Brian & Martina's wee walk along the watershed of the US

Youtube videos now on-line !

2009-12-19T10:10:00.004Z

We have produced at great time and expense two short videos to music of our travels which may not worry Steven Spielberg much but hopefully relate some of the fun of our summer's walk....

Video 1 Nature Song and Video 2 Been Everywhere Man

2009-11-27T22:01:00.003Z

Our photosite from our hike along the US divide is now up and running. Click the image below to go to the photos.......

Photo gallery for our 650 mile hike thru New Mexico now online

2009-11-17T14:30:00.004Z

We have uploaded photos for the first US state we walked through - New Mexico. These can be seen here....

Our final 2 weeks in the US....

2009-10-19T19:07:00.011+01:00

We rented ourselves a car for the last 2 weeks so that we could become 'normal' tourists for a while. First, we took the car down to visit the Martin family and managed a couple of short hikes with MaryJoy.

Canyonlands National Park Utah

We then travelled south and visited some nice desert areas in New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and southern Colororado.

Arches National Park, Moab Utah

This is Chaco canyon in New Mexico......

A lovely camp with the last rays hitting monument valley in Arizona.......

The San Juan river has cut through the sandstone to leave these wonderful river meanders- Goosenecks State Park Utah.

Slot canyon in Canyonlands National Park Utah

Some photos from the final furlong.....

2009-10-01T23:33:00.006+01:00

The long straight road across Wyoming's Great Basin. We walked 23 miles in a straight line on this day.....

The sun and lack of shelter required some novel solutions. In this case lunch was under the tent propped up to allow the wind to flow around. Surprisingly- it worked!

We reach the 2000mile mark and celebrate with some artwork using local materials and powerbars!

Martina at our finishing point on September 26th- Battle Pass Wyoming. The next challenge was to make it to Denver , Colorado- it took four hitch hikes and two buses to get there. Ready for a rest.......!

...Reader, I Married Him

2009-09-27T02:11:00.006+01:00

Dear readers,

from the lofty Wind River mountains we were washed into the Great Basin of Wyoming by a spell of wet weather. The Great Basin is a curious natural feature where the Devide actually splits in two: in the basin itself, water just goes "down" and seeps into the ground. Mountain ridges either side of it shed the water into Pacific (Green River) and Atlantic (Sweetwater River and Platte River) respectively. What falls in between just soaks in! It is a high plateau covered in silvery sage, inhabited by antelope (more of these later) and wild horses. No shelter, no people, no towns for mile - and very little water. 120 miles of this - our final challenge!

After a recovery stop in the town of Lander (home that weekend of the annual "one-shot-antelope-hunt" - it seems we were lucky to get a motel room!) we headed into the sage desert in bright sunshine. Here we crossed path with the Oregon Trail, the Overland Trail, the Pony Express and the Mormon Trail - thousands of hopeful souls who crossed these waterless plains in search of brighter futures in the 19th century. Now there's just a big network of trails for the benefit of people who want to shoot wildlife it seems.

The pronghorn antelope isn't one (an "antelope" I mean), actually. It's the only exponent of a family of ungulates unique to the USA and wonderfully adapted to being on every predator's dinner menu between the ice ages: it is the fastest runner in the Western hemisphere at 60 mps - and not just for a sprint but for about an hour solid if necessary - it has very sharp eyesight and can spot things at 3-4 mile distance (or so I read on the WWW), it is certainly very wary of two legged animals walking towards it - we never got closer than 300 meters to any of them. Unfortunately it doesn't seem concerned about things on wheels (a bit like the sheep on Skye) which, given that your average American hunter shoots from the truck window, is rather a shame for the species. They also are the only animal that grows proper horns (as opposed to antlers) and then sheds them every year. We didn't find any though.

On day 3 in the basin we camped by a little cow infested yet promising spring under benign cumulus, tent turned into a mild Westerly evening breeze - only to wake 2 hours later to the tent being flattened by a Northerly gale with snow ... bell-end departed company with the pegs and someone (a man's job this, surely) had to go out in the lashing storm (in underpants) to re-peg the whole mess. The next morning, snow lay on all the hills around us and an icy Northerly continued to blow us infront of itself down the endless straight jeep-roads that serve as the CDT in the Basin.

This morning, we descended from our last Divide peak (Bridger Peak 11,000ft) to a trail head at Battle Pass. This is the pass where we set out in 2004 on a 300 mile taster-hike along the CDT, the end of which was Dillon Lake in Colorado (where we started this year's Colorado Southbound hike) ... sigh ... sorry to be so complicated. The upshot is that this morning we completed to make a set of footsteps between Mexico and Colorado on the CDT (with 300 miles of steps from 2005). This year we have walked 2,100 miles.

