Itinerary

I posted the map of my route a few weeks ago here. If anyone wants to meet up to say hi, put me up for a night or come hiking for a day or two, feel free to get in touch. I do plan on making long days, but nothing that seems too unreasonable.

Obviously this isn't set in stone and things will change because of conditions and timing, but this is the best guess I can make at this point in time.

.	Seg	Date	Start town	End Town	Miles	Tot.	Days	Date	Day	Mi/Day	0's
.	0	3/25/2012	Murphy Hot Spring	Hwy 20	125		6	3/30/2012	Fri	20.8333333333333
.
.	1	4/15/2012	Crazy Cook	Lordsburg, NM	81	81	4	4/18/2012	Wed	20.25
.	2	4/19/2012	Lordsburg	Silver City, NM	55	136	3	4/21/2012	Sat	18.3333333333333	1
.	3	4/23/2012	Silver City	Doc Cambells, NM	58	194	3	4/25/2012	Wed	19.3333333333333
.	4	4/26/2012	Doc Cambells	Pie Town, NM	140	334	7	5/2/2012	Wed	20
.	5	5/3/2012	Pie Town	Grants, NM	90	424	4	5/6/2012	Sun	22.5
.	6	5/7/2012	Grants	Cuba, NM	103	527	5	5/11/2012	Fri	20.6
.	7	5/12/2012	Cuba	Los Alamos, NM	48	575	3	5/14/2012	Mon	16	1
.	8	5/16/2012	Santa Fe	Taos, NM	110	685	5	5/20/2012	Sun	22	2
.	10	5/23/2012	Hwy 64	Cumbress, NM	57	742	3	5/25/2012	Fri	19
.	11	5/26/2012	Cumbress	Creed, CO	109	851	6	5/31/2012	Thur	18.1666666666667	1
.	12	6/2/2012	Creed	Monarch Pass, CO	105	956	6	6/7/2012	Thur	17.5
.	13	6/8/2012	Monarch Pass	Leadville, CO	89	1045	5	6/12/2012	Tue	17.8
.	14	6/13/2012	Leadville	Estes Park, CO	160	1205	7	6/19/2012	Tue	22.8571428571429	2
.	15	6/22/2012	Helena, MT	Benchmark, MT	107	1312	5	6/26/2012	Tue	21.4
.	16	6/27/2012	Benchmark	East Glacier, MT	112	1424	5	7/1/2012	Sun	22.4	1
.	17	7/3/2012	East Glacier	Waterton, AB, CA	96	1520	5	7/7/2012	Sat	19.2
.	18	7/8/2012	Waterton	Blairmore, AB, CA	82	1602	4	7/11/2012	Wed	20.5
.	19	7/12/2012	Coleman	Kananaskis, AB, CA	111	1713	5	7/16/2012	Mon	22.2
.	20	7/17/2012	Kananaskis	Field, BC, CA	119	1832	6	7/22/2012	Sun	19.8333333333333
.	21	7/23/2012	Field	Crossing, AB, CA	59	1891	3	7/25/2012	Wed	19.6666666666667
.	22	7/26/2012	Crossing	Jasper, AB, CA	112	2003	5	7/30/2012	Mon	22.4	2
.	23	8/2/2012	Sandpoint, ID	Clark Fork, ID	114	2117	5	8/6/2012	Mon	22.8
.	24	8/7/2012	Clark Fork	Mullan, ID	73	2190	4	8/10/2012	Fri	18.25
.	25	8/11/2012	Mullan	Lochsa, ID	125	2315	5	8/15/2012	Wed	25
.	26	8/16/2012	Lochsa	MacKay Bar, ID	161	2476	7	8/22/2012	Wed	23
.	27	8/23/2012	MacKay Bar	Stanley, ID	150	2626	6	8/28/2012	Tue	25
.	28	8/29/2012	Stanley	Mtn Home, ID	105	2731	5	9/2/2012	Sun	21	2
.	29	9/5/2012	West Yellowstone, ID	Old Faithful, WY	199	2930	8	9/12/2012	Wed	24.875
.	30	9/13/2012	Old Faithful	Dubois (rd), WY	123	3053	5	9/17/2012	Mon	24.6
.	31	9/18/2012	Dubois	Lander, WY	150	3203	6	9/23/2012	Sun	25	1
.	32	9/25/2012	Lander	Rawlins, WY	122	3325	5	9/29/2012	Sat	24.4
.	33	9/30/2012	Rawlins	Steamboat, CO	144	3469	6	10/5/2012	Fri	24
.	34	10/6/2012	Steamboat	Estes Park, CO	74	3543	4	10/9/2012	Tue	18.5
.
.					3668		171			21.4502923976608	13

