Day 30 hiking the CDT, day off in Cuba, NM

Day 30 May 16
campsite on CDT next to power line to 2miles past Portales Mesa
24 miles

We’re working our way up and over several Mesas today. I pushed my cowboy hat down more firmly in the morning wind, as I didn’t ‘t want to say bye bye to it going over the edge to the floor several hundred feet below.
Louis, Breeze, and I agreed to get up at 6 and start moving by 7. We wanted to put some extra miles in today to save us those same miles tomorrow morning. We are also just about out of food, which is good. An accomplished hiker heads into town for re-supply of food with an empty grub sack.
We also wanted to start early in order to put some miles on in the cooler morning temperatures, as it reached ninety- three degrees again, with not a cloud in the sky.
Had two glorious water moments today: the first at a working spigot just a couple of miles from our campsite and the second in Jones Canyon. We knew that jones Canyon had water, but the spigot was chancey. We assumed 28 miles of trail between water sources. I was not interested in running out of water again, so I carried a full 6 quarts out of each source. That’s 12 pounds extra. I ended up drinking 9 quarts today, and will probably down another quart before I hit the sack. I’m still thirsty.
The Jones Canyon water was coming faintly out of an old pipe, into a metal cow trough. As we walked up to spring, we encountered the caretaker, a very recently deceased coyote splayed out in the path. The water was relatively clear, but there were all kinds of little black shapes swimming around in it. We had to have water or die, I so I put my bandanna over Tiki-man’s mouth and poured through it as a filter, and then zapped that water with a UV treatment from my Steripen, which has worked flawlessly to date. The water was cold and tasted good. Some of this hiker behavior is nothing that one would engage in at home, but out here, it’s truly a survival game.
We put down 15 miles by 2 PM, and just kept it up until we had 24 down by 7:30. The last push of the day was up the side of a pretty serious mesa, which had new rock stairs constructed recently, and even some steps and hand holds chipped out of the rock faces. I did surprisingly well, with the extra water weight in my pack.
Today we traveled through ridiculously prolific and dangerous cacti. They are everywhere, and ready to latch on to you in their live or dead states. Where the trail drops into a groove, small, lumpy pincushions lines the sides of the trenches, little demons eager to attack ankles as they plod on by. We talked about how dangerous it would be to night hike here, trip, and then fall into a bed of the monster plants with the huge white needles.
I gotta crawl into my tent and become unconscious, ASAP.

Day 9 hiking the Continental Divide Trail

So, here’s the deal. I very much appreciate all the support you blog readers give to me. I have a transcriber, John Clark, who posts photos and emails from this hike to my Trailjournals site. I connect when I can, which is rare here. I have decided to offer additional posts to this WordPress blog when I am at a Wi-Fi spot a a residence or a motel. That’s all I got. There are battery issues, and little energy left to even write some days.
When I finish hiking, all my focus will shift back to the blog again. Hold on! In the meantime, go to Trailjournals and follow the adventure.
My Trailjournal site is http://www.trailjournals.com/tjamrogCDT/

Emory Pass to campsite on Bear Trap Creek
16 miles.
Finally had a day when the hiking enjoyment outweighed the aggravation. Word class hiking was the norm most of the day. Lots of ledges, cliffs, side slabbing hills, wildflowers, and plenty of water flowing that culminated in a primo campsite on pine needles in a grove of ancient trees.
Louis wanted to have a fire, but there is too much dry vegetation laying all about and the wind is still gusting strong.
We are in the Gila Wilderness, the first of the National Wilderness areas, enacted in 1924. It is huger 3.3 million acres huge, inconceivable vistas that go 40 miles or more with no habitation.
After begging more water at the Pass, or “trail strong arming” as Train described it, we tackled the 1800 foot climb to Hillsboro Peak (10,000′).
I felt stronger today and was not so exhausted with the climbs.
Hillsboro has a active fire tower on it with a cabin for the ranger, and another crew cabin that was left open for hikers, that we enjoyed.
I read a book about fire spotter culture that is excellent – Check out Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout. They have a chapter about this tower.
We all had at east 5 quarts of water, and were prepared to go 24 miles with no water if we had to.
I misjudged my food plan and am coming up short, on reduced rations until tomorrow when I can pick up a food box I sent to myself.
Here’s what I ate today: breakfast was a can of Coke, an orange, a half apple that I shared with Louis, a half banana, and 1/2 a peanut and butter sandwich. I had a cliff Bar for a mid morning snack. Lunch was 6 Triscuits, a Three Muskateers bar, and a Myoplex protein drink carton. I had an Almond Snickers bar for afternoon snack. Supper was a package of pre-cooked rice with a packet of Kentucky Fried Chicken barbeque sauce, and the last two of my Mom’s date nut bars. I had a cup of sweet tea to drink. Not enough, but I am not complaining.
We started seeing water in East Canyon, which relieved our water worries.
Really sweet feeling of fatigue tonight. I hope to sleep well. I was able to finally call my wife Marcia and my mother Isabel today. I get all emotional speaking to them, and miss them both. Things get real when you are outside walking in the wilderness all day. Little things in life grow huge and are treasured.

