My last days on the CDT for the year. Mixed emotions. One last bodily ailment. Celebration and reflection in Silver City. Thank you for your support. Elevated, over and out.
Continue reading Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, NM to Silver City, NM
Road walking, road walking, road walking. IT band issues. The *spectacular* Middle Fork of the Gila River. Water walking, water walking, water walking. Busted in the buff! Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument.
Continue reading Pie Town, NM to Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, NM
Picking my way through a giant lava flow. Camping at cliff’s edge on a mesa. Lots of road walking. Uber can’t beat 50c for 20 miles. A pie-eating, crazy-averting and very quirky experience in Pie Town.
100 miles through breathtaking desert landscapes. Water has become a scarce commodity. Summiting Mount Taylor. It’s hot and the spiders are big!
A short 50 mile stretch through the Rio Chama and San Pedro Wilderness areas. My first tarantula. A serene morning camped in a meadow. Do they breed dinosaurs in Cuba?
Wolves howling, coyotes yipping, elk screaming, owls hooting, rifle hunters shooting, a full moon, Ghost Ranch and not a single person anywhere this whole stretch, it must be Halloween and this is the CDT’s haunted house? Horse riding through Georgia O’Keeffe country. Loving the warmer temperatures in New Mexico!
After hearing the news that my hike on the Continental Divide Trail was over for the summer, I jumped on a plane to Australia and surprised my parents by arriving at their house unannounced. They were pretty shocked because I’d talked to them about 30 hours earlier from New Mexico and had told them I was headed back home to Salt Lake City. Ha!
The results of an MRI shows a stress fracture in the tibia of my left leg. I am SO disappointed!!! It’s a 4-6 week recovery before I can start exercising on it again. CDT 1 : Kate 0. I WILL BE BACK, to even the score, CDT. But probably not this year.
A wonderful four days! From flat desert and cactus, to mountain peaks and pine forests, to a canyon and the first natural water source on the trail! I love the CDT, brutality and all!
Extremely happy to report I’m headed back out on the trail! And… I have a trail name!
Continue reading Days 6-12: Shin Recovery in Lordsburg and a Trail Name
The first 60 miles on the trail have been absolutely incredible! The Bootheel desert is at the same time hostile and welcoming. The landscape is really impressive and life on the trail so far has been wonderful, I love it! The assault on the body has been tough, in fact I’ve returned to Lordsburg 25 miles early with a shin splint where I’ll wait while I recover before getting back on the trail. Stories and photos below…
Well, here I am! In my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined that I’d be sitting in a hotel room in southwestern New Mexico about to attempt to hike from the Mexican Border, through the USA, all the way to the Canadian border. Yet here I am! Here’s a quick update:
