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RedDoug 
Group: Members
Posts: 9160
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 11 2013, 1:41 pm |
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I am getting more and more into trip prep to hike the CDT in New Mexico starting the end of March/early April. Exact date has not been set yet.
One room of the house has turned into a supply depot.
I have found one other hiker from NC who will make this trip with me. Recently I have been hanging out on the CDT-L a lot getting together trip info from other CDT hikers.
I am excited. Nice plans for a 64 yr old recovering cancer patient.
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Everything is in Walking Distance
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| Post Number: 2
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big_load
Group: Members
Posts: 21820
Joined: Jun. 2004
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Posted on: Feb. 11 2013, 1:48 pm |
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Good luck! Once your plans are more set, I'd like to follow your progress.
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| Post Number: 3
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RedDoug
Group: Members
Posts: 9160
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 11 2013, 1:57 pm |
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I am not planning on taking any communication devices with me. I am going to be just out there. I might have a cell phone in my bounce box, but that will be it. If I have the opportunity I may get the chance to get on line a few times, but I am retired now. I have no time pressures, no commitments to get back too.
Retirement is the best vacation I have ever had.
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Everything is in Walking Distance
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| Post Number: 4
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mtngrl
Group: Members
Posts: 3516
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 11 2013, 3:04 pm |
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Very cool, keep us posted!
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“He who knows the most, he who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the waters, the plants, the heavens and how to come at these enchantments, is the rich and royal man” -- from Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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| Post Number: 5
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Reminiscence
Group: Members
Posts: 3532
Joined: Sep. 2007
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Posted on: Feb. 11 2013, 3:25 pm |
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Very cool. Happy trails.
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When you are out West
Please, at my behest
Since you are Nature's guest
Do something to help the rest:
Dismantle a fire ring;
Take a stone and give a swing.
You may find that it will bring
A lift of goodness 'neath your wing.
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| Post Number: 6
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hikerjer
Group: Members
Posts: 9130
Joined: Apr. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 11 2013, 8:14 pm |
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Hey, have a great trip. I'm envious and with you in spririt.
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"Too often I have met men who speak only of how many miles they've traveled and not of what they've seen." - Louis L'Amour
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| Post Number: 7
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RedDoug
Group: Members
Posts: 9160
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 11 2013, 8:34 pm |
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From the BLM here is a look at the New Mexico section of the CDT.
Find the link for water caches in the middle- very interesting.
http://www.blm.gov/nm....st.html
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Everything is in Walking Distance
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| Post Number: 8
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RedDoug
Group: Members
Posts: 9160
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 11 2013, 8:42 pm |
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Thoughts on long distance hiking- at least the CDT.
1. Its expensive. Its expensive in many ways, and one gets older the pack has to get lighter. and like one poster on the CDT-L says, cutting pounds is cheap, cutting ounces is expensive.
2. Hiking the CDT is more involved than most casual hikers can imagine. This is no 50- 100 mile loop trail where you begin and start at the same trail head. If I finish where I plan to finish at Cumbres Pass in southern Colo I will be just over 700 miles from where I started at Crazy Cooks on the border of Mexico.
3. How many maps does a trip like this take, anyway!!! All part of the expense and planning.
4. Others have done this trip- I can too.
5. It's nice being retired- no schedule or deadlines. I can take what the trail gives and not worry about having to be done by a certain time.
6. Learning more every day.
7.
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Everything is in Walking Distance
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| Post Number: 9
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toejam
the high road is hard to find
Group: Members
Posts: 1461
Joined: Mar. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 12 2013, 8:35 am |
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I wanna grow up to be like you.
What is this "CDT-L" of which you speak? Google doesn't have the answer.
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| Post Number: 10
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RedDoug
Group: Members
Posts: 9160
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 12 2013, 9:01 am |
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cdt-l is an email group used by CDT hikers to share information about the trail.
It is of great value to anyone planning on hiking the CDT.
These links may help.
Cdt-l mailing list:
Cdt-l@backcountry.net
http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/cdt-l
The first address is for signing onto the list.
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Everything is in Walking Distance
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| Post Number: 11
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John
Group: Members
Posts: 807
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 12 2013, 11:50 am |
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Why NM? Wouldn't you want to jump right into the good stuff like CO and points north? Can you tell I'm not partial to desert hiking?
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| Post Number: 12
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| Post Number: 13
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RedDoug
Group: Members
Posts: 9160
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 14 2013, 10:45 pm |
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There have been a change of plans.
I was notified by the guy I was going to hike with we should plan our own trip. He is about my age but is interested in trying to push for 25+ miles a day. I am not interested in that kind of mileage so we will both be hiking solo.
Next change.
There are two CDT routes. One is the "Official" CDT and the other is the CDTS trail.
I wanted to do the CDTS trail originally but went with the CDT official route that starts at a place on the side of the bootheel of New mexico called Crazy Cook's.
The CDTS starts below Columbus and makes it way up to Deming and then on to Membres and then west into the gila wilderess and meets up with the official CDT.
So for this trip I will be hiking solo. I used to have no problems going solo but wonder if its still something I will feel comfortable with. Life is full of changes.
Long distance hiking is never easy, always challenging, and I guess changes in companionship are to be expexted.
If anyone is interested in following me, I'll do the work, you can follow along. 12- 15 miles a day is enough for me with water and route finding to work with all day long.