Getting ready to leave blues

“You are going to come back as a feral individual. I know that’s going to happen”, said my wife Marcia yesterday.

The last three days before my thru-hike attempt of the CDT were anxiety-producing and tiring. There is no downloadable list for life extraction.

My departure punch list grew daily, and I definitely saved the best and worst for last. The best was when we split up a pile of dry firewood for Auntie Mame to use on these last cold spring Maine days. The worst was cleaning out the composting toilet at the Hobbes camp. At least I am getting quicker at it. Definitely a rubber gloves situation.
Another unique chore was applying a couple of thin layers of Shoo Goo to the exposed toe stitching on my New Balance hiking boots.

I believe I’ve stockpiled enough to get me through, thanks to my brother Roy and New Balance.

I’m dealing with three flights to El Paso Today. I just learned that my Maine Driver’s license expired. I didn’t have that on the checklist. Soon I won’t be Tom Jamrog, and will revert to my trail alter ego, Uncle Tom.

Is the unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach my fear of the open trail ahead or is it perhaps me already missing my rooted connection to my family, wife, friends, neighborhood, and the little black dog’s perpetually hopeful eyes?

Part of me is embarrassed to whine about having to deconstruct the life I’ve led for the past three years to haul a relatively small backpack of objects across America where I’m likely I to spend some portion of the next 156 days being lost.

Who am I to grumble about how difficult it is to walk away from a good life, when most people are struggling ?

There are deep threads holding
Us where we are right now.
Freedom extracts it’s price.
I hope that I have enough
Inside to see me through.
What will
I be like if
I can keep walking
across America
for 5 months?

Still slipping and sliding in the Camden Hills

8 mile loop hike from Carriage Rd. trail head

The day was dry, but the footing was often wet, but I made it up and around with nothing more than wet feet on today’s training hike.
The mandatory picture from the top of Mt. Megunticook shows the remains of snow along the edge of the plowed Mt. Battie Road.

Enough Said

Two miles of trail from Ocean Lookout back to the top of Megunticook and then down the Ridge Trail to Jack Williams Trail (JWT) is still covered with appreciable snow, and even ice floes on the descent to the connector to JWT. I didn’t have traction devices with me and had to switchback along the untrodden snow to get down from the ridge.

It’s a mixed blessing to be walking in the Park this week, with more snow predicted tonight, April 12.

Hiking the Highland

Did six tiring miles with full packs with My pal Doug today. The going was slippery and slower, as we were careful not to fall in the ice, mud, and stream beds.

We started at the Mt. Pleasant parking area, which was almost a swimming pool. I took a side trail over to show Doug the summit of Mt. Pleasant, with absolutely no view at all. It was humid and the air thick with moisture. On the way there, I had images of riding the same track, and was blown away at how wet and muddy the ground was right now. As we made our way over the ups and downs we encountered ice and snow.

I forgot my map, but used Guthook’s Camden Hills Hiking Guide to track our location on the trail. Not many people know that the Highland Path is a bonus on the App.

When we were just .6 mile from Route 17 where we spotted Doug’s car the fog cleared and there was a bit of a view.

Doug is leaving next week to try and thru-hike the PCT. He’s already completed the AT. I have just three more days of “practice hiking” before I set foot on the CDT.

We hope to reunite in October, hopefully with 6,000 miles racked up in total. Sheesh!

CDT hike featured on National Geographic Adventure blog

Photograph by asafantman, Flickr

Hiking the Spine of the United States- the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail

Scoring Focaccia and Miles

Surprised at the continued presence of the ice and snow on the trails in Camden Hills State park.

Still snow in April

Normally I’m walking and biking the north side from Lincolnville.  Today I tried the Route 1 approach just to play it safe and hike a bit on dry ground.  Other than the road up to the top of Mount Battie, I regretted leaving my Stabilicers in the car. Whenever there was no ice or crumbly refrozen snow on the trails, there was mud, with a few choice pits obscured by the fallen leaves.

My walking day began after eating an early breakfast in Rockland with my friend David.  I enjoyed the renovated Home Kitchen, where I had a most excellent vegetarian Eggs Benedict, clearly one of the contributing factors to knocking out breakfast at the nearby Brown Bag.

