Twig Adventures

PCT Day 1: Bring it on

July 6th, 2018 Harts Pass mm 2622 to mm 2633 Distance: 11 m I was awake early despite a somewhat late night, but I slept well and felt ready to go. Jon arrived around 8 am and we were off for the long drive to Hart’s Pass and the trailhead. It went by quickly, with fantastic views of the mountains along the way. We saw a few backpackers on HWY 20 but they were hitching the other way. We stopped in the tiny town of Mazama to check out the well provisioned general store and outfitter. There I saw a thru-hiker looking like he needed a ride up to the pass, so we offered one. Ratchet is on his 2nd[…]

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PCT Day Zero: The return of serendipity

July 4th, 2018 First off, I want to note that connectivity has been spoty and I am going to have to post some blogs with few or no pictures. Who knew internet would be worse in the US than New Zealand! I will update these first posts when and where I can (I’m in Stehekin, WA now). The theme of my Te Araroa thru-hike was serendipity. It’s such a beautiful thing to experience even once in a lifetime but it became a common occurance on the trail. I was blessed with the rewards of careful and long thought-out planning but also a lot of luck. Everything came together so perfectly, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience for my[…]

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PCT planning

This is it! Resupply boxes are put together, my flight is booked, and my pack is once again stuffed to capacity. The Pacific Crest Trail is happening! I made the decision to hike the PCT after returning from New Zealand. I have always wanted to hike this trail and now seems like as good of a time as any. However, a late April/early May start going northbound was just too soon for me, so I decided I would go southbound (SOBO). That meant waiting until late June or early July until most of the snow melts in the Northern Cascades. Even still, I may be walking through some snow, which will be a unique experience for me. My previous thru-hikes[…]

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Te Araroa Summary

It has been almost 3 months since I finished Te Araroa, so I wanted to summarize my adventure with a few interesting facts and statistics from the hike. Dates: December 3rd, 2017–March 20, 2018 Total Days walking, paddling (4), or biking (2): 98 Zeros: 10 (5 due to Cyclones/extreme weather) Overall distance walked, paddled, or biked: Let’s just say about 3000 kms, which included about 800 kms of road walking and 170 kms of beach walking. I didn’t verify distances with GPS, nor did I go back to tally my daily distances according to the maps. It’s generally agreed that the published distances (via the TA Trust) are significantly under-calculated. So I probably walked a lot more. But I also[…]

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Postscript 4: Ball Pass, Aoraki/Mt. Cook…the Grandest of Finales

This long and picture-dense post details the 4-day zenith of my hiking adventures in New Zealand. My final route was a 26.8 km circuit over 2121 meter Ball Pass (actually, I climbed all the way up to 2222m/7290′ atop Kaitiaki Peak, my highpoint in NZ:). The weather was stunningly perfect for 3 full days and I got to soak up a lifetime of views of 3724m/12,218′ Mt. Cook, hereafter referred to as Aoraki, its more appropriate Maori name meaning ‘Cloud Piercer’ (because let’s face it, Cook was really just a pompous passerby). What a way to go out with a bang, leaving me to muse: Te Araroa what? Only kidding, this was just the icing on the cake. A grand[…]

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Postscript 3: Caples and Greenstone Tracks

March 26th, Glenorchy to McKellar Hut, 31 km walked March 27th, McKellar Hut to trailhead via Greenstone Track, then hitch back to Queenstown, 30 km walked. I stewed over my hiking options overnight and by the morning, had a completely different plan. Hearing the rain and wind on my tent all night definitely helped change my mind. Forget the Rees Valley and Cascade Saddle…it would probably be too windy and rainy for such an exposed hike. I would instead try to get a ride out to the Caples/Greenstone tracks and walk the 61 km loop over the next 2 days. These are not Great Walks, so the huts were covered by my Backcountry Hut Pass. And I really wanted to[…]

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Postscript 2: Routeburn Great Walk

March 24th, Kepler Track to Rainbow Flats 10 kms walked, hitch to Te Anau for resupply, hitch to the Divide, and onto the Routeburn for about 10 kms walked. March 25th,  finish Routeburn track to trailhead, then hitch to Glenorchy, 22.1 walked This post covers 2 days, so be forewarned, it’s a bit long! My first day back on the trails reinvigorated me so much, I was ready for more. I wonder if others yearn for more walking after just completing a long thru-hike? Well, this is New Zealand and I had to get as much out of it as time would allow. My plan was to jump from the last 10 kms on the Kepler Track right onto the[…]

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Postscript 1: Back on track on the Kepler Great Walk

March 23, Te Anau to 40 kms into Kepler Track I didn’t want to to end on such a sour note, when last I wrote about my final days on the Te Araroa. The good news is that I took 2 days off in Te Anau and recovered from my stomach illness.  It felt so good to get back on the trails, after this! I felt like I hit the reset button and crushed the distances on several easy Great Walks. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, It was a fun and interesting series of hitches from Invercargill to Te Anau. It took awhile getting a ride out of town, standing in a gloomy downpour, but eventually Charlie with[…]

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Day 108: The nail in the coffin for the Walking Dead

March 20th Invercargill (km3008) – Bluff (km3040), minus a final road-hitch Distance: 10mi/16km It’s strange how things turn out so differently from how you imagine them to be. I pictured walking into Bluff as a magical, sunny, tear-jerking, prideful, joyous event and it was none of those. Well, it was a tear-jerker but mostly I just felt numb. It rained all night but the day actually started out promising when I woke up with a bit of an appetite. My aches and pains from the fall were healing just fine but my stomach was a big unknown. I was able to eat some toast and drink some tea, but that was it. We all walked from the BnB down to[…]

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Day 107: The day the TA buried me

March 19th Riverton (km2976) – Invercargill (km3001) Distance: 15.5mi/25km I thought that my injuries from the day before might sideline me but it was my stomach that had the last laugh. I guess I can’t really blame the TA for my bad food choices, but it still felt like the trail was out to get me in the end. I woke up feeling surprised that I wasn’t more sore. Everything still hurt but at least I felt that I could walk. My stomach was already starting to cramp, though. I had a pretty light breakfast and then we all hit the trail. We had caught up to Klaus. He took a day off in Riverton and Gisella, his wife who[…]

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