Now we are finished
Now our feet get a chance to recover
Now we must eat lots so as not to frighten our parents on our return
Now we will hire a car for 2 weeks and be tourists

It doesn't seem real yet
We've done it!

Thanks to all the lifts and support and spontaneous help we have had.
It's been FAB

ps thanks to Tom and Debbie , Florida for the rare photo of the 2 of us hiking....

Southern Wind Rivers.......

2009-09-17T19:12:00.012+01:00

We pride ourselves in pitching the tent quickly, but maybe not this speedily !!

Our trek along the Wind River mountains of Wyoming has now been completed. We made it to the southern edge of the mountains in prairie country at South Pass City. Its been a great hike taking about 11 days. And autumn is on its way.....

The supermarket in Pinedale, Wyoming shows that we are in hunting country..........

Our tent (middle bottom of photo) lost in granite slabs, lakes and mountains. Spider Lakes, Wind Rivers Wyoming.

Martina makes a river crossing with Warbonnet Peak looming above.

Tent at sunset

We approach the Cirque of the Towers looking like the Skye ridge in Scotland - with Scottish weather.

Cirque of the Towers. Two classic rock climbs here- Pingora Peak's right hand skyline and the Wolf 's Head in the middle.

The end of the mountains... We hit prairie and dirt roads heading for South Pass City, Wyoming

Wind River photos II

2009-09-11T21:33:00.003+01:00

Some close up shots in the Wind Rivers - primrose,lichen columbine. And Brian hitching from Jackson back to the trail at Togwatee Pass, Wyoming- the Grand Tetons provide a nice backdrop while we wait!

Wind Rivers Wyoming- some photos

2009-09-11T20:50:00.008+01:00

Here are some shots from the Wind Rivers which give a flavour of our hike.....

Mountains of Light and Wind

2009-09-11T00:07:00.002+01:00

We have just returned from 6 days of walking through the Windriver mountains. Again we spurned the CDT propper for a more adventurous and wilder route, but moving steadily South.

We started out in the town of Dubois (pronounced: Doo-Boys) and after aprox 15 miles of trail into the Fitzpatrick Wilderness, left preformed trails and notions behind and headed straight up Shale Mountain over a wild, broken plateau of tortured looking granite slabs and not much else. It was freeing to be rid of the trail! Our route led through wildly undulating landscape past deep blue lakes rimmed by snowpatches and steel granit slabs. Every 20 minutes the views changed completely. Small alpine flowers gave it their best before the onset of winter: purple primroses, alpine asters and sunflowers.

One afternoon a thunderstorm brewed above our heads and out of nowhere, lightning struck a cliff 200 meters above us. We could see a small cloud of smoke or rockdust followed by a chunk of rock tumbling into the valley. The electric discharge increased our walking pace valleywards considerably.

We spent fun hours bush-wacking through blowdowns and burns until we got to the valley of the Green River and the Green Lakes. The river eventually joins the Colorado (in the state of Colorado) and flows to the Pacific - or rather it doesn't make it there for abstraction and damming, but that's where it is headed.

From the Greenriver Valley we crossed into the stunningly jagged Titcomb Basin via a coll called Knapsack Pass which sounds like fun and picknicks but turned out to be a pretty hair raising lose-boulders and semi-frozen scree affair. Luckily the glacier hanging under the far side of the pass had retreated and softened (thank you global warming) significantly and we were able to leave the tottering boulder fields and run down the ice (much safer).

In Titcomb Basin (did I mention it is very beautiful?) we made a base-camp and the next day climbed the 2nd highest peak in the Windrivers: Fremont Peak at 13700 (or there abouts - map and guidebook could not agree on its actual hight) to gain wonderful views of the area (did I mention it is VERY beautiful?).

There was a puzzling absence of wildlife in what is a huge wilderness area. None the less we saw 2 moose, an osprey carrying a fish, the first marmot (yellow bellied) since Glacier National Park as well as the usuals small friendly mammals (Pika, Chipmunk)...and a dead horse (!?).

Now we are resting in Pinedale and are heading back for a 2nd part of the Windrivers tomorrow. Hoping to post some pictures at the next stop (did I mention it is very beautiful here?)

