Sunday, July 29, 2012
Welcome to Wyoming
We are officially in Wyoming!! We crossed the border Tuesday evening after a few last heavy storms that we couldn't leave Colorado without! It's hard to believe we're already into state number three. Southern WY is certainly a different place than Colorado- its hot, flat and DRY!! (sounds like New Mexico to me!) Coming into town yesterday there was a 30 mile stretch without drinkable water. I say drinkable because there was some water in that stretch but all of it was saline/ alkaline so we were not able to drink it which was torture to have to walk by as we were thirsty and hot. But we made it into Rawlins yesterday and are taking today off to relax after six days of hiking and before a five day stretch starting tomorrow. I will admit to being completely lazy today and have spent most of the day watching the Olympics- its the only time I truly want to sit down and watch tv!
Tomorrow we head ino the Great Divide Basin, a 115 mile stretch of flat, dry, hot desert-like terrain. Time for us to carry more water and crank out the miles! We were doing over 25 miles a day coming in here and are hoping to do the same through the week. Starting next week we will be entering The Wind River Range, which we have heard from everyone ahead is the most spectacular part of the trail so far. It is supposed to be a beautiful area that I have heard so much about and wanted to hike for a long time, so I am really looking forward to getting there!
If anyone would like to send a mail drop I will write our next location below. We plan to be there Friday August 10th, so make sure if you send something it's there by the 10th. Also, note this place ONLY accepts UPS- no FedEx or USPS. The address is :
Kaitlin Allen & Elaine Bissonho
C/O Lava Mountain Lodge
3577 US Hwy 26-287
Dubois, WY 82513
Thank you to Eileen and Elaine for the mail magic last week and to Brandi for the cookies in Salida- we love getting mail drops and don't have too many stops left, so this is a great time to send something our way! Just remember to send it through UPS :)
I apologize for the lack of pictures, I have had trouble doing it through my phone and lately we've been in town on the weekend so the library has been closed. I will try to get pictures posted when I can.
Tomorrow we will be back on the trail and headed for the hot and dry Great Divide Basin!
Thanks for reading, happy trails!
-Jetpack
Thursday, July 12, 2012
I believe the last time I wrote it hadn't rained in weeks & I was nervous about the wildfires...well since then the weather has certainly changed! From the time we left Lake City nearly two weeks ago until two days ago there has been rain, hail, thunder & or lightning every day. I don't mind a little rain, we definitely need it, but it's the abundance of lightning and black clouds rolling over head as we hike that make me nervous. I feel like I've become a pro at telling what will fall from oncoming clouds just by their shape, size, color and way they're traveling. It has become a game as we're climbing uphill if we know we will be above tree line soon, to try and predict what the dark clouds above are going to do. If we've recently heard thunder or dark clouds are quickly moving our way, we stop and wait so we will hopefully avoid lightning. But this doesn't always work and we aren't always right. The most frightening day for boh of us was our third day out of Salida last week. After the second storm of the day we were starting a big climb over 12,000 feet and the sky was clear as we started up. By the time we got to tree line there were storm clouds to our west and it was raining hard, but it was all far away. So we decided to go ahead, we had less than half an hour to the pass then it was downhill for a while. Half way up the clouds shifted our way and we started to hear thunder. I kicked it into a new gear and headed for the top as fast as I could. I got over the pass but Brazil Nut was still a little way behind me. I descended a little so I wasn't completely exposed and waited for her to come over the top above me. No sooner did she come into view then here was a huge boom of thunder over head.... At this point I just wanted to be far below beneath the trees but we had at least a mile of steep exposed and now slippery rock to descend since it had started to rain. We both hiked as fast as we could given the terrain, but the rain had turned to hail amd we were now dodging lightning bolts, so we could only go so fast....anyway, we made it down safely, but this has been the course of the last week and it's both mentally and physically exhausting. But a phrase that is well known among CDT hikers is "Embrace the brutality" coined by a former hiker of the trail. This trail is different than others in part due to the extremes we encounter-extreme weather, terrain, beauty, challenges, solitude... The list goes on. So, as we're hiking along and we're getting pelted by hail or dodging lightnig bolts, it usually ends with us yelling "embrace the brutality!" to one another.