Menu

I get a lot questions about what I eat while on the trail, and this time I put together a menu. I broke it down by calories and nutrition facts to make sure I was well covered. I will change this as I go so it's not monotonous, but the main nutrition will remain the same.

.	Breakfast	Portion	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein
.	Cliff Bar - Crunchy Peanut Butter (68g)	2	480	82	12	22
.	Snickers - King Size	1	440	58	20	8
.			920	140	32	30
.	Lunch
.	Cliff Bar - Mojo- Peanut/Pretzel	1	190	20	9	9
.	M&Ms - Peanut, King Size, 1 bag	1	470	56	24	9
.	Peanut Butter - Creamy 6 Tbsp. 100g	0.2	570	21	48	24
.	Flour Tortillas 2 tortilla(28g)	0.166	280	30	4	4
.			1510	127	85	46
.	Dinner
.	Pasta Side Dish	1	640	88	5	18
.	Bob's Red Mill TVP, 1/4 cup dry (24 g)	0.1	80	7	0	12
.			720	95	5	30
.	Snacks
.	Beef Jerkey Original, 1 oz	0.33	70	7	1	11
.	Dried Fruit 30 g	0.2	68	18	0	1
.	Chocolate Bar	0.2	42	5	3	0
.			180	30	4	12
.
.	Totals		3330	392	126	118

Gear

Every long distance hiker becomes some sort of weight freak. Specifically the weight carried on your back. So I bought a scale and broke down all aspects of what I'm carrying. My base weight is about 16.5 pounds which is great, but will vary depending on what add-ons I have. Then there's the food, water, and fuel that will be 15 - 25 pounds.

.	weights:	lb	oz	total oz			lb	oz	total oz
.
.	Backpack - Granite Gear Latitude	2	13.6	45.6		snow option	2	13	45.4
.	tent - Tarp Tent Moment	2	1.6	33.6		ice ax		10.2	10.2
.	pad - Thermarest Prolite Reg		15.6	15.6		ice spikes		15	15
.	Sleeping Bag - Feathered Friends Hummingbird w/ waterproof compression sack	2	4.8	36.8		heavy gloves		6.6	6.6
.						tall gaitors		9	9
.	Cook Kit (pot, stove, wind screen, spoon)		14.2	14.2		water proof socks		4.6	4.6
.
.	gps garmin vista hcx		5.6	5.6		desert option
.	SPOT		4.2	4.2		water pump	1	1	17
.	camera Cannon S90		9	9		light sleeping bag	1	6	22
.	head lamp Petzel Tika		2.8	2.8
.	water bladders MSR Dromadery		9	9
.	food bag Sea Summit dry bag		3.2	3.2		bears
.						bear can	2	12	44
.	clothes:
.	light gloves Lavawool		1.6	1.6		ankle brace		5.6
.	rain pants Marmot Precip		14	14
.	rain jacket Marmot Precip		13	13		jackets
.	silk weight top Patagonia		5.2	5.2		Marmot windshirt		14
.	silk weight bottom Patagonia		5.6	5.6		patagonia fleece R3		12.8
.	light hat Mtn Hardware fleece		0.6	0.6		primaloft vest		12.8
.	down jacket Merrill		13.6	13.6
.	total clothes and bag:	3	10	58
.
.	Odds and ends
.	pack towel		1	1
.	compass		1	1
.	polar pur		5	5
.	shovel		2	2
.	knife		1.4	1.4
.	p-cord		3	3
.	first aid kit		3	3
.	pack cover		3	3
.	handkerchief		1	1
.	cards		3	3
.	Total and bag:	1	9.2	25.2
.
.				262.8	total
.	base	16	8	264	weighed	water	8
.						food @ 2.5 lb/day	12
.	wearing			58.4	3.65
.	N. Face shirt		9	9
.	cap t-shirt		4.8	4.8
.	Keen boulder socks		1.4	1.4
.	montrail masochist	1	9.4	25.4
.	Kuhl renegade pants		13.4	13.4
.	short gaitors		4.4	4.4
.
.
.
.	maps		8	8