Leaving Griz-country

2009-09-03T18:51:00.004+01:00

One day in Yellowstone National Park we had just descended into the big valley formed by the Yellowstone River upstream of the big Lake, when we saw 2 horses and 6 mules trotting along the path towards us. They were riderless, bridle-less and looking very noughty. None the less, the lead mule walked right up to me (even as I stepped off the trail to let them past), sniffed my hand which I extended in welcome, and then gave me a dismissive looked and lead his little herd on past us and towards the Lake. 40 minutes later, a gentleman and a black horse gallopped past us as we were sheltering from a rain shower under a large pine. A further 3 hours later, the same gentleman overtook us again, leading 2 horses and 6 mules, all looking very guilty, dusty but also slightly smug. " Don't know where they thought they were headed, " he said to us as he passed. "Home?" I suggest - after all, camping in grizzly country for nights on end is pretty nerve wrecking ...

PS: that is NOT one of our photos thank goodness! We've still not seen any bears though lots and lots of signs of their omnipresence! We are now heading South and up (in terms of elevation) and will soon be out of range of the Grizzly bears. The one above is shown in full flight - they can sprint at 30 mph apparent!

Yellowstone National Park

2009-08-28T18:12:00.002+01:00

Being off the CDT has been great fun! For the last 8 days, we have been in Yellowstone National Park, walking through the park on a route East of the caldera and lake. This is the serengeti of the USA! We've seen lots of buffalo (bison!), herds of antilope (they are not real antilope but that's what they call these aninmals here), elk (wapiti deer) and their shed antlers (too heavy to carry - alas!), wolf tracks (lots!) and more evidence of bears than is good for a peacefull night of sleep: the euphemistacally named "bear cake", hairs stuck to trees, scratch marks 3 meters high on trees and foot prints (look a lot like naked human feet). We also saw a badger, a fox, coyote, two toads and two frogs and the last third of a snake! Still waiting to see moose.

Because this is Yellowstone, we've also walked past steaming springs, lots of interesting vulcanic rocks and other signs of the areas eruptive past. Particularly amazing are pieces of fossilised wood that lie around here and there - some red, some white with clearly visible fibre structure of wood which could easily be mistaken for bleached bits of old timber ... but they are 50 million years old! At the North edge of the park we passed an erroding hillside where whole logs of these trees were exposed.

Today we are resting after 9 very hot days in a row (still can't cope with the heat!) in Cody, tourist town and famous for Buffalo Bill's travelling show of "the Wild West". He practically invented the whole romantic cowboy thing.

Brian has worn out his 3rd pair of shoes and my hiking dress (dress number 2) is starting to fall to pieces so we will be shopping for new apparel.

Deliberating over whether to hike a detour through the Tetons or whether to rejoin the CDT in 4 days distance and continue straight towards the Windriver mountains on the CDT.

South Montana images

2009-08-19T01:07:00.014+01:00

Martina walks towards the Tobacco Root Mountains with storms coming in!

Maddison river south Montana near Ennis Lake

Frost in the valley

Brian dries the tent

Spanish Peaks, Montana

Jefferson river hot pool

Snake that shared the Jefferson river hot pool with us!

Interesting shop in Montana

wild flowers including paintbrush and asters in the valley

Big Sky Variant (aka the Butte Super Cut-Off)

2009-08-15T16:36:00.002+01:00

Dear Reader, please be not be alarmed when we tell you that we have parted company with the CDT (for now)! We are still hiking, just not on the CDT. And we are still moving South in a continuous line, just not on the CDT. Why not the CDT? Well, compared to our new chosen route, the CDT is slightly longer and reputedly offers just more of the same i.e. trees, trees, trees.
We will meet the CDT again in South Yellowstone however, to follow it through the Windriver Mountains to the end (to Colorado).

So we are now on what B likes to call the "Big Sky Variant", a line going from Whitehall more directly South than the CDT. We've just crossed a lovely mountain range called the Tobacco Root Mountains and are headed for the Spanish Peaks. Should be in Yellowstone NP in about a week.

On our way into the Roots, we got a tip-off from a passing local (as well as a cold can of Miller Light each!) to stop by some lovely wild hot springs in the Jefferson River Valley. They were literllay on route and we gladly stripped off and hopped in. We even had a little bathing companion in the form of a small swimming snake who paddled past my shoulder, head above water, beady eyes looking at me slighly annoyed at being disturbed. Sunflowers were framing the scene and an eagle was flying overhead! Apparently there are petroglyphs on the hill nearby. As soon as we were out of the water, the little snake was back.