So it's back to the trail soon and there are clear blue skies that I hope will stay for at least a few days. We will be in Grand Lake next which borders on Rockie Moumtain National Park and if the weather is nice we're planning to do an optional 27 mile loop through the park when we get there. After that there is only one trail town left in Colorado, them it's on to Wyoming!
That's it for now, happy hiking!
-Jetpack
Thursday, June 28, 2012
The other side of Beauty
- By Brazil Nut
After hiking almost 700 miles through New Mexico we slowly started seeing the far away green mountains and they looked very high from the desert, although we were already over 6,000 feet to begin with. The colors of the landscape changed dramatically from orange, red and brown to blue and green , not to mention the amount of fresh water coming down from everywhere, an amazing change right in front of our eyes, every day, every hour, every step we took heading north getting one step closer to our goal of accomplishing a CDT thru-hike.
The beauty we see is immense and covers 360 degrees from everywhere we stand, but we were also e hit with the other side of nature or perhaps consequences from us humans changing so much to fit the constant evolution of our species.
We entered Colorado climbing up to the magnificent beauty of the San Juan mountains which have been compared to the Alps. I must say it takes your breath away to look at them, and for us it was even more incredible because we were living in those mountains. Many times we stopped to catch our breathing from the altitude and the hard work our bodies were going through climbing up to those peaks. We also took the time to be grateful to be there doing what we love and loving what we are doing, respectfully appreciating our journey and the companionship we are sharing with one another. I keep telling JP I am super happy to have a partner who is enjoying this as much as I am. I have had my share of solitude thru-hiking the AT and the PCT.
As our journey progressed and we entered deeper into the forest we started to see the other side of beauty.
First I realized the ground was moving funny, little brown and yellow hairy things moving by the billions-they were caterpillars!!! I thought to myself it means change, they will soon be flying in a different format. They kept multiplying as we kept hiking and every time we stopped to look at our maps they would start crawling up our legs, on our packs, clothing, every where. Our eating brakes became kind of a stressed moment as Jetpack had zero tolerance for those little creatures. Well when you put billions of them together things become a little out of control. I kept laughing harder and harder everytime she took one off herself, all we could do was keep hiking hoping that eventually it would come to an end, and it did but it took a few days going through caterpillar world.
I guess it truly hit me how massive the infestation was when we climbed up to one of the mesas and could see for miles and miles how bare the trees were. I have never seen anything like that before on such a gigantic scale. We were happy when we could finally sit down on the ground to take a peaceful break without things crawling all over us.
The forest became green again but not for too long, this time we were confused by what was happening. All around us the hardy pine trees were completely dead, like something sucked the life out of those trees with a needle and left them standing still without any life left. We hiked day after day, mile after mile and kept seeing the same damaged forest, only the new growth was still alive, the older ones were all dead and we were still not sure from what.
We went down to this little town of Pagosa Springs and learned about another infestation from some sort of beetle taking over thousands of acres , killing all the trees. It was hard to believe how much and how fast the forest is changing from green to brown, and the dead trees are still standing which is the best fuel for wild fires... oh yes, let me say this again wildfires.
We are suffering some catastrophic results from all the fires around the country. Colorado is truly taking it's share to the fullest I must say. For few days we were high above 10,000 feet elevation getting all the smoke from one of the wildfires around Pagosa Springs, our visibility of the San Juan's got lost in the midst of all the smoke blowing our way by the high velocity of the wind. Breathing became more difficult with the high elevation combined with the heavy smoke , and we both hiked without much to say.
We kept hiking ironically straight towards the fire as the CDT took us west instead of north for couple of days thought the San Juans. All we could do was keep going and paying attention to everything around us.
One of those days it was certainly very difficult for us, my partner JP lost herself to fear. We sat down to eat lunch looking at the smoke around us after 12 miles into our day and she tells me she is not hungry. Well hungry is one of the things a thru- hiker is constantly, I worried instantly after that statement. I ate, packed up and said we had to go and she was still sitting on the ground by a little running spring on the side of the mountain. I could see she was not doing well. She finally got up and I moved towards her embracing her with a comforting hug ans she finally says, " This fire is scaring the crap out of me...my stomach feels very nauseous..."
