thoughts I sometimes get before a hike flooded my mind. It had been awhile since I struggled with so much anxiety. I barely got more than 2 hours of sleep before I had to get up. Josh generously offered to drive me to Catalina State Park before he had to go to work in the morning, so we left bright and early at 6 am. Once I got[…]

DWTH Pre-Game show

January 31, 2025 kaulua26 Desert Winter Thru Hike

I flew from Miami to Tucson on January 28th, just in time to welcome the rain and cold sweeping in on a front. The forecast called for a 60% chance of rain the next day, planned start of my hike, plus snow up to an inch on nearby Mt Lemmon. As was typical, this left me scrambling to change my plans. But I wasn’t at all put-off by such weather; in fact, I welcomed it as a positive sign. I was hopeful it was the start of the usual winter precipitation patterns returning to the SW. The region had been hit by a very bad drought since the previous spring. The summer monsoons had been weak to non-existent and the winter[…]

Introducing the Desert Winter Thru Hike

January 23, 2025 kaulua26 Arizona Trail, Desert Winter Thru Hike, Pacific Crest Trail, San Diego Trans County Trail

From the Hike Invention website: “The Desert Winter Thru-Hike (WTH!) is an adventurous 800-mile hiking route highlighting 20 Wilderness Areas, 7 National Parks and Monuments, and remote protected lands of the Sonoran, Colorado, and Mojave deserts. Featuring mainly low to mid elevation (2000′) desert valleys and mountain ranges occurring at lower latitudes of the American Southwest (the highest point is Harquahala Mountain (5,691ft/1735m), the Desert WTH offers a true winter season thru-hiking option for very experienced walkers looking to extend the US hiking season into the December – February timeframe. And yet despite the aridity and remoteness of this warmer region, the route has been carefully crafted to greatly reduce or eliminate the need for caching water in advance, while[…]

2024 Summer/Fall Summary & Stats, Year In Review

January 6, 2025 kaulua26 14ers, Benton MacKaye Trail, Continental Divide Trail, Foothills Trail, Grand Canyon Rafting Trip, Great Divide Trail, Short Hikes, Teton Crest Trail, Uinta Highline Trail, Wind River High Route

2024 was quite a whirlwind for me, especially in terms of terrain, locations, and variety. I guess I could call it a Hiking Sandwich, with paddling trips serving as the bread. In short, I rafted the Grand Canyon, thru-hiked 2 shorter trails (BMT/Foothills Trail) on the east coast, went to AT Trail Days, hiked half of the Great Divide Trail in Canada, was forced off the trail by wildfires, then went on a wild and unplanned hiking spree in the Tetons, Gros Ventre, Winds, Sawtooths, and Uintas. In September, I hiked 16 14ers in Colorado, bringing my total over 40. I wrapped up the year revisiting some of the special places along the Hayduke in Utah and Arizona, followed by[…]

Mt Sneffels

December 17, 2024 kaulua26 14ers

Friday, September 20th, 2024CO 14ers: 41 of 53Distance RT: 5 milesElevation gain/loss: 2500′Starting Elevation: 12,′460 (10,800′)Summit: 14,155′Rank: 27 of 53Location: San Juan Mountains, outside OurayRoute: Yankee Boy Basin Trailhead to South Slopes, Easy Class 3 My reward for hiking five 14ers in 2 days was to hike one more, making it 6 in 3 days. When planning this San Juan excursion, I didn’t know if I’d have time for Mt Sneffels. Now that I did, getting to the trailhead turned out to be much harder than mustering the energy to hike it or navigating the Class 3 route. Recalling my pictures from the day before, Mt Sneffels sits relatively close to the other 5 in the area. In fact, it’s[…]

Wetterhorn & Uncompahgre Peaks

December 12, 2024 kaulua26 14ers

Thursday, September 19th, 2024CO 14ers: 39 & 40 of 53Distance RT: 18Elevation gain/loss: 6,700′Starting Elevation: 10,350Summits: 14,021′ & 14,318′Rank: 49 & 6 of 53Location: San Juan Mountains, outside Lake CityRoute: 0.7 miles before Matterhorn Creek Trailhead to Wetterhorn Southeast Ridge (Standard Route, Class 3), back down and across basins (red line) to Uncompahgre South Ridge (Class 2), retrace steps to Matterhorn basin and car. This was my 8th time (not including my triples) hiking two 14er’s in one day. But it was by far the longest I’ve had to hike to connect 2 peaks. Once again, I didn’t set out planning to hike both, then a half day turned into a very full one! To be exact, 18 miles, as[…]

Redcloud, Sunshine & Handies Peaks

December 11, 2024 kaulua26 14ers

Wednesday, September 18th, 2024CO 14ers: 36, 37 & 38 of 53Distance RT Redcloud/Sunshine: 12.3 milesDistance RT Handies: 7.5 milesElevation gain/loss: 4,800′ & 2700’/3700Starting Elevations: 10,400′ & 11,300Summits: 14,037′, 14,004′ & 14,058′Rank: 45, 53 & 39 of 53Location: San Juan Mountains, outside Lake CityRoute 1: Sunshine Peak via Redcloud Peak via Northeast Ridge (R1 to S1, returning same way to Silver Creek/Grizzly Gulch TH, Class 2)Route 2: Handies Peak via Southwest Slopes 1 from lower American Basin TH (Class 1), then down the East Slopes 2 to Silver Creek/Grizzly Gulch TH (Class 2) In days the preceding, Alex and I drove to Lake City, where we met up with Alan and several other CDT/CT hikers. We split a cabin and had[…]

Mt Holy Cross & CDT SOBO Trail Daze

December 7, 2024 kaulua26 14ers

In between 14ers, I went to CDT SOBO Trail Daze in Leadville, held appropriately on Friday the 13th. This was the event’s 5th year, but I wasn’t able to attend while hiking the CDT SOBO in 2019, as I was already somewhere in NM. There were a lot of Trail Day events that hadn’t fit into my SOBO hiker plans, so in the past 2 years, I’d made a special effort to finally go to the 2 big ones: AT and PCT Trail Days. Thus, while I was already in CO and had wheels, I wasn’t about to miss this one. What a contrast! As opposed to thousands of attendees and hundreds of vendors, this cute little gathering had about[…]

Mt Princeton

December 7, 2024 kaulua26 14ers

Tuesday, September 10th, 2024CO 14ers: 34 of 53Distance RT: 7 milesElevation gain/loss: 4000′Starting Elevation: 8,900′Summit: 14,200′ Rank: 19 of 53Location: Sawatch Range, near Buena VistaRoute: East Slopes, Class 2 Mt Princeton is a massive and attention-commanding peak. It had been on my short list for a long time… I actually can’t believe it took me so long to finally hike it. I’d been staring at it since I was a little kid, on my way to ski at Monarch. My family also went to the hot springs at its base on numerous occasions. I remember being mesmerized by it’s prominence. I guess I simply saved the best of the Collegiates for last. I ‘car-rested’ at the trailhead overnight, which was[…]