Yesterday it rained quite a bit, so last night we went into the town of Ennis (very nice!) and got a cabin and watched "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" on video in the evening. Today we head for the Spanish Peaks.

Central Montana- Photos from Scapegoat Wilderness to McDonald Pass

2009-08-08T18:09:00.016+01:00

the best show in town (if you are a cow)...

Thirsting for our blood ... mosquito stalking the outside of our tent ..

Urban Montana

2009-08-07T17:29:00.006+01:00

Three days gliding over gently rolling hills full of flowers and berries, to the left the yellow velvet of the prairies, to the right the dark green of the fir, spruce and pine covered "not so rocky" mountains. Above: the BIG SKY that this state is rightly known for. Heard coyote song again for the first time in a long time. Also had the company of lots of young ravens, squaking and honking joyfully as they surfed the thermals next to us on the divide. A silent deer occasionally appears on the edge of our vision, looks at us solemnly and then disappears into the half-dark of the trees again. If I carried any butter, we could have had wonderfully fried mushrooms every night. They grow everywhere, big and brown as newly risen loaves of bread. But I don't carry butter.

Two nights ago we finally got into farming country: cattle grazing in open meadows and thin woodlands. We camped with some cows in a herby meadow next to a fenced-off spring and a tank with water for cattle. The water came out of a spout and ran crystal clear so memories of New Mexican cattle tank gunk where quickly banished. As we were eating our dinner (reclining in the tent like Romans at a feast), we heard a truck drive up - farmer checking his cows. Truck stops a wee distance away, quiet, then the engine is started again and the truck comes closer, stops again. We hear a door slam (we're too tired to pop our heads out of the tent). And then someone suddenly pings the back bungee on our tent !!! I shoot out of the front door and see a cowboy in his mid 20's with a big stetson, big mustache and 80's aviator specs looking startled as he fiddles with the back of our tent. "Ah didnt even know it was a tent! Dont look like one to me. Just though I aint never seen that thing there before - goan check it out" he appologised once I had given him a potted version of what we were doing and why we were there. (We were on public lands, so there was no argument about our right to camp there).

That night we had thunderstorms (again) and rain. In the morning we were woken by sonorous, low moooooooing and huffing. We were surrounded by 30 odd cows and calves - and 3 bulls giving it lalldy: peeing on the ground, kicking dirt around themselves, rolling their heads in the dirt, head butting eachother and generally making a big song and dance about their virility. The cows had obviously seen the show before because they congregated in a semi circle around our tent and instead of paying the bulls much attention, watched us nervously dismantle our shelter and pack our bags. We were very much hoping that the bulls didn't feel we were stealing their limelight and wouldn't turn their excess energy on us in order to impress the cows. They didn't - we got away unmolested!

So much for camping on range-land! And to think that we've been worried about camping in the woods with the bears!

Horse Whispering

2009-08-04T00:15:00.003+01:00

160 miles since Glacier National Park and I am sorry to say, dear readers, that most of those miles were in the trees! Through the Bob Marshall Wilderness and most of the Scapegoat Wilderness, the CDT has been routed up and down river valleys in the forrest - our theory is that it's all the horses' fault: this is horse country, Rohan in the trees so to speak. The thing to do here is to pay an "outfitter" to take you into the back country on a horse for a weekend or longer. That also involves big tents, a cooking tent, mules to carry the gear and mules to carry horse and mule feed! So you end up with a pack train of 5 to 25 horses. Wonderful to see with the big western saddles and the fine shiny animals. Slightly less fun if you are a hiker in trainers following one of those horse trains. So the horse trails were here first and horses seem not to like the ridges and seem to prefer to be close to lots of water, so the CDT maybe just takes the existing horse-designed trailes rather than forging new, interesting and walker friendly trails higher up? That's our theory.

Talking of excrement: we also saw lots of bear poo but had no direct contact with the big predators. Still, we had lots of fun trying to throw our bear cord over branches and hoisting our food bags onto a safe branch for night-time storage (10 feet up and 4 feet from the tree trunk) every evening before going to bed.

We had a few interesting things to see: a long limestone escarpment called the Chinese Wall and a hill that took us briefly above the trees. And the last day and a-half of the trail were on the divide itself and above tree line. What a relief!!! The flowers are starting to look a little tired now but in exchange, there are lots of berries to be picked in the forrest: huckle berries, strawberries and whortleberries we've eaten already - thimble berries are just about to come out!