I had no words at the moment to comfort her because I knew they were very realistic. I finally replied " I need you, please focus, we are in this together, we can do it..."
We hiked the rest of the day step by step a couple feet from one another, camped by a beautiful river, woke up the next day with superb beautiful blue skies and had one of the most amazing days on the trail. The smoke was low as was the wind and the terrain was open with beautiful views of the San Juan's. We kept hiking and being grateful to be thru-hiking the CDT and to have one another.
-Brazil Nut
After hiking almost 700 miles through New Mexico we slowly started seeing the far away green mountains and they looked very high from the desert, although we were already over 6,000 feet to begin with. The colors of the landscape changed dramatically from orange, red and brown to blue and green , not to mention the amount of fresh water coming down from everywhere, an amazing change right in front of our eyes, every day, every hour, every step we took heading north getting one step closer to our goal of accomplishing a CDT thru-hike.
The beauty we see is immense and covers 360 degrees from everywhere we stand, but we were also e hit with the other side of nature or perhaps consequences from us humans changing so much to fit the constant evolution of our species.
We entered Colorado climbing up to the magnificent beauty of the San Juan mountains which have been compared to the Alps. I must say it takes your breath away to look at them, and for us it was even more incredible because we were living in those mountains. Many times we stopped to catch our breathing from the altitude and the hard work our bodies were going through climbing up to those peaks. We also took the time to be grateful to be there doing what we love and loving what we are doing, respectfully appreciating our journey and the companionship we are sharing with one another. I keep telling JP I am super happy to have a partner who is enjoying this as much as I am. I have had my share of solitude thru-hiking the AT and the PCT.
As our journey progressed and we entered deeper into the forest we started to see the other side of beauty.
First I realized the ground was moving funny, little brown and yellow hairy things moving by the billions-they were caterpillars!!! I thought to myself it means change, they will soon be flying in a different format. They kept multiplying as we kept hiking and every time we stopped to look at our maps they would start crawling up our legs, on our packs, clothing, every where. Our eating brakes became kind of a stressed moment as Jetpack had zero tolerance for those little creatures. Well when you put billions of them together things become a little out of control. I kept laughing harder and harder everytime she took one off herself, all we could do was keep hiking hoping that eventually it would come to an end, and it did but it took a few days going through caterpillar world.
I guess it truly hit me how massive the infestation was when we climbed up to one of the mesas and could see for miles and miles how bare the trees were. I have never seen anything like that before on such a gigantic scale. We were happy when we could finally sit down on the ground to take a peaceful break without things crawling all over us.
The forest became green again but not for too long, this time we were confused by what was happening. All around us the hardy pine trees were completely dead, like something sucked the life out of those trees with a needle and left them standing still without any life left. We hiked day after day, mile after mile and kept seeing the same damaged forest, only the new growth was still alive, the older ones were all dead and we were still not sure from what.
We went down to this little town of Pagosa Springs and learned about another infestation from some sort of beetle taking over thousands of acres , killing all the trees. It was hard to believe how much and how fast the forest is changing from green to brown, and the dead trees are still standing which is the best fuel for wild fires... oh yes, let me say this again wildfires.
We are suffering some catastrophic results from all the fires around the country. Colorado is truly taking it's share to the fullest I must say. For few days we were high above 10,000 feet elevation getting all the smoke from one of the wildfires around Pagosa Springs, our visibility of the San Juan's got lost in the midst of all the smoke blowing our way by the high velocity of the wind. Breathing became more difficult with the high elevation combined with the heavy smoke , and we both hiked without much to say.
We kept hiking ironically straight towards the fire as the CDT took us west instead of north for couple of days thought the San Juans. All we could do was keep going and paying attention to everything around us.
One of those days it was certainly very difficult for us, my partner JP lost herself to fear. We sat down to eat lunch looking at the smoke around us after 12 miles into our day and she tells me she is not hungry. Well hungry is one of the things a thru- hiker is constantly, I worried instantly after that statement. I ate, packed up and said we had to go and she was still sitting on the ground by a little running spring on the side of the mountain. I could see she was not doing well. She finally got up and I moved towards her embracing her with a comforting hug ans she finally says, " This fire is scaring the crap out of me...my stomach feels very nauseous..."
