Twig Adventures

Tag: thru-hiking

DWTH Day 5: Waterman Peak

Desert Winter Thru Hike

Sunday, Feb 2nd 2025, 0710-1740Saturn tank to wash near mm56 , section 123.5 miles. The silence overnight was mind blowing. There have been few places I have been with such an utter lack of sound. I heard a few cow moos and planes flying over, but that was it. I really felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. So much for being afraid of migrant or drug running activities in the area. Other than really old discarded items like backpacks and water bottles, there was no evidence of recent activity nor did I hear anything suspicious. I packed in the dark and was just hitting the road as it got light. I walked dirt roads for a few[…]

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DWTH Day 4: Cow Troughs and Javelina

Desert Winter Thru Hike

Saturday, Feb 1st 2025, 0640-1820Just outside SNP to past Saturn tank, section 1 mm 33.23.5 miles. I woke early and started walking a series of paved roads that turned into dirt toads, all leading west across the low valley. At times I was even following roads to the SW, which was slightly demotivating, since eventually I needed to head north. I entered the Ironwood Forest National Monument area…there wasn’t much to see other than a few boondockers initially. There were also some 4wd vehicles out and about, and even a guy on a gravel bike. One of the 4wds stopped to report that he’d had to turn around at a locked gate that had private property signs posted all over.[…]

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DWTH Day 3: Saguaro National Park

Desert Winter Thru Hike

Friday, Jan 31st 2025, 0640-1710Romero Canyon pools, Section 1A mm 3.75 to Catalina SP fee station, then some jockying around to get back to the El Camino del Cerro trailhead, then hike through SNP.14 miles. I’ve never done a thru-hike where I “officially” started the hike in some fashion 3 days in a row. It had been kind of exciting each day but I was also starting to feel like I was stuck in a holding pattern around Tucson. Today was the day I finally broke free, making forward progress west. First I needed to finish the last few miles down Romero canyon. I got packed so early that it was still quite dark, so I had a hard time[…]

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DWTH Day 1: Rainmaker

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 that 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 had to leave bright and early at 6 am.  Once[…]

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Introducing the Desert Winter Thru Hike

Desert Winter Thru Hike

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[…]

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Wind River High Route, Part 1

Continental Divide Trail, Great Divide Trail, Short Hikes

We managed a quick turn-around in Pinedale, gathering enough food for about 6 days, as we planned to do the Alan Dixon version of the high route. We briefly considered the Andrew Skurka version, but it looked like a more difficult route than we wanted to take on. Plus, we were already in Pinedale, so our options were limited to the two trailheads on the western side of the range: Green River and Big Sandy. These are the 2 start/end points of the AD route. Getting to either trailhead is a daunting task, as I already knew from hitching to and from Green River while on the the CDT. But we figured we could swing it. We also had our[…]

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GDT Day 22: The End of the GDT, For Now

Great Divide Trail

Wednesday, July 24th, 2024, 0700-1800Helmet Falls Campground to Ottertail trailhead, mm 332.617 miles, Gain: 2340′, Loss: 4200′, elevation 3880′ Woody actually beat me out of camp in the morning…I guess he was that eager to get out, too. I was slow to begin moving, despondent about our thru hike ending so prematurely. But I pushed my way up our final pass (Good Sir) pretty fast and easily. Far Out notes warned of some bushwhacky sections on the descent, but I didn’t find it to be that bad. I caught up to Woody and we took a short morning break at the McArthur ranger cabin. It was to have been our campsite this night, but we were obviously pushing on. Parks[…]

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GDT Day 21: The Rockwall

Great Divide Trail

Tuesday, July 23th, 2024, 0700-1730Floe Lake to Helmet Falls Campground, mm 31517 miles, Gain: 5375′, Loss: 6310′, elevation 5740′ Well, this was the day when we all discovered our GDT thru-hike was over. I slept well and woke feeling excited for another day, especially through an area so renowned as the Rockwall. But just as I was passing Jan’s tent on my way to breakfast, he told me the news from the GDT grapevine. Another hiker told him that Jasper National Park and the town were being evacuated due to a raging set of fires that had sprung up in the past few days. Also, the fire in section D had grown and now closed all of that section as[…]

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GDT Day 20: Floe Lake

Great Divide Trail

Monday, July 22nd, 2024, 0640-1230Ball Pass Junction camp to Floe Lake, mm 298.114 miles, Gain: 3865′, Loss: 3590′, elevation 6670′ I took it easy packing in the morning, since distance-wise it was a short day. Two groups left before me: the Strawbridges of course, and another couple, Colby and Janet. I later found out they were also hikng the GDT. I think pretty much everyone staying at the campsite were on the GDT, since it wasn’t really in the vicinity of big attractions, nor was it anything special as a camp itself. But it was a convenient location along the GDT. This was the first camp we stayed at that wasn’t on our permit, but it worked out. At least[…]

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GDT Day 19: Sunshine

Great Divide Trail

Sunday, July 21st, 2024, 0600-1800Howard Douglas Campground to Ball Pass Junction camp, mm 28517.5 miles, Gain: 3130′, Loss: 4270′, elevation 6380′ I was up early to hike 3.5 miles to the Sunshine ski lodge, eager to maximize my Wi-Fi and real-food-eating time. It had been over 10 days since I had a connection to anything other than texts from my ZOLEO satellite messenger. A lot of big news was coming from the US…even our Canadian friends were talking about it. But I was glad to be so isolated, truth be told. The sunrise over the mountains and meadows was well worth the effort of packing so early. Even the mosquitos were still asleep, so it was a win-win in every respect.[…]

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