We also had a day rest in a small town called Augusta which lies in the Prairies East of the Rockies. Augusta was great! We stayed in a tiny historic hotel from 1917. The town had a grocery store with the motto "if we don't have it, you don't need it" painted on the outside. It also had 3 bars where men in check shirts wearing stetsons sat drinking. We even got an excellent vegetarian pizza (though only after some deep soul searching from the lady who runs the diner - vetetarianism is not a common affliction in Montana). I can proudly say that we've managed so far not to crack any jokes about "Brokeback Mountain" to any of the locals.

Now we are in a place called Lincoln and are resting up. Our next stop will be the state capital Helena.

Glacier National Park, Montana

2009-07-24T22:55:00.007+01:00

Glacier National "walk in the" Park

2009-07-24T17:42:00.003+01:00

The week that was in facts and stats:

immigration officers (1 Canadian, 2 US)
US National Park Rangers (several, all very concerned that we hang our food into the provided bear safe hanging tree over night, make lots of noise on the trail so as not to startle a bear and use the pit toilets at the campsite - "but don't put trash in them")
moose (10, grazing in a lake)
marmots (hoary and very friendly)
Columbian ground squirrels (standing bolt-upright like mercats)
mountain goats (white as snow with black eyes, kids and nannies)
Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (group of tups lazing around, groups of ewes busy looking after lambs)
golden eagles (soaring)
bald eagle (soaring)
black bear (digging up stuff at the side of the trail)
tourists (thousands at the roadside visitor centre - very scary - only a hand-full on the trails)
miles walked through the park: aprox 90
weather: sunshine, hot
flowers: carpets of them (bear grass, forget me not, indian paint brush, penstemon, cinquefoil, Schafgabe, hollyhocks, geraniums, delphiniums, asters, glacier lillies and lots and lots I don't know by name!)
mountains: SPECTACULAR

Flip-flop through the hot springs

2009-07-14T16:34:00.002+01:00

Dear Reader,

we have made is through the Wemanuche Wilderness in 5 fabulous days with wonderful trails and flowers and wildlife and got back to Wolfcreek Pass where we left off a month ago. The flo-flop to mid-way Colorado has been well worth it since we had perfect conditions (as far as the snow went) in this highest part of the trail. Quite a lot of thunderstorms - which was FUN when you are walking on the Divide!

From Wolfcreek we hitched into Pagosa Springs again and had a dip in the hot springs in the evening. Then Trail-Witch Mary Joy picked us up and took us for a v interesting morning to ancestoral pueoblo site Chimney Rock. Ruins on a narrow ridge leading up to spectacular twin sandstone towers at the end - aprox 1000 years old and related to the famous Chaco Canyon ruins in some way - but very little is known about the people who built them and their culture (or even why they would have built up there, far from water and fields). V intersting!!

Leisurely wound our way back to MJ's home in Montrose via Silverton and Molass Pass. We were guests at MJ's for two nights and managed to pick up a hire car from the nearby town. This we are taking to a town near Glacier National Park on the Canada/US border where we will start hiking again, facing South.

On route we've swum at Glenwood Springs hot springs (Colorado), tiny but hot Saratoga hot springs (Wyoming) and we are now at Thermopolis which boasts two hotspring pools (with GREAT slides!) and the campsite we were at last night (called "Fountain of Youth") also has a hotspring pool all of its own. So over the past 5 days we have visited 5 different hot springs. They say they are good for your health but my face now looks like Pizza and both B and I smell noticible of sulfur. Heading for Montana today and hoping to start hiking from the Canadian Border in 3-4 days time!

some south colorado images.........

2009-06-29T21:44:00.015+01:00

Martina by some interesting trailside scenery- its her next SEPA car !

Lake City

2009-06-29T21:08:00.004+01:00

Because we are now Southbound, we have met lots of CDT hikers who are going North and it has been nice to chat with people about their experience. We've met Ellie, Mike, three young bearded men who do yoga on the trail, St. Gabriel, Out-of-Order, U-Haul, Cruise and Reason, Johnny Storm, Wrongway and Tikka. Wrongway and Tikka we were able to spend some enjoyable time with in Lake City, mostly eating and chatting. Best of luck to all of them!

The last section was quite long (100 miles aprox) and quite high. We saw a mountain goat grazing in the sunset on a slope opposite us when we camped at 12 200 feet below Stan Luis peak, a shale-bing like 14000er Brian bagged since it was right next to the trail. Some fabulouse afternoon thunderstorms were had with hail and torrential downpours that lasted 45 minutes, lightning striking near us and lots of noise. Very little snow in the last section (hurra), but now we are heading for the San Juan mountains which, the reader may recall, were the reason we flip-flopped: to avoid their high and snowbound slopes and give them some melting time. We've seen them from a distance in the last section and they look spectacular!