I had no words at the moment to comfort her because I knew they were very realistic. I finally replied " I need you, please focus, we are in this together, we can do it..."
We hiked the rest of the day step by step a couple feet from one another, camped by a beautiful river, woke up the next day with superb beautiful blue skies and had one of the most amazing days on the trail. The smoke was low as was the wind and the terrain was open with beautiful views of the San Juan's. We kept hiking and being grateful to be thru-hiking the CDT and to have one another.
-Brazil Nut
Colorado
Heat, dryness, wildfires, strong winds....these are the things that have been going through my head the last week on the trail. We left Pagosa Springs last Friday morning to head into one of the most difficult stretches of the trail: the San Juan mountains. The San Juan's stand mostly between ten and fourteen thousand feet, so at any given time it is not an easy area to hike in. Most hikers choose to wait to enter this area until some time in June because of the snow. This year was a very low snow year, so the hiking was not nearly as difficult as it would have been in previous years. But as many of you know it has been extremely dry here and there are a number of wildfires burning in Colorado right now and we are seeing their effects as we hike. For two days we hiked through fairly thick smoke, smelling fire all day long. For over a week now we have still been able to see the smoke as we hike even though we are miles away. But the forests here are so dry, there has been so little rain and the wind has been very strong. Yesterday as we got to Spring Creek Pass to hitch into town, we finally got our first storm and torrential down pour complete with hail! But the rain lasted no more than twenty minutes then it was back to blue sky. We are taking the day off today, resting in town and it has finally rained some more today, but we need more.
But back to the trail, Colorado has been absolutely beautiful. I have never hiked in an area like this, it is so different from anywhere back east. I was talking with someone a few weeks ago when we were in New Mexico and she was telling me about Colorado, as she had done a lot of hiking here in years past. In speaking about it, she said that Colorado has a beauty that adjectives cannot describe, and her words have stuck with me and it is exactly what I would say about this state.
We have had some great wildlife sightings- I lost count weeks ago of the number of elk we have seen. They are so fun to watch and they have a very neat call that they make. We saw our first moose of the trip, I think I startled it as much as it startled me when I came around the corner. It was a bull and he was not quite full grown, but I always enjoy seeing moose and I'm sure we will be seeing many more as we head north. We see tons of marmots everyday and we even saw some coyotes our last day in NM.
We are spending the day in Lake City at a new hostel that just opened this summer called the Ravens Rest hostel. It is a wonderfully relaxing place run by a former CDT hiker as his wife. If anyone is ever looking for a place to stay here I would highly recommend The Ravens Rest hostel :) Tomorrow we head back to the trail and will begin to head north again ( the last six days has been a loop to the west and now turning back east to hike through the San Juan's). Below are pictures from the beginning of Colorado and I have updated the mail drop info in the post below for anyone who wishes to send us something! Thanks for reading, happy hiking.
-Jetpack
But back to the trail, Colorado has been absolutely beautiful. I have never hiked in an area like this, it is so different from anywhere back east. I was talking with someone a few weeks ago when we were in New Mexico and she was telling me about Colorado, as she had done a lot of hiking here in years past. In speaking about it, she said that Colorado has a beauty that adjectives cannot describe, and her words have stuck with me and it is exactly what I would say about this state.
We have had some great wildlife sightings- I lost count weeks ago of the number of elk we have seen. They are so fun to watch and they have a very neat call that they make. We saw our first moose of the trip, I think I startled it as much as it startled me when I came around the corner. It was a bull and he was not quite full grown, but I always enjoy seeing moose and I'm sure we will be seeing many more as we head north. We see tons of marmots everyday and we even saw some coyotes our last day in NM.
We are spending the day in Lake City at a new hostel that just opened this summer called the Ravens Rest hostel. It is a wonderfully relaxing place run by a former CDT hiker as his wife. If anyone is ever looking for a place to stay here I would highly recommend The Ravens Rest hostel :) Tomorrow we head back to the trail and will begin to head north again ( the last six days has been a loop to the west and now turning back east to hike through the San Juan's). Below are pictures from the beginning of Colorado and I have updated the mail drop info in the post below for anyone who wishes to send us something! Thanks for reading, happy hiking.
