Its over. I broke my foot. Not much more to say really. 4777.2 miles in 142 days. I had it…

After a lame forced resupply, I had 180 miles to South Pass City to get my resupply box I had bounced from Dubois.

This was the Bridger Wilderness and it was beautiful! Reminded me of the Sierra. I was running low on food again until I came upon some struggling june bugs. These are the hikers with the oversized 70L Ospreys I commonly refer to as “turtle shell diaper tops.” They always have too much food and this guy Rob was no exception. He have me 2 days worth of stuff! Snickers, Lenny’s and Larry cookies, M&Ms and all sorts of stuff.

I was now ready to hit the Cirque Tower Alternate. As I approached I looked at the elevation and knew if I wanted to get my 40 I would have to stay on the CDT- damn was that a mistake. The first 8 miles were flat and plenty smooth until I came upon a massive slowdown section which lasted for 20 miles! Trying to avoid them after 5 hours of hurdles and crawling, I followed what I thought were other hiker paths to game trails which lead to meadows.

No slowdowns here, so I continued only to realize that I was going away south as the trail went north up, over a mountain, along a bridge and down the other side. I was 1.9 miles off trail and it was getting dark. My Guthooks was all messed up again and I had no idea if I could get to a road and take that back to the trail. So I just sent it north.

Over at least 1,000 blow downs and up over and down 2 mountains. I eventually arrived back on the CDT and pushed hard until 11:45 pm and crashed into my tent. The hardest 39 mile day in quite sometime.

I was up early the next day with 19.8 to make it to South Pass City, running out of food with 10 miles to go. But the trail turned into dirt roads through the desert and I arrived at 1 pm. I Got my box, heavy duty rain gear (not messing around anymore) and took 2 hours to eat, charge and prepare.

Only did 12 out, followed by 39.5 the next day and 49.3 after that. I ran out of cigs and food by 8 pm and after finishing the near 50 by 10:30 pm, I had 16.8 miles to arrive in Rawling,Wyoming. Which I did with a 4:10 am start going straight to Taco Bell.

Now on to Steamboat Springs and hopefully in a couple weeks, make it to the San Juans.
✌🥾🤪

So you think you had a bad week?

Let us begin….After being very excited hitting 4,000 miles in 4 months, I made some mistakes that cost me.

First, I mailed home my G0rtex rain and wind pants because I’ve lost so much weight, they didn’t fit (mistake#1).

Then I treated myself and slept in the following day and took my time getting back on trail (mistake #2).

Then, after getting a text from my buddy Masshole, to “hunker down, sever storm coming”, I pitched my tent in a flat spot at 8,000 feet (mistake #3).

About 11 pm I could here the thunder and before I knew it I was in the middle of what felt like a hurricane with the wind whipping over 60 mph, thrashing my tent and the lightning and thunder crashing all around me. I curled up in a ball, ripped cig after cig and thought, “well, 4,000 miles in 4 months – not a bad way to go”.

The wind eventually ripped out my tent stake and I grabbed my trekking pole just in time before the whole tent collapsed on top of me (I use a trekking pole to pitch my tent).  I held onto it for what felt like forever, while the line attached to the stake that ripped out flapped around continuously, knocking me in the head.

Eventually the wind calmed down enough where I could get outside, grab a rock, and hammer all my stakes in so far and so deep it would make a porn star blush. 10 minutes later, the wind, rain and lightning came back, but at that point I was too exhausted to care.

I woke up the next day and dealt with more wind, rain and low 40 degree temps. The same the next day and the next.

After fording about a dozen rivers and being completely soaked and frozen for 4 straight days, I met a group of section hikers who had fire going. They offered me a hot meal and gave me a bunch of food that they didn’t want to carry which was a life saver because I was almost out. Ted and Lauren and the crew, thank you so much!!

After saying goodbye, I hike .2 miles, forded another river, and set my pack down to reevaluate my situation when I realized that I had lost my pack of tent stakes ducking and crawling over blowdowns all day.

I forded the river again, ran back to Ted and Lauren, and they were able to wrangle up 6 stakes for me. Again, life savers!

I then ran back, forded the river AGAIN and just decided to pitch there. Everything was soaked and it dropped into the 30s that night.

The next day I missed a turn and added 6.5 miles to this brutal section in the Teton Wilderness.

All I wanted was to get to Lava mountain lodge and get my resupply box, take a hot shower and sleep in a bed. A day later I reached it, only for them to not have my box, charge 50 cents per minute for a shower and not give me a refund so I could go into town and get the box myself.

I was forced to resupply at their overly expensive and lame camp store with processed chimichangas and burritos. Enough food, maybe, to get me to Rawlings, Wyoming where my next box would be.

This was the most difficult week since week 5 (Sierra snow storm and deer poison) but I made it through. I lost perhaps 70 miles, but I’ll make it up!