By 9 AM I was hoisting 30 pounds on my back, when I walked from Rt. 17 to the top of Ragged Mountain ( 1300’) and back. So pleased to have the Leki poles on the dicey descent.

Then Rockland again, for lunch with my friend Robert, at the Atlantic Bakery where I enjoyed a hot bowl of soup with turkey on onion foccaccia.  I was dressed in my admittedly tattered hiking clothes, which likely inspired pity from a pretty girl at an adjacent who had finished her soup and offered me her unbitten foccacia on her way out the door. Trail magic!

Zipped over to Camden Hills where I was armed with my newly minted season pass ($35).

Camden Hills from Moody Mountain Road

I wanted to get into double digit miles today and had no real plan.  After descending a bit from my slow stepping up to the top of Battie ( 800”) , I bypassed the Carriage Road Trail, just 0.2 miles from the top, in favor of the Table land trail, where the snow pack did not appear as thick.

I was too lazy to dig into my pack paper map to check what possibilities were ahead, but had my iPhone with me, primarily laying track for Strava, when I remembered I had the Camden Hills App (Guthook’s Hiking Guides- iTune App Store, $3.99). [NOTE: the App includes a bonus- 11.6 miles of the Georges Highland Path plus the Thorndike Brook access to Ragged.]
I fired it up, and voila, there I appeared on the map, with the route choices in colorful array.

Me= blue dot . Choices, choices?

I tracked my progress on the screen, and I decided to head up to the top of Megunticook (1385’).

From there, I had a very quick, slippery descent, thankfully with no falls down the Slope Trail. I successfully skirted \ numerous post holes perforating the trail, some several feet deep.   I exited at the Multipurpose Trail right by the Ski Shelter. I took a right and tramped out, with 12 miles and 2,300 feet of vertical work completed, definitely beat and desperately in need of  chocolate milk and a candy bar at Village Variety.

Four Dog Stove sponsors Uncle Tom’s CDT hike

Don pitching to the hikers at Trail Days 2011

Four Dog Stove is the major sponsor for my upcoming ( April 17, 2013) attempt to thru-hike the Continental Divide Trail, AKA “ King of Trails”.
I will be using Four Dog’s Bushcooker LT1 multi-fuel stove kit. In addition, Four Dog Stove has provided financial support for purchase of maps, solid fuel tablets, and 55 days of Mountainhouse freeze-dried meals for the remote sections requiring food drops.

My connection with Don Kevilus and Four Dog Stove goes back 15 years, when I purchased one of his 11 x 11 x 22 titanium Ultralight tent stoves. I still use it to heat my 9 x 12 Egyptian cotton wall tent in the winter and fall on toboggan/snowshoe and canoeing trips.

Four Dog stove, winter setup

Since then, I’ve purchased saws, books, titanium pots, as well as the only titanium tent stakes made in the USA.

I first met Don in Vermont at the Snow Walkers’ Rendezvous. He gave a couple of stove and fire building workshops and tended a vendor table, where he sold his handcrafted stoves, as well as a variety of survival and outdoor skills-related tools, strikers, books, videos, and knives.

I was intrigued by his newest creation, a small titanium backpacker’s model. I inquired about a purchase and Don encouraged me to make my own, and try it rather than purchase his $100+ creation. I liked him immediately.

I enrolled in his half-day workshop, where I had fun and successfully built my own twin-walled, secondary-burn multi-fuel stove. At the time I was backpacking with a highly modified ultra-light Sierra Zip stove, where the electrical components were the Achille’s Heel of the unit, and Don’s lure of lure of simplicity and efficiency appealed to me. After I built the stove, I made more of them at home. I was worked up about the little firepots, and gave them to my friends and family for Christmas gifts. I used that stove on my 2007 Appalachian Trail thru-hike.

In 2010 I completed a thru-hike of the 2,700 mile Pacific Crest Trail. This time, Don provided me with a Bushcooker LT 1, a 2.5 ounce single-person alcohol, solid-fuel, and wood/charcoal burning titanium unit that that nested in a Snow Peak Trek 600 ml cook pot/mug. An alcohol fuel cup, a windscreen, and my MSR coffee filter also fit in the mug, capped by a custom titanium lid. Don recommended welding two titanium tabs to the top of the cup that secured a wired bail handle to the pot, for moving it in and out of campfires as well as on and off the stove itself. The stove performed flawlessly, boiling up two to three times a day for 156 days. What convinced me that I had the best unit out there was when my traveling companions used mine whenever they ran out of fuel and were unable to locate isobutane canisters for their Pocket Rockets or Jetboils.

