On my way to the CDT

I am on the train to Glacier. I will be on the train for three days. 

Many thoughts come to mind. 

I’m so lucky to have a partner who puts up with me being myself, living my life, doing crazy stuff like this big adventure. I love him for this. 

I’m going to miss my birds. Ariel laid her belly on my arm this morning like when she’s being a blankie bird. Fergie is 30 years old this year. I hope she doesn’t die while I’m gone. 

It has been 13 years since I last did something like this. I survived 11 years of work to buy, hopefully, 11 years of freedom.

I am reading a book about how to do nothing. It starts with a story of a useless tree, the last one left in a cut down forest. Of no use to the sawmill, it is free to live. To hike a long trail is sort of a radical act of similar uselessness. 

I am old and afraid I will fail at it. 

I tried to catch a glimpse of Storke tower on my way through town. I thought of the years I sat working in its shadow. I find it hard to believe I do not belong there anymore. I won’t be back in my chair. I won’t see my coworkers again. I may never know what becomes of the things I worked on. Those people, my coworkers, are sitting there right now. I tried to catch a glimpse but I did not see the tower. 

I saw Point Conception. And pelicans and other sea birds and llamas and a deer and Vandenberg and SpaceX. I saw sea otters and sea lions and seals. 

And I cried thinking of all these things and the great unknown unspooling  ahead of me. 

Pret-trip gear list for the CDT

I made a pre-trip gear list video of the gear I've selected to hike the CDT southbound. I'm attempting to hike from Glacier to the Wyoming/Colorado line, a bit beyond into Colorado. Either to Steamboat, which is the first town you get to in Colorado, or possibly to Leadville or Twin Lakes.

I have ultralight gear but I also have a lot of it so in the end I end up over the line to call myself an ultralight backpacker. That's because I have gear for a thru hike, not one of my smaller trips, so I'm bringing more things.

I have the gear list here: https://lighterpack.com/r/6ni364

CDT Shakedown

I did a shakedown hike this weekend. It wasn't a very good test for the CDT because some of the clothing and gear I would bring for the CDT isn't appropriate for our local backcountry and because it was over 100F degrees back there. Right now the weather report for Glacier has been highs in the 60s and lows in the 30s and 40s. I spent the first part of the night just laying without any covering until it cooled enough I could tolerate a 10 degree sleeping bag over my legs.

I hiked up the Franklin Trail and over the other side to Alder Creek. The last bit of the Franklin trail was pretty brushy, and going down the other side to Alder Camp was very brushy. There was water in the creek just beyond the camp. I continued beyond the camp to the sluice which is all busted. There was lots of water in the creek around the sluice and there was many fallen trees making the trail a little bit like the Buck Creek trail in some spots.

I decided I would not like to hike all the way back up and over to the Franklin trail so I pressed on to the Santa Ynez river and in the morning I hiked the Blue Canyon trail to Romero Trail. The Blue Canyon trail was nicely shaded, not too brushy and there was water in the upper part of the creek. I did not see any water at upper Blue Canyon camp, but it was nice there.