Hike on trash!🥾✌😑

After getting some much needed rain pants at High Divide Outfitters, I couldn’t have picked better timing. Got hit with a serious wind and rain storm and called it at 3pm, completely soaked and frozen. My hands were numb and as the temperature dropped into the 30s, I just laid in my tent for 17 hours and shivered.

My buddy Masshole resupplied me at Macdonald’s Pass and met me at Homstake Pass with McDonalds and ice cream. He also got me the GPX files I needed for the Big Sky Variant route around the enormous fire that closed down part of the CDT. What a guy!

The next day I hit I-90 and after 16 miles of road walk, made it to Whitehall. Stopped at the grocery for more ice cream and a bag of mandarins while I charged my stuff. I left there not feeling good and a few miles outside of town became really sick (I’ll spare you the details). So I wasn’t able to do the miles I wanted and had to pitch at 7.

To make it to Mammoth Hot Springs by 5pm on Monday to receive my resupply and hit 4,000 miles in 4 months, I needed to do 163 miles in 3 and a half days. So leaving Whitehall Friday morning at 7am, I busted out a 42,48,48 and the remainder into Mammoth arriving at 3:45 on Monday.

After eating some elk sliders, I hiked another 5.7 out of town and finished Month 4 with 1,119.4 miles and 4,000.9 total miles total, so far.

What a challenge that was and what a relief to be able to do it. 120 days down, 2,850 miles to go!
✌🥾

After having to convince the Glacier National Park rangers to let me in due to a forest fires and a back country permit issue I made it into the park on July 31.

The views were spectacular but because of the fires, the smoke dulled them a bit.

Pulling 40’s with that elevation gain was tough but I managed to reach Brownies Hostel a few days later and get my resupply box. From there it was onto the Bob Marshal Wilderness.

After missing a turn and adding 6.6 miles to my already long hike I got back on the right track and had an insanely huge climb up to 8000 feet. I was planning on doing a 51.4 that day but after getting lost, that was off the table.

I then proceeded to hike 17 miles with no water because all the sources were dried up. I finished that night at 12 am with 49.9 miles (43 of which was actual CDT) and met my good friend ‘Masshole’ at Roger’s pass the next morning. He had my new pack and brought me Subway, Dr. Pepper, and a bag of clementines.

It had been a tough week and he really boosted my morale. Thanks Masshole!

Trail, road walk, trail, road walk, trail, bushwhack, road walk. Finished the PNT! Not before hiking right into an active forest fire and was evacuated by the fuzz.

Now on to the CDT.

Walking down a farm road as I write this so I’ll keep it brief.

PNT has waaay to much road walking to be considered a trail. I’ve probably done over 200 miles of it since I started a couple weeks ago.

Ran into a pissed off mother bear and her Cubs. I had to break out the bear spray, happy not to use it but I got the whole situation on film.

A couple bushwhacks slowed my pace and kicked my ass but I’m moving good and almost at the CDT.🥾✌👍

The Snowqaulmie to PCT/PNT did not disappoint! There was still significant snow pack and a lot of overgrowth.

I must have passed over 100 South Bound PCT hikers who kept asking me if I was just doing a section or flip flopping the trail. They were all clean and happy, completely ignorant to the shenanigans that lay ahead of them. So many fires and more snow than I think they realize.

The 195 mile stretch took me 5 days and 45 minutes. Picked up my bounce box in Mazama, bought a pair of shoes, ate the hell out of the general store and Met “Raven Song”, the first women to solo hike the PCT in 1976! An old frame pack, wooden mountaineering axe, 5 pound sleeping bag and heavy leather boots. No trail Angel’s then or water caches. Hikers doing the trail today have no excuse not to finish. This women is an inspiration, and a real sweet heart!

Anyway, Nothing, AZ to PCT/PNT Junction- 2,682 miles- 85 days.

After taking a half day off in Cascade Locks due to the oppressive heat (115 degrees), I was able to hike out the next morning and without too much snow to deal with, made it to Snowqaulmie, WA in a week (about 250 miles).

A bunch of friends have met me on the trail and provided food and other things. Thank you to Cameron “1-11” and his buddy. Also a good friend from back home, Biff, took me out to lunch and Katie “Captain Planet” Rapp and her boyfriend Jordan “Sidewinder” Smith let me stay at their house, brought me McDonalds and made me steak and mac and cheese.

This trail magic helps so much when you’re trying to do something this hard. Thank you!

PCT done in a week!

Starting at 4pm on Wednesday the 16th I headed into Oregon.

There’s is something called the “Oregon Challenge” in which you try and do the 456 miles of the state in 14 days or less. So beginning at 4pm I did 15 miles in to finish out the day. After that 37,45,41,41,38,40,28(resupply day) 38,40,50,28 and 15 to finish with a time of 11 days and 18 hours.

During that stretch I encountered hale the size of marbles, snow pack, sand wind, extreme heat, burn sections, lava fields and the worst mosquitos I have ever dealt with.

Washington tomorrow!