More snow

Winter finally hit the Sierra's so I tried to make the most of it.




After so many days of skiing, the weather warmed up so I went snowshoeing. It's great to be out in the snow without all the people and machines of ski resorts. Just listening to the wind in the trees and the sound of your own breathing. It was a good day and I tried to take on Stanford Rock. I didn't find a sign for the top, but I had a long day and great views of the lake.






The weather turned nasty for a couple days, so I worked on things around town. By the time Mallory came out we had another three feet of snow and took two more days skiing. The first day we went to Homewood which has great views of the lake. There was almost to much powder for me to ski in but by the end of the day I was handling it. The next day we went to Northstar where it had snowed a foot and a half overnight and another six inches throughout the day. We were exhausted by the end of the day.





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Ski Extravaganza

Last week I finished my job with the BLM. My position was a 4 year term and the time had expired. I am looking forward the time off to go on my hike and do all the things I used to dream about. True to form, I worked ten hour days so I could take Friday off to take advantage of the new snow and go skiing. Everyday I stopped by In and Out for a burger.




Friday morning I headed off to Kirkwood with Matt. It's a drive to the south, but worth it for the skiing they provide. It's a real skiers mountain with everyone looking for that untouched powder. We hit up the backside first along with everyone else on the mountain, and were a little disappointed to find the wind had packed down all the snow before we could get there. In the afternoon we skied the gullys and a shot through the cliff band and had a good time exploring.






Saturday we went up to Rose, the locals mountain. Tara came with us and we met up with James. The chutes at Rose are quite unique and amazing. The snow wasn't fresh, but still soft. Pictures can't really capture the steepness of the terrain.








Sunday Matt and I headed over to Heavenly. We had each bought passes to Kirkwood at the end of last season for a steal, then Vail corp bought them so our pass was good at Heavenly and Northstar, the cheapest epic pass ever. Heavenly was good, some of the people there were annoying, but we found great chutes and snow over in Mott Canyon. It was good, but would be amazing in a regular snow year.







Monday I went to Diamond Peak. It's not a huge place, but they had a deal for 25$ ticket with a pass to any other mountain. The snow went from icy to slushy in an hour. I got a few good runs, but the real jewel of the place is the view of the lake from the mid-mountain bar.





Monday night it snowed and they were expecting winds for Tuesday, so I headed to Northstar, so I wouldn't have to feel bad if I had to bail. Reports said 3-6 inches of snow, but the backside had at least a foot, going up to knee height in places. It was amazing. All day I skied trees making fresh turns in fields of powder. It was on top of poor snow coverage, so I hit a few rocks and tore up the bottom of my skis but it was glorious. I heard later that the windchill on top was -6, and it probably never got much over 25, but that kept the snow nice and light. I couldn't stop and didn't take a break all day, it was awesome.








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Trail Update

After posting my trip plan, I started thinking, I need to do a warm up hike. Why not do the southern 100 miles of the Idaho Centennial Trail (ICT). Mallory can give me a ride, we can drop water along the way and it will be a great shakedown. That became part 0. Then I figured, why not do the entire ICT, instead of skipping the northern 200 miles as I had planned. So now I have planned out a summer of hiking 3700 miles, even. I will be amazed if I do everything I have in mind. Plans will change because of snow, drought, fire, fatigue and some things that I can't imagine. But there will always be another option to consider.



View CDT Update in a larger map