This coming week I am heading out in the Superstition Mts in AZ for 5- 6 days to try our a new Zpack Hexamoid plus tent. $400 to shave off 2 lbs of weight from my pack. And some volume.
I have map work to do tonight- route planning, getting the routes into my Delorme map program and then entered into my GPS.
Official start date is now set for April 1. I thought that would be an appropriate date for a 64 yr old hiker to begin a solo hike of New Mexico.
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Everything is in Walking Distance
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| Post Number: 14
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RedDoug
Group: Members
Posts: 9160
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 20 2013, 12:15 pm |
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Feb 20, 2013.
I leave Sunday, March 31 and begin the first part of my NM hike doing the section between the border with Mexico and Deming following the CDTS route.
Today I am beginning to put resupply boxes together. I am planning on 8 resupply points along the way. 7 boxes will have to be mailed.
I am on schdule and moving towards my goal of hiking New Mexico section of the CDT.
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Everything is in Walking Distance
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| Post Number: 15
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| Post Number: 16
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overthehillwalker
Group: Members
Posts: 580
Joined: Apr. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 21 2013, 2:07 am |
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RD,
Relax, take your time and enjoy the experience. The 25 mile-a-day guy sounds like a tourist in the Louvre.... Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, been there, done that.
I hope to do the same trip in another 4 years and plan to breath in and savor every minute of it...at least in my Walter Mitty mind. Good planning, gets good results and I know you have that nailed. WTG
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| Post Number: 17
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double cabin
Group: Members
Posts: 15411
Joined: Nov. 2005
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Posted on: Feb. 21 2013, 10:31 am |
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Yeah, whatever works for you is what's important. I think making hiking an athletic/competitive event really diminishes any wild experience, but then again different strokes for different folks.
Let me know if you think about points farther North later in the calendar. Hoping for a better snowpack than last year but not looking good at this point with the forecast.
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We have nothing to fear but an industry of fear...and man skirts.
http://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=129511480442251
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| Post Number: 18
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| Post Number: 19
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GoBlueHiker
Obsessive Island Hopper...
Group: Members
Posts: 14069
Joined: Jul. 2006
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Posted on: Feb. 21 2013, 11:58 am |
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This is very cool. I don't have much to add beyond that. Seeing some of the struggles you went through in recent years, seeing you tackle this is inspiring, to say the least. Keep posting updates RD!
- Mike
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Wealth needs more. Happiness needs less. Simplify.
www.RainForestTreks.com
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| Post Number: 20
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John
Group: Members
Posts: 807
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 21 2013, 3:17 pm |
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Are you carrying a SPOT device? I did a search on Crazy Cook and turns out it's a monument about 2/3 of the way down the bootheal on the eastern border.
That adds a little more distance to your journey but what the heck!
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| Post Number: 21
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mtngrl
Group: Members
Posts: 3516
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 21 2013, 3:51 pm |
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Yes, ditto what GoBlue said.
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“He who knows the most, he who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the waters, the plants, the heavens and how to come at these enchantments, is the rich and royal man” -- from Nature, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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| Post Number: 22
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| Post Number: 23
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John
Group: Members
Posts: 807
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 21 2013, 7:22 pm |
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I did read Karen's book but since that time, I've not followed what's going on with the CDT much. So I didn't know there was now an official starting location.
Back in the day, a hiker just put together a route through the state since there was no official trail on the ground, with a few exceptions. I got the impression that it was a hike on old roads, jeep road, road traces, etc. This was due to private property everywhere. What's a hiker to do when he comes upon a barbed-wire fence that stretches east-west and the direction of travel is north?
You can tempt the trigger-finger of an unhappy landowner by climbing the fence or hike who-knows-how-many miles out of the way to avoid trespassing.
Maybe these issues are lessened by hiking the official trail, which is farther west in the state and closer to the actual divide.
You da man, Doug. Have a good one.
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| Post Number: 24
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RedDoug
Group: Members
Posts: 9160
Joined: Feb. 2002
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Posted on: Feb. 21 2013, 8:25 pm |
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The original original trail started at the very bottom of the Bootheel in Antelope Wells but there were just too many property/trail conflicts so the CDT has been reworked from what is known as Crazy Cook's on the side of the Bootheel.
In the laast few years a lot of work has gone into marking and routing issues along the CDT in NM. In Colorado the CDT has the opportunity to follow the CT for a few hundred miles and the network of trails in Colorado all pretty much covered by a good Trails Illustrated map make hiking the CDT in Colorado fairly easy as far following and choicing a route. That holds true pretty much up to Rawlings, WY but the Great Basin north of Rawlings does offer a number of challenges. But as one approaches Big Sandy Lodge and the Winds from the south again route finding gets much easier. From Green River Lake in the winds up to northern yellowstone I have no idea how the trail is marked, but that area should be relatively easy to manage trailwise. Of course Yellowstone is all mapped out so that is no issue, and heading into ID/MT through Macks Inn route is not that challenging, either. I have hiked about 50- 70 miles of north/west out of Yellowstone and found it fairly easy to follow the CDT. There my knowledge of the CDT ends until Lincoln, MT where I have hiked from the Canadian border down to Lincoln- all faily easy trail to follow.
New Mexico is still the big challenge but for many CDT hikers they see NM in many ways as a big plus in their hiking experience. This year my feet seem to be in good condition, the cancer issues are hopefully behind me and I have been wanting to do New Mexico for a long time.
The challenges just appeal to me for some reason.
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Everything is in Walking Distance
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