Five years ago, Don presented at Snow Walker’s again. This time, he asked me if I would serve as an assistant in his build-your-own Bushcooker class. I agreed, and learned a lot, mostly what-not-to-do, and how things can go wrong. I also became more skilled at explaining the details of the stove, and learned additional assembly tricks and tips. As part of the course, Don has also expanded what he calls his “Potology 101” talk, a working presentation of facts and table-top examples on the current use of biofuel for cooking on the planet ( over 2.4 billion people), with practical physics of heat values of the fuel types, and the science of heat transfer and efficiency, when the flame meets the pot.

In 2011, I assisted in sales and stove demonstrations at the Four Dog Stove booth at Appalachian Trail Days in Damascus, VA.

I now have 3,000 trail miles on my present Bushcooker LT1 and I’m planning another to use it on my upcoming CDT hike of 2,800 miles. Readers can follow
my daily Trailjournal .

Since then Don, has encouraged me to offer these build-your-own stove workshops here in Maine, where I have sold-out two of the adult-education programs in the past 6 months. I Don continues to provide me with a custom fabricated, titanium base plate that we use in assembling these units.

Simpler is better.

Two minute preview of CDT

Check out this brief, super cool trailer for Jester’s new hiking feature film.

Embrace the Brutality is a feature length documentary that follows a group of hikers as they attempt to thru-hike the entire Continental Divide Trail, which runs from Mexico to Canada through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, a bit of Idaho, and Montana.

The website for the film, EmbraceTheBrutality.com, is not yet live. Until it goes up you can find updates on the release date, screenings, and other good stuff by liking the ETB Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Embrace-the-Brutality-A-Continental-Divide-Trail-Adventure/522214734486256

Birthday present: Walking eight miles in the rain over snow

In the wee hours of the morning ( 4:12 AM), I realized that the weather would not compel many friends to accompany me on my birthday walk in the Park today:

First This !

I don’t work on my birthday. At least one day of my life should be scheduled to be free of responsibilities to the economic machine!   Tonight will also feature a  full moon, plus today is the anniversary of my setting foot on my first National Scenic Trail thru- hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2007.

Marcia got up to make me a birthday breakfast, along with providing a few cards and gifts.  She’s the best.

Double espresso, eggs, croissant, presents!

I knew that I would be going it alone today, but hoped that I’d have some company in the Ski Shelter that I rented for tonight in the Camden Hills.

I’m fortunate to live here, where I can look out two big glass windows and take in a view of the valley and assess my destination today, up and over the sloping back side of the Camden Hills.  After breakfast, I put on my Patagonia Specter rain jacket, shouldered my loaded pack, slide my hands into the rain mitts and under the straps of my Leki poles, and  proceeded to walk across town, my own march to the sea.

I started walking on the crumbling snow coating the abandoned Proctor Road. It’s slippery underfoot, but I tried walking without traction devices on my feet and it seemed good. I’m getting used to walking again with a full pack. It feels familiar, but a bit uncomfortable, like a draft horse in a dry old harness that both need to loosen up a bit.

After I walked through some mud at the other end of the Proctor Road I wind my way down through Lincolnville Center. It’s been easy going so far, mostly downhill. Now the climb starts, first up the Thurlow Road, where it gets sketchier on an abandoned section that eventually crosses Youngtown Road, where it  dumps me onto a snowmobile trail that heads up the back side of Cameron Mtn.  This time of the year the terrain appears foreign, primarily due to the lack of leaves, so the tunnels seem lighter, longer, and more desolate. It’s cold, spitting light rain from the sky, and as long as I’m moving,  I’m comfortable but I’m getting tired.  I’ve been moving steady and at a good clip for two hours straight.

I forgot to pack snacks. I  turned left at the base of Cameron and planned to take the downhill to link onto the Multipurpose trail. If you are following the map, I am right at the “4″ mark.   I take a brief rest,  reach into the pack,  eat one of the lemon-filled cupcakes that Marcia made me for my birthday, and drink a pint of water from Tiki-man. My lower abdomen still is uncomfortable, residual healing from the hernia surgery from 5 weeks ago. The doctor tells me to walk through it, and assured me that I am healing well.

I really hope that more healing is done by the time I leave for the CDT in 16 days.

Two of my friends, Karl Gottshalk and Pat Hurley came by after 4 PM to  spend the night in the shelter with me.  Pat and I  grilled up steaks out in one of the grill stations, and then we ate cake, provided by Karl. !

La, La, la!

I plan to put in 9 more days of hiking, alternated with 9 rest days. I’m following the conditioning program favored by Ray Jardine, where I hope to culminate on a 12 mile day over these hills with 35 pounds in my pack. That should do it.