Adventures in Onionism

Looks like only half of the trail record attempts I know about will be successful this year. David Horton's attempt to do a supported CDT run and break Squeaky's unsupported 75-day CDT record ended after one truly hellish day, and Karl Meltzer won't be beating Andrew Thompson's AT record of 47 days and change thanks to an injury, but I'm pretty sure that Scott and Joe broke the PCT speed record, finishing yesterday evening for a total of 71 days and a few hours, taking 8 days off Joe's previous record (unconfirmed but near certain given location a day or so ago), and Jennifer Pharr Davis destroyed the women's AT record, finishing a couple days ago in 57 days, 16 hours. Happy trails to all. Update: the first link made it clear Karl was still going to finish the AT, but an updated post implies the record will still be within reach. He's resting today, but he was several miles ahead of Andrew Thompson's splits before this. Best wishes for a full...

I finally put up photos and video from my CDT hike. Pictures and video from the CDT hike itself are here , and photos from the road-trip home can be found on my Picasa page .

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 ...

Oh my word, I am tired. Like my mom wrote below, I'm taking a day off in Lake City, CO. I'd hoped to go straight from Monarch Pass (which I hit on schedule on the 25th) but I got hammered yesterday going over 14,014 San Luis Peak. Bagging the peak is actually three-tenths of a mile shorter than the official trail that just goes over a shoulder, but when I got to 13,000 the winds were gusting to maybe 70mph and it felt like Nolan Ryan was chucking gravelly snow at me, so I bailed to the regular route. I met two nice dayhikers Dave and Greg that were good company during crappy weather. I still made 28 miles, but I camped right by the road to town and when the weather was still crap this morning I decided I needed more food/warmer socks to be able to make it through the San Juans. I got a pair of neoprene wading socks (the first time I've ever been glad an outfitter is fishing oriented!) and some more food and I should be good to go tomorrow, assuming I can get some slee...

From a postcard: 23rd, Twin Lakes - I'm a little bit loco. Climbed 14,433 ft Mt. Elbert (CO's highest) last night as a snow storm was coming in. To make it better, I did a traverse. Bummed I didn't do Mt. Massive (CO's 2nd highest) as well. Good thing - with PO hours, it really didn't set me back at all. Peace, G From a phone call: 29th, Lake City - He tried to climb another 14er but the weather turned bad and he is forced to take a break in town.

September 14 - left Steamboat at 7pm, did 12 miles of highway walking at night to get my miles in after 7 hours in town. September 15 - My 28th birthday. Did around 30 miles. Passed Wildcat, so I'm not the last southbounder anymore. September 16 - Woke early because of lightning. It was on and off all day. I remembered something - the weather in Colorado is horrible. And there's no shame in low routes when the weather calls for it - lightning will kill you. That's the one piece of advice Scott Williamson could give me about this hike - let weather determine your hike. It kinda sucks, but unless you have the time to wait out every storm (every day), which I don't, it's what you have to do. THEN IT SNOWED ON ME.

First, to mail me something at a post office, you can send it to: Garret Christensen c/o General Delivery Town, State ZIP But I won't be using that many PO's any more, just Twin Lakes, CO (81251) on 9/22, Grants, NM (87020) on 10/13, Pie Town, NM (87827) on 10/16. You could also use USPS to Ghost Ranch (on 10/7): Garret Christensen c/o Ghost Ranch Conference Center HC77, Box 11 Abiquiu, NM 87510 and write "Please hold for hiker, ETA ---" on the package. (The postal address in my last post for the Monarch Crest store is apparently no good, you have to use UPS, so don't worry about that.) THANKS! Everything is going well. It's raining like CRAZY outside, so it's good that I'm sitting in the library. I've got my next bunch of maps, now I've just got to go buy a bunch of food and mail it ahead to avoid some long hitches. There's a long highway walk south of town, so hopefully I can get started on that before it's too dark--camping b...

