Adventures in Onionism

After spending a night in Silver City at The Drifter motel (how aptly-named is that?)watching ESPN tell me ad nauseam that the Skins got destroyed 52-7 by the Pats, I hitched west to Glenwood, NM and hiked the Catwalk National Recreation Trail. It's only a mile or so long, but it's a pretty cool slot canyon with a metal walkway built to the wall in the narrower parts. Hitched to Springerville this morning, Marcus is on his way over from Phoenix, and we'll head to Pie Town. I really enjoy hitch-hiking. It's fun to try and hold your tongue when people tell you that global warming is a scam to create a world government.

The journey is complete. According to timeanddate.com, it took 178 days, 13 hours, and 30 minutes . Here's how it ended. 10 minutes after I left the Internet cafe in Silver City on the 23rd, the power went out all over town. I couldn't buy my groceries or even use some of the pay-phones around town. Mysteriously, Dairy Queen still had power, so I hung out there until the power came back on, bought my groceries, and walked out of town on highway 90. The next day I walked highway and dirt county roads to near Separ, NM. I saw my second rattler (a Green Mojave?) of the trip. On the 25th I passed through Separ, which is actually just Bowlin's Continental Divide Trading Post . Gross. I walked more roads with a little cross-country cacti bushwhacking to near Hachita. I did see some wild horses, but I also got swooped by an enormous bat, and swarmed by 5 Border Patrol trucks. Three drove past me in formation, one pulled a U-turn and focused his lights on me, and the two f...

Aaron: The new Radiohead album the day it came out? You, my friend, are awesome. Thomas, Jody, Wendell, and Sarah: I wish I knew the Cookie Monster song, because if I did, I'd sing it in your honor right now. Thanks! Did 38 on Sunday so I could get to the Grants PO by Monday closing--I surely wouldn't want to be forced to pay $25 for a hotel room and watch movies and Monday Night Football and drink a gallon of chocolate milk--that would have stunk. So I climbed Mt. Taylor (11,301") then walked by a landfill and a prison literally 10 yards from the road while inmates followed me in the yard and stared. Went to the PO and grocery store, then left town. After a bunch of annoying lava and road walking I'm in Pie Town now on the 18th. I've got maps for the rest of the trip. There are a lot of options south of here. I'm not excited about fording the Gila again, but I probably will end up there anyway. Hopefully, I'll be in Silver City in 5 days, then visit the ...

I listened to All Things Considered as I walked into town today, so all is well with the world. Except for my parents' house being in danger of burning down, along with the rest of SoCal, it seems. After a quick stop in Pie Town, I hiked over John Kerr peak and imagined it was really John Kerry peak and busied myself making puns--I didn't climb John Kerry peak because of its French-looking North Face, but I wish we'd gone over John Kerry peak because anything would've been better than the 4 miles of bush whacking before and after. Lame, I know. Then I got to Snow Lake and walked the Middle Fork of the Gila River from end to end. My love/hate relationship with the canyon continues. In the afternoon I was thinking "if we ever run out of petroleum and Tina Turner runs the world with a disguised midget named Master-Blaster as enforcer and good people have to hide in surprisingly well-watered canyons in the desert, I got dibs on the Gila." Then in the morning ...

Well, I've exceeded my allotted number of offers of free showers/rides from skeezy guys while in town in the past two hours (I usually prefer to get these offers once every NEVER!) so I'm ready to get out of town, but the library was on the way, so here I am. I did the San Pedro Parks Wilderness yesterday and this morning, and now we've only got one high place left--Mt. Taylor, which is in the next few days between here and Grants. It hit 82 degrees yesterday. Life is good. I camped with Jug and Nitro the night before last and realized that was only the 3rd night out of 162 nights (including day one when I started at 8 PM and camped at the state park three miles from the border) that I've camped with other CDT hikers. Obviously there've been a few nights with other random people in the national parks or Forest Service campgrounds or at a couple friends' places, but not a lot. It was also cool that Nitro knows more about the NFL than any other human being I'v...

Other things I need to mention: Milena, you rock. You totally rock. Lindt truffles? F--- Yeh! Cal Football is #2 in the nation. F--- Yeh! I'm not sure of exactly the mileage or what route I'll take south of Pie Town, but if it's ~300 from Pie Town to Antelope Wells like I think it is, I'm guessing I'll be finishing on the 29th or 30th, assuming decent weather. Marcus might fly down and pick me up, we might try and see Andy Skurka finish his hike at the Grand Canyon on the 3rd, then head to SD and pick up some stuff so I can have more than one set of clothing in Berkeley. My sister has a layover from Indonesia in LAX on the 7th, so that's all got to work in there somehow. It's too much to think about--I've got to get hiking. I'm gunning for El Bruno's (the best Mexican food ever) in Cuba the day after tomorrow, and maybe the Grants PO before closing on the 15th. Also, if you were wondering, I weight 128 pounds. I hit an all-time high of 14...

I ended up staying a night in Pagosa Springs, because it started dumping when Namie was driving me around to do my errands, so it made more sense to stay in a warm dry house than to hike for half an hour before dark and get soaked. Unfortunately, it was still raining (hard!) the next morning, so I ditched into a ski-area tool shed on the Divide and hid there from the lightning for a few hours. I only made 16 that day, and 22-25 the next two days, but on the 7th, I went over 12,000 feet for the last time, left the South San Juan Wilderness, and camped on the state line. On the 8th, I woke up, told CO to kiss my ass (I've got pictures,) and hiked on, and it's been glorious New Mexico jeep roads 'n bushwackin' ever since, with 32+ miles each of the last two days. Right now, I'm in the computer lab at Ghost Ranch--I hiked 18 already before noon to make it before lunch, and it's 74 degrees outside! 74 degrees! The last day I spent in CO it was 18 when I woke up,...

Just rolled into Pagosa Springs. The weather today isn't great, but it's not horrible. I left Lake City on Sunday and had great weather, but Monday it snowed on me again. Tues. and Wed. were great. Namie, the local trail angel is coming into town and going to help me run my errands and then I'm headed right back to the trail--65 miles left of Colorado, and I can't wait for some of New Mexico's boring-ass low-altitude jeep roads. The San Juans were a completely different experience this time around. I didn't recognize much of anything without 8 feet of snow except for obvious things like The Window and the Rio Grande Pyramid. I did do the entire official route though, or rather, what was the official route in June, as they're partially done with a higher re-route that I didn't take because I wanted to see where I'd nearly drowned (Pole Creek). Of course it was piddly this time of year. I guess I'm now 2 days behind schedule, but things are ...