Lake City is very old by Colorado standards (1877) and has some wonderful gruesome history in that this is where in 1874 (before the town was built) a party of prospectors from Utah got stuck trying to cross the mountains in winter. One of them, Alferd Packer, turned up at the nearby Indian Agency weeks later, claiming the others had left him behind and gone South when he got frost bite. He seemed to have a lot of money on him. This made the locals suspicious and he was arrested. He then confessed to having had to eat some of his companions after they had died of natural causes, but refused to take the authorities back to the last camp to find the bodies. Later that spring, 5 bodies were found, mutiliated and with clear signs of meat having been cut off them. However, they all had their heads smashed in (except for one whose head was missing), 4 of them lying on blankets by the fire pit and a 5th apparently having struggled before being killed. The accusation was then made that Packer had killed all his companions to eat them and take their money. He escaped and was free for 9 years - in the meantime, Lake City was built pretty much next to the spot where the bodies were found. When Packer was recaptured 9 years later, this is where he was brought for trial. In a second confession, he said that another man in the party had gone mad and had killed 4 men while he, Packer, was away routefinding. On his return to the camp, the mad man had attacked Packer and was killed in self-defence. But since the snow still did not allow Packer to leave the place, he then had to consume flesh from all the dead men. He stuck to that story in his trial, was granted a retrial in another county and in the end was found guilty of 5 murders and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was granted a pardon at the age of 60 but died quite soon - a life-long epileptic (without modern treatment of his conditions), he was not a well man (in many ways).

It seems that Packer the Canibal is good for business here and the local paper (the Silver World, which is still in print!) had made up their mind pretty quickly about the guilt of the man. But I just read a book with transcripts from the court proceedings and there was next to no consideration of forensics and Packer's story seems as good as the accusation. So I'm not convinced he was a murderer. The eating of dead companions is not unique to Packer in these parts. Better make sure I pack enough pasta meals for the next section.

Salida (pronounced like "saliva")

2009-06-22T22:10:00.003+01:00

4 days from Leadville over many scenic high passes (with snow) and flowery spring meadows, past beaver dams and through forrests (fir, spruce, the dreaded lodgepole pine - fellow hikers will know what I mean - and sumptuous aspen). We camped in an old mining town called Winfield (now abandoned) and walked an old railway line (now derelict). We had hot and cold weather and even fresh snow. And views to die for! This has been a good section on the CDT!

Wildlife bag: squirrels, ground squirrels & chipmunks (not that exciting though cute), marmots, pikas, ptarmigan, an owl out on a flap in the daytime, deer & elk, beaver dams (no sighting of a beaver) and a PORCUPINE ! No trace of sign of bear.

Funniest moment of the section:
After 3 hours in pouring rain we get to a high point called Tincup Pass where the rain turns into sleat and snow. We are soaked thru and thru. The snow patches are melting furiously and the trail has turned into a river, joining all the other rivers gushing forth from the hill side, making crossings difficult. Below us a jeep road climbs the pass. On it are two jeeps which have stopped on account of having reached an old snowbank. It is Friday - tourist time! As we walk down, people get out wearing shorts and t-shirts, looking clean, dry and well fed (very much in contrast to us). They have with them a small child wearing a pink bathrobe and sandals and two overweight dogs. We descend and they take pictures of eachother next to the snow bank. Not in a mood for chatting, we tuck our heads deeper into our waterproofes and just mutter "hello" as we trudge past them downhill. Five minutes later the jeeps catch up with us on their way valley wards. One of them slows down as he passes and winds down the window. We are getting hopefull: are they going to offer us assistance in our wet and cold state? We wouldn't accept a lift, but we'd plump for chocolate bars, sandwiches or a sip from their thermos. And the driver leans over and asks Brian in all seriousness:
"Are you guys all right for water?"

We spent some time after debating whether that was just the best line ever to mock the afflicted or whether the guy really meant to imply that we would be struggling for water (given the deluge from the skies and the melting snow all around!!!). Possibly the guy was a towny for whom the only drinkable water comes out of plastic bottle ... who knows. We thought is was hillarious.

Leadville - those damn bikes again!

2009-06-18T02:39:00.003+01:00

Sooooo, just to summarise: we have travelled by Greyhound Bus (always an experience!) from Pagosa Springs in the South of Colorado to