Hi all. Poor planning (I shouldn't have stayed in Lander) means I have to wait here for the PO to open tomorrow morning. Oh well. On my way into town a disabled vet gave me $1 and then said I could stay at his place, so it's all good. I did blow a day, but let's hope it doesn't matter. The desert was quick and easy. Lots of antelope and wild horses, and no 105 degree heat. For those of you wondering how much planning it takes to do a high-speed long-distance hike like this (or for those cool people out there that would like to send me cookies or details of the college football season), here's the e-mail I just sent my folks about resupplies for the rest of my hike. Hi. Here's my plan. The town name, the date I'll be there, and the miles from previous town, plus what I'd like to happen. An asterisk indicates I need you to send stuff. *Rawlins 9/9 *Steamboat Springs, CO Fri 9/14 (140) I just need the maps. I'll mail food from here to Monarch and maybe ...

First, happy belated birthday Mom. There were no phones at 13,000 feet when I was boulder-hopping across glacial moraines on the Divide in the northern half of the Winds, so I didn't call. Please accept my apologies. Anyway, I'm in Lander now. Here's the skinny: after 5 nights in Yellowstone on a made-up route that had some very cool parts (ridges, canyons, bison) I reconnected with the official CDT at Two Ocean Pass. The next day I got to Dubois , WY. Hitching took forever , but I finally got a ride from Matt Carpenter, a guy that horse-packed the entire trail a couple years ago starting at Canada in April and raised something like $8 million for the Make a Wish Foundation. (Google him, or try something like diamondc.wyoming.com?). Yes, starting southbound in April is nuts, and yes, taking 16 horses over some of these high passes is nuts, but this guy puts Jeremiah Johnson to shame. I entered the Winds and did two absolutely amazing high-route alternates--walking the...

Postcard: I'm in Mammoth waiting for the backcountry office to open. That means I'm in Wyoming, right? Sweet! I'll be headed east from here then south down the Lamar. The first day and a half in the park were very tough--hopefully the river trails I have in mind will be cruisier like the Flatheads. In general Montana was totally amazing. Just a tip for visitors--if you want to be liked say, "my dad went to high school in Browning" not "I'd like to see less cattle-grazing on public land." Phone: Garret was in Dubois today. He says the route he took made him miss most of the northbounders, but thinks he may be ahead of his friend Andy Skurka (headed south) which would be good company if Andy catches up. Note to parents: Greetings from Tower Fall Campground. I'm supposed to be at a backcountry site 6 or 7 miles back, but I couldn't bring myself to stop hiking at 5:00, so here I am. Today I saw The Black Canyon of the Yellowstone. Man, it was HOT...

From a postcard: I'm sittng at the ranger station in Ennis trying to figure out the best way from here to Yellowstone. My preferred route crosses private property so I'll make a little change. Also looks like I won't be able to make it to Mammoth Hot Springs before my first night in Yellowstone, so I'll have call and get my permit from here. Aside from these minor annoyances and seeing way too many cattle pooping in my water, all is well. The Tobacco Roots definitely had cool parts. On to the Madison Range.

Me, pointing to where I was at the time. The red blob is a big fire that went from 19,000 acres to 32,000 acres the day the photo was taken. Yep, that's all smoke in the air as I passed the Fool's Creek fire. Crap, did I take this? Sure looks pretty. Wish I had some idea where it was. I want to say it was on the border of the Lewis and Clark NF and the Blackfoot reservation near the Swift Dam, but I could be wrong. Yep, I'm wrong, it's in Glacier. It's St. Mary's Falls, or Virginia Falls, one of the two. The Ahern Drift on the Highline Trail in Glacier. Usually this is a totally treacherous spot because the trail is crazy narrow and the cliff is steep and covered in snow, but there was nothing to worry about when I got there. Me at the border on August 6 at around 10 AM. From a postcard: "Please blog this. Aaron Rutman, it has been an honor to call you "one of my four friends" for the last 3 years. It's a shame I've only live...

From a phone call: No cute girls around. In fact, they're Butte ugly. Yesterday was a BAD day--feet were bleeding. Not sure if it's the cheap socks or the shoes that last 8 days. Possibly flesh eating bacteria eating the fleshy bottoms of feet. Despite it all, Garret sounded great and was in high spirits. He just got a new playlist for his MP3 player, so look out for a bearded Onion singing Neil Diamond in your neighborhood.

From a postcard: Arrived at Lincoln safely. Thanks to all the rangers and firefighters trying to keep us and our forests safe. Even more thanks to those with some compassion and a sense of adventure as well. I was totally safe, but just barely got through; hikers behind me are totally screwed. On to Butte.