-Jetpack
 | |||
| Welcome to Colorado! |
 | |
| First day in CO! |
 |
| The South San Juan mountains |
 | |
| There's still some snow left! |
 |
| Thunderstorm & hail as we reached the pass yesterday |
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Mail Drops
I know I said that I would post information here about mail drops if anyone is wanting to send us something. So, here are our next two stops. The first one we will be at next Thursay, so it may not give you enough time to put something in the mail, but the next ones we will be at the first week in July.
The first place is Lake City, CO. If you would like to send us something, please send to this address ( USPS only, no FedEx or UPS).
Kaitlin Allen & Elaine Bissonho
C/O The Ravens Rest Hostel
PO Box 1172 Lake City, CO 81235
"Please hold for CDT thru hiker, ETA 6/28/12"
The next stop is:
Kaitlin Allen & Elaine Bissonho
C/O Simple Lodge and Hostel
224 First Street Salida, CO 81201
"Please hold for CDT thru hiker- ETA 7/3/12"
**NEW June 28th**
Ok folks, this gives you enough time to send us something. We will be stopping in Leadville, CO and the address there is (note USPS only):
Kaitlin Allen & Elaine Bissonho
C/O General delivery
Leadville, CO 80461
"Please hoild for CDT thru hikers- ETA 7/8/12"
If you are unfamiliar with sending care packages or goodies please read this: the ETA date I have below each address is the date your package must arrive by, otherwise we may not get it. Also, please remember there are only two of us and not a lot of other hikers for us to share with, so if you send something, don't send too much. Whatever you send we have to eat or carry with us and we don't like to waste :) Things we like: baked goods, chocolate, Starbucks via... We would love to get a mail drop or a care package from you! -Jetpack
Kaitlin Allen & Elaine Bissonho
C/O The Ravens Rest Hostel
PO Box 1172 Lake City, CO 81235
"Please hold for CDT thru hiker, ETA 6/28/12"
The next stop is:
Kaitlin Allen & Elaine Bissonho
C/O Simple Lodge and Hostel
224 First Street Salida, CO 81201
"Please hold for CDT thru hiker- ETA 7/3/12"
**NEW June 28th**
Ok folks, this gives you enough time to send us something. We will be stopping in Leadville, CO and the address there is (note USPS only):
Kaitlin Allen & Elaine Bissonho
C/O General delivery
Leadville, CO 80461
"Please hoild for CDT thru hikers- ETA 7/8/12"
If you are unfamiliar with sending care packages or goodies please read this: the ETA date I have below each address is the date your package must arrive by, otherwise we may not get it. Also, please remember there are only two of us and not a lot of other hikers for us to share with, so if you send something, don't send too much. Whatever you send we have to eat or carry with us and we don't like to waste :) Things we like: baked goods, chocolate, Starbucks via... We would love to get a mail drop or a care package from you! -Jetpack
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Back to the trail!
Well, after quite some time off the trail we are finally back, and a great time off we had! The Outer Banks is a beautiful place and I would highly recommend a trip there, especially if you are thru-hiking and want a place to relax!! It was so nice to see my family and spend time with them, and a huge thank you to Dad and Mom for putting this trip together. It was one of the best vacations I've been on and an awesome change of pace from the trail! Thank you!
We extended our trip a few days before we flew out of DC by staying with some friends of Brazil Nut. Thanks to Heather and Elizabeth for letting us stay with you, we had a great time! Next we flew back to Durango and made a stop to see my friend Hannah in Taos, NM. We had such a great time, I wish we could have stayed longer and explored the town more. Hannah, thank you for letting us stay with you and for the ride back to the trail, I love your whole set up in Taos!
We have now been back to he trail for four days, and we both agree that it's great to be back. We crossed into Colorado yesterday and Im excited to be in a new state! From what we've heard there is still snow ahead but its melting quickly. I believe we are also going to be staying above 10,000 feet for a while now, Colorado is supposed to be spectacular and Im looking forward to hiking through the state.
