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A Triple Crown Hiker's Perspective

2004 found me on the Continental Divide Trail, searching for that elusive Triple Crown. The CDT is not an easy trail. It’s a given that the CDT is a physically tough trail. But the huge difference between the PCT and the CDT is that on the CDT you have to be constantly aware of where you are. Gone are the hours and days of mindless walking, lost in thought. The instant you remove yourself from your surroundings and get lost in conversation with a hiking buddy, lost in a song on the radio, or lost in your mind, THAT’S when things go wrong.

I was never so proud as I was on November 7, 2004. That’s the day I finished the CDT, the day I completed the Triple Crown. I was lucky to share that day with two close Triple Crown buddies. We had survived 146 CDT days of route-finding, terrible weather, and compromises. 146 CDT days of walking on the top of the world, laughing, remembering PCT stories, talking about the AT, learning about each other and ourselves. It was a fantastic trip, something that I will always cherish.

People ask me all the time: WHY do I hike year after year?
· Because the scenery is amazing.
· Because the best people in the world walk long trails.
· Because I can't call those people friends unless we have shared experiences.
· Because I'm in the BEST shape ever when I'm thru-hiking.
· I'm physically fit.
· I have legs of steel.
· I'm mentally at peace.
· I have no stress.
· I'm free.
Who wouldn't want to be me?

I understand when non-thru-hikers ask me why I hike every year. They couldn't possibly understand why I would do this ONE time. So of course they don't understand thru-hiking year after year after year. But what I DON'T get is when thru-hikers ask me the same question. We'll be somewhere on the trail laughing and cooking dinner, or taking a break at the top of a pass, or telling stories on a porch in town. ALWAYS, a thru-hiker will ask me the question. And I just want to SHAKE him. HELLO?!? How could you not get it? Aren't you having the time of your life? Aren't these the BEST people? Isn't this FUN? Don't you feel GREAT? THAT'S why.

And as my hero Billy Goat once said: if you have to ask, then you'll never understand.

The best advice I’ve ever heard about long-distance hiking is to NOT look at a thru-hike as one long trip. Instead, break your 5-month hike into several small town-to-town trips. I’m a crazy anal statistic-oriented person. I’ve never weighed my pack, because as I’m walking up a pass I don’t want to know that I have XX pounds on my back. Same goes for miles. The CDT is ~2500 miles long?!?!? NO WAY! But if I forget the statistics aspect and look at the complete trip as many back-to-back smaller trips, then the whole overwhelming aspect is removed. WHEW! Now I can have fun!

In 2004, I was a lucky girl. I was able to walk the Continental Divide Trail. When I think back to my first few weeks on the Appalachian Trail back in 1999, the thought of a CDT trip didn’t even exist. I wasn’t even sure I could complete the AT! Forget about the PCT or the CDT! But then I got hooked. Long-distance hiking became my passion and now that’s who I am. I am no longer defined by my profession or education. Instead, I’m a longdistance hiker. Seriously, I’m not kidding. Every time I’m introduced to a new person, it’s like this: “she hiked the Continental Divide Trail last year” or some other hiking reference. If you visit me in Overland Park, Kansas, you won’t find my MBA diploma on the wall. But you will see my completion awards for the trails. The walls of your home reflect who you are. I’m a longdistance hiker.

“It’s been an unusually cold and wet season”. If I had a dollar for every time I heard that phrase in 2004, I could fund another thruhike. The CDT kicked my ass in 2004! It was hard both physically and mentally, but you know what? I’m a better person because of that trip. I never go on a long hike to look for something, but I always come home with a new understanding of myself. 2004 was no exception. Weather ruled our world in 2004.

Following is an account of a few days of my life on the trail between Salmon Idaho and Leadore Idaho on my 2004 CDT hike. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you get a feel of what goes through a long-distance hiker’s mind day-to-day. You’ll quickly see that the environment controls our world.

Day # 33 — 7.5 miles today, 483.9 total miles

I have not slept well in town lately. I don't know why. I should sleep well in town because I'm clean, my clothes are clean, and I'm in a soft bed. But I toss and turn all night. Dewey thinks it's because I'm used to sleeping outside. Outside has become the norm. Beds are the unusual. Hitching out of Salmon today was NOT easy. We stood in the hot sun for a long time. Some nice local people gave us cold Pepsi and Root Beer to drink while we hitched! It took an HOUR to get a ride. And what an interesting ride it was. Very nice man, maybe 60 years old. He said, "Are you the couple that was dancing at the Salmon Inn last night?" Uh . . . no . . . I walked past that place. It looked pretty seedy. Wonder what kind of dancing they do there? We stopped in North Fork ID, the same place where Dewey and I had lunch yesterday on the way into Salmon from the trail. After eating, our nice man got in his jeep and went on his merry way (he was turning off our highway there, so he couldn't take us all the way up to the trail). I sure hope he made it home okay. He was a really nice person. So there we are in North Fork. We needed to get up to Lost Trail Pass. That’s 25 miles away. 1:30pm. 100 degrees. No shade along the highway. We found a spot where we could stand back in some sort-of-shade, then pop out on the shoulder when a car drove by. After only about 5 minutes of no love from the cars, I gave up. I walked across the street to a second-hand shop and asked if anyone there would be willing to drive us up to the pass. Thankfully, the woman there agreed to help us out. I couldn't imagine standing on that highway for another minute. It was just too damn hot. So hot, in fact, that when Dewey and I got up to the pass, we didn't even start hiking right away. We waited in the shade at the rest area until almost 5pm. Then we started walking. About 6 miles in, we ran into a northbound CDT section hiker named Fred. What a treat that was! We've been on the trail over a month, and this is only the third other CDT hiker we've met. Fred gave us all the scoop on what to expect trail-wise for the next few days — trail conditions, water availability, and towns. Today wouldn't be a complete day on the CDT unless we got misplaced. About ½ mile back, Dewey and I missed a turn, and we ended up hiking to the top of Anderson Mountain. We're not supposed to be here, but it sure is a pretty place. We cooked dinner sitting on the edge of the hill, overlooking the mountains to the east. Perfect.

