CDT: Time's a Flying - Purple Haze Hikes

So what has changed since my last post? For starters, my 60th birthday, not something I have been looking forward to but any reason to celebrate is a good thing

I have made quite a few gear changes for the CDT that gets my base weight under 12 lbs. My feet and legs will thank me and cuben fiber for this! Tinkered a bit with the new gear – a little practice erecting the new ZPacks tent in gusty winds. Also sent my Arc Blast pack back (thanks Joe!) to swap for a medium hip belt. The large hip belt was clearly not going to work with expected weight loss. I loaded Jerry Brown’s NM and CO waypoints into my iPhone’s GaiaGPS app.

I will be hiking the CDT in three big chunks. The plan for this year will be to hike roughly 1,000 miles through New Mexico to Lake City, Colorado. Exact routing and distance will be dependent on snow levels when I get to Cumbres or Wolf Creek Pass. I will pick up next year where I left off and hike the remainder of Colorado and well into Wyoming.

Grazing moose at Henry’s Fork ID last summer

Mrs. Haze has been supportive of my hikes but another 5-month commitment this year does not fit well with other plans. We have the opportunity to float the Middle Fork Salmon River with friends later this summer. This has been on both of our bucket lists forever. And then a reunion with our kids and grandkids at a cabin in Colorado – they grow up too fast!

Another problem solved is getting to the Crazy Cook starting point at the Mexican border. I had originally planned for Mrs. Haze to take me down the long, long high-clearance dirt road. But I found the CDT Coalition is now offering a shuttle service from Lordsburg NM. Plus they cache water at four locations between the border and Lordsburg, one of the driest sections on the CDT. There is a charge to recover costs but a big piece of mind.

Starting to pick up some food for hopefully tasty meals. Won’t stray too much from what has worked well for me on previous hikes. A combination of Knorr’s rice and pasta sides, ramen noodles, or Idahoan spuds topped with tuna, salmon, jerky or bacon bits. For a special treat, might even throw in a few Spam pouches! And add olive oil to everything and peanut butter to some.