Hello everyone (or the few of you who I hope are actually reading),
I am starting this blog for both myself and my friend and hiking partner, Liv Holmes, to share our experience hiking the Continental Divide Trail this summer. We will be starting June 11th with a little "shake-down" hike from US hwy 64 in northern New Mexico to Wolf Creek Pass in southern Colorado and then will be resuming our hike at the Canadian border on June 27 or 28th after a week off to visit my parents and go to a wedding in Portland, OR.
Before we get started I would just like to say thank you to all my coworkers at TerranearPMC for sixteen months of employment with some of the most enjoyable people I've ever worked with. I have a feeling I won't miss working much while I'm hiking, but I will definitely miss my coworkers and all my other friends in northern New Mexico. I hope at least some of you follow my progress and when Liv and I pass through the Jemez I look forward to a day or two off to come visit.
Incidentally, if ANYONE AT ALL would like to come join us for a section of the trail this summer or would like to meet us somewhere to help with our resupply/car camp with us please let me know. Since our schedule is going to be flexible-ish, I would suggest picking dates you are interested in meeting us and we can then give you a place we will be. That will work better than picking a place and then having to juggle your schedule to accommodate our erratic pace.
For those of you who don't know, the Continental Divide Trail is a nationally designate trail along or as close as possible to the drainage divide separating water flowing to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The CDT runs from Waterton, Alberta in Canada (4 miles from Glacier National Park) to the Mexico border in southern New Mexico. In all reality the trail is well constructed in some places, road walking in other places, bushwacking in a few places, and ranges anywhere from 2600 to 3100 miles long, depending on whose mapped routes you decide to follow. Liv and I will generally be following the route in Jim Wolf's guide books and we will be ending in Colombus, New Mexico, a few hours drive west of Las Cruces and south of Deming. Our total mileage will be about 2800 miles, give or take a hundred or so and probably impossible to know accurately anyway.
If you haven't met her, Liv Holmes has been one of my best friends for the last few years and she is currently working her last few days as an ER nurse at UNM hospital in Albuquerque. Liv met me during my PCT hike in 2009 for about a week and has translated that fun week hiking with me into a desire to walk with me all summer. Obviously, she must be crazy. Her father, Doug, is only slightly less crazy and has volunteered to be in charge of mailing all our extra gear and most of our food to us as we progress along the trail. Thanks Doug!
For those you who are here to read what Liv has written, my name is Travis and I probably won't let Liv write much because most of it would be about how much my feet smell. If you are still interested I am a geologist who has been working in Los Alamos, NM for the past year and a half and I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada in 2009. Wanting to hike again makes me the craziest person on this blog for sure. I will be letting Liv post lots of pictures, as she has steadier hands, and also owns a much nicer camera than I do.
I know this blog isn't very exciting so far (besides the orange background!), but over the next few days I am hoping to make it look a little nicer, put some links to some of my favorite backpacking websites and CDT related websites. I'm also going to open a flickr account and link those pictures to this blog like I did for my PCT blog, though I don't remember how to do that, so it might be a little while. I will also be uploading a few spreadsheets with our schedule and our address lists along the trail in case anyone is interested in knowing where we are and how to send cookies (hint, hint).
Please feel free to leave comments anytime here on the blog or email me at tnaibert@gmail.com or phone 505 366 9451. I hope everyone enjoys reading (once there is content) and that you all have a wonderful summer.
Now I am off to have a beer and contemplate what I'm getting myself into for the next five months! Thanks for reading. Travis Naibert
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