Day # 34 — 23.7 miles today, 507.6 total miles

The rain started last night about 15 minutes after Dewey and I went into our tents. Rain and wind. Not heavy rain, but constant for most of the night. I usually sleep pretty good when it rains. Not last night. I was wide awake. Tough, tough day today. Physically tough and mentally tough. It seemed like we were transported back to the Appalachian Trail in Georgia. Very humid and VERY steep ups and downs. All day. Longdistance hiking is hard. Sure, I talk a lot about how I love this life, and I do, but it ain't easy. Especially days like today. The mosquitoes are still torturing us. I think I put DEET on 5 or 6 times today. The mosquitos like to bite my chin,ears, cheeks, whatever they can get their greedy little fangs on. I think if someone told me that if I used DEET and then had children, and the children would be GUARANTEED to have 20 toes on each foot, I'D STILL USE THE DEET. The mosquitoes are relentless. It's raining again, and I'm cold. I just cooked dinner, but I had to eat it in my tent again. There are mosquitoes and rain out there. There's a warm, dry sleeping bag in here. That wasn't a hard decision.

Day # 35 — 15.8 miles today, 523.4 total miles

The rain continued all through the night. This morning the outside world was cold and wet. Inside the cocoon of my sleeping bag and tent, I was warm, safe, and dry. 8:35am — that's what time I started to pack up this morning. Actually, I made two failed attempts to pack earlier, but I just couldn't do it. But eventually Dewey and I had to start moving. We have a finite amount of food, and out next resupply town is far away from here. We ran into another nobo CDT section hiker today. A lady named Kathy. She's completing the last section of her last trail. Then, she'll have her Triple Crown. Nice lady. She seemed to really be enjoying the trail. Dewey and I stopped for lunch after hiking only about 3 miles. It was early, but we were hungry, and more importantly, the SUN had come out. We both really wanted to dry out our tents and sleeping bags. The rest of the day was good. The trail was mostly nice. Some steep parts, but nothing like yesterday. We even bushwhacked over a ridge. Didn't have to, but we chose to. Neither one of us was into hiking today. That's why we only went 15 miles. Yesterday sure wiped me out. We stopped on this saddle just to cook dinner, but ended up staying. It's pretty, and we're being lazy. We just don't feel like walking any more today. We're camped at 9200 feet. The view out of my tent door looks like I could be in the Sierra. And here's the thing: it doesn't matter if we stay here or walk on. You don't get extra points for walking three more miles after dinner. That's the beauty of thruhiking. You get to choose whatever you want to do. 11:49pm. This freakin' SUCKS. I think Dewey and I are near a tornado. Seriously. For about the last 90 minutes, we've been getting BLASTED by wind and rain. I've never experienced anything like this. The wind feels like it's going to lift my tent up. In fact, the back stake did comeout about 30 minutes ago. That was horrible. I'm laying here in my sleeping bag and then BAM! I'm smothered with silnylon. I had to quickly take off my ninja suit and put on my raincoat so I could go out into the hurricane and fix my tent. All the stakes are now covered with very heavy rocks. I had to put all my gear inside my pack and put that next to me inside the tent just to hold that side of the tent down. Seriously, THIS SUCKS.

Day #37 — 19.0 miles today, 566.4 total miles

Oh! What a glorious day today was!!! No rain. No DEET. Sunshine. Cool breeze. Walking on The Divide. Perfect. Cold morning. I actually wore my windshirt for a few miles first thing. I rarely do that. Walking usually keeps me warm enough. Good early morning climb. I think it was 1500 feet. Something like that. At the top of the climb we saw the ruins of the abandoned Darkhorse Mine. Four cabins, set in a glacial bowl. I tried to imagine what it would have been like to live all the way up on that mountain. Beautiful, but I bet it was not an easy life. Probably lonely, too. Next stop was Cowbone Lake. Our guidebook said the lake got its name when a herd of cattle was driven up into the mountains. Apparently, it had been very dry. When the cattle crossed the Divide and saw the frozen lake below, they rushed to the lake to drink. They all walked out onto the frozen lake, the ice broke, and they all drowned. Thus the name "Cowbone Lake". And that's where we got our drinking water today — from a lake where who knows how many cows drowned. Yummy. After Cowbone Lake, we had to bushwhack for a few miles, because there was no trail. Dewey is very good at route-finding, and he got us right to the top with no problems. The last 1/3 mile or so were very steep. And then . . . . we walked on The Divide for maybe 10 miles. AMAZING! I felt like I was on the top of the world! Amazing views, windy, sunshine, WOW. I think this was my favorite day of the trip so far. I just love ridge-walking. Franconia Ridge was my favorite day on the AT. And the PCT has ridgewalking all the time. I feel so FREE up there. But the problem with walking ON THE DIVIDE is that there isn't any water. Afterall, you're at the TOP of everything, water flows downhill, so there aren't any streams or lakes way up on top. Dewey and I took a long afternoon siesta break today. We haven't had the chance to do that yet on this trip. But today was the perfect day for it. Sometimes, it seems like we push ourselves too much. We need to take a break once in a while. The day doesn't have to be all about making the miles. Tonight, we dropped down off The Divide to get water and camp. We'll head back up to The Divide in the morning. We're HOPING that when we get to Lemhi Pass tomorrow there will be people there with tasty beverages for us.