We came into Chama last night to get food and are headed out shortly. We'll hitch up to Cumbress Pass at over 10,000 feet then continue north! Thank you for reading, happy hiking!
-Jetpack
We extended our trip a few days before we flew out of DC by staying with some friends of Brazil Nut. Thanks to Heather and Elizabeth for letting us stay with you, we had a great time! Next we flew back to Durango and made a stop to see my friend Hannah in Taos, NM. We had such a great time, I wish we could have stayed longer and explored the town more. Hannah, thank you for letting us stay with you and for the ride back to the trail, I love your whole set up in Taos!
We have now been back to he trail for four days, and we both agree that it's great to be back. We crossed into Colorado yesterday and Im excited to be in a new state! From what we've heard there is still snow ahead but its melting quickly. I believe we are also going to be staying above 10,000 feet for a while now, Colorado is supposed to be spectacular and Im looking forward to hiking through the state.
We came into Chama last night to get food and are headed out shortly. We'll hitch up to Cumbress Pass at over 10,000 feet then continue north! Thank you for reading, happy hiking!
-Jetpack
 |
| Colorado! |
 |
| Northern NM |
 |
| Sunset from our camping spot two nights ago |
 |
| Outer Banks vacation with the family! |
 |
Beach sunrise |
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Break time!
I am writing this post far away from the trail on the beach in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Last fall my family planned a vacation here so when we were planning our hike we factored in a flight back east. It's been a very relaxing few days so far; swimming, walking and relaxing at the beach- the perfect break from the trail! But it was no easy deal to get to the beach. This winter when we booked our flight we booked it from Durango, Colorado and we were not as far north as we thought we'd be last week when we were getting off the trail. So we had 165 miles to travel to Durango, and we did it by hitch hiking! We started at 9:00 am and seven rides later we found ourselves in Durango! Needless to say it was an eventful day, we met lots of very interesting characters and had a beautiful drive across northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado.
Since I last wrote in Grants, the trail has been absolutely beautiful. We have been hiking through beautiful pine forests at the top of 10,000 foot mountains with an aboundance of springs and mountain streams, then hiking through the dry desert again and over and across beautiful mesas. The landscape has been phenomenal, with amazing rock formations everywhere. Before our hitch hike, we got to Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu, NM and spent a day there relaxing. The ranch is a presbyterian retreat center set on beautiful land with a farm, campground, cabins, cottages, museums, hiking trails, a dining hall and a variety of other buildings...it is a very peaceful place.
When we return to the trail next week we will be just about four days away Colorado. From the reports we've gathered from other hikers there is still a lot of snow in Southern Colorado, so our time off the trailbreak from the trail was timed well! I am looking forward to Colorado, we got a small taste of it on out hitch hike, and the mountains there are enormous and breath taking.
Below are some more photos from the last section, and I will write again soon.
Happy trails!
-Jetpack
Since I last wrote in Grants, the trail has been absolutely beautiful. We have been hiking through beautiful pine forests at the top of 10,000 foot mountains with an aboundance of springs and mountain streams, then hiking through the dry desert again and over and across beautiful mesas. The landscape has been phenomenal, with amazing rock formations everywhere. Before our hitch hike, we got to Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu, NM and spent a day there relaxing. The ranch is a presbyterian retreat center set on beautiful land with a farm, campground, cabins, cottages, museums, hiking trails, a dining hall and a variety of other buildings...it is a very peaceful place.
When we return to the trail next week we will be just about four days away Colorado. From the reports we've gathered from other hikers there is still a lot of snow in Southern Colorado, so our time off the trailbreak from the trail was timed well! I am looking forward to Colorado, we got a small taste of it on out hitch hike, and the mountains there are enormous and breath taking.
Below are some more photos from the last section, and I will write again soon.
Happy trails!
-Jetpack
 |
| Hike up Mt. Taylor |
 |
| Mt. Taylor |
 |
| Summit |
 |
| Near 10,000 ft, still snow around |
 |
| Mesas near Cuba, NM |
 |
Near Ghost Ranch  |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)