Lucky to Hike - I Think!

As I have been preparing for the CDT, I have been thinking about how lucky I am to be doing this - I think.  As of late, I am trying to evict my roommate, who has not paid his rent or utility bills for the last two months.  So, I have had to absorb these costs, because he is a freeloader and a deadbeat.  I am in the process here in San Francisco of having him evicted, which may take another week or two!

My roommate could destroy my goal of hiking the CDT.  I have been setting money aside to do this hike, but I had to use it all up to pay his rent for last month. Tomorrow, rent is due, but since I have a family who is caring, I will be able to afford the rent for this month.  I hope I can recover my losses by getting someone to move in here in the middle of the month.  I guess I will see what happens.  That said, because of the losses, I may not have enough to do the trail.

I have been working in Palo Alto on the weekends to earn some extra cash.  I will have to be very disciplined about depositing my money in the bank, so that I can build up may savings again.  Anyway, if I can get enough collected together by May, I figure that I will be lucky to hike the trail.

Mountain Bikes on the CDT

Apparently the Continental Divide Trail has some of the same issues as the Pacific Crest Trail:

"Speaking of advocacy, thousands of acres in the Gallatin National Forest, including several epic sections on portions of the Continental Divide Trail, may soon be closed to mountain bikers. Forest managers are moving forward with a plan to designate the land as a wilderness area and off limits to bikes."

I found this snippet at Bicycling.com, where they seem hopeful that the area through the Gallatin National Forest will be designated a "National Protection Area," which would continue to allow bikes on the CDT. I am sure that there are some complex land use issues here (i.e. history, tradition), but I think the article is moot when it says: "[Patricia] Dowd added that an additional 1,300 miles of trails and roads were already open to bicyclists in the Gallatin."

What?  1,300-miles of trails and roads already open to cyclists?  Why can't cyclists be content with that amount of open trail? 

My hope is that the CDT follows similar rules as the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails and not allow mountain bikes on the trail. I am a cyclist myself here in San Francisco, and I recognize that there are some places where bikes do not belong like sidewalks, interstates and National Scenic Trails.

CDT Map on Phlumf.com

I am fascinated by maps. When I was a kid, I used to sit in a rocking chair and study the Time-Hammond world atlas, noting the locations of streams, lakes, and mountain ranges in places like Argentina or Madagascar. I always wondered how these places appeared.

When I first saw the three-foot long map of the entire Appalachian Trail sometime back in the 1990's, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Many times I had hiked a small section of the trail from Iron Mountain Gap to the Nolichucky River in Erwin, Tennessee, and I always wondered about other sections of the trail. That map showed that there was a lot more to the AT than the southern Appalachians, and I yearned to wholly interact with that map by hiking the whole trail, which I did in 2000.

Recently, I been fascinated with the Google Earth map of the CDT on Phlumf.com. In fact, there are many more pictures of Google maps on this site that has me so freaking "geeked" about hiking the CDT. As I look at this map, I feel like a kid again, as I daydream about the lakes, streams, and mountains in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.

I am posting my daydreams of the CDT on my trail journal. Please check them out, and feel free to sign my guestbook. Daydreams will eventually turn to reality! Check out this link of the map below and daydream with me.

Weathercarrot's Photo Tribute to Gene Espy

Weathercarrot is back in the Bay Area after a successfully serving the 27th Annual Gathering of ALDHA as its presentation coordinator. We had a chance to catch up today over lunch and talk trail and life. It was sure good to see him.

Since my computer was the final staging area for putting together a photo tribute to Gene Espy, who is recognized as the second man to hike the Appalachian Trail, Weathercarrot gave me permission to upload the video to YouTube, and host it on my channel.  I feel honored. Espy hiked the length of the AT in 1951, just three years after Earl Schaffer, and he is certainly another pioneer in the long-distance hiking community.

Props again to Weathercarrot for putting this video together with great care and reverence. Enjoy. 

Protecting the Pacific Crest Trail

A great article from Oregonlive.com on the pressing need for the funds to preserve the Pacific Crest Trail.  Check it out here.

Discovered a Website for CDT Planning

I am watching Disco's Walkumentary, which details his journey on the CDT. In the video, he references Jonathan Ley's maps.  I did a quick search for Jonathan Ley, and I discovered his website: http://phlumf.com, which has some sick information on the CDT.  I am going to link it here on my blog.  CDT 2009 Baby!

Billygoat Speaks

I ran into Billygoat at Pacific Crest Trail Day a few weeks ago - I think many of us thru-hikers can say that he is our hero. Our conversation was pleasant, and we talked about his hiking into the California wilderness with two backpacks (you must ask him about this yourself!). 

Anyway, I told him that I saw an article and a video about him that was done by the LA Times, and that I thought it was really well done. He agreed. I told him that I had shot video of a conversation we had in 2006, and I asked if him if I could put that on my blog.  Of course, he had no objections. So below is a short video about how he explains thru-hiking to a non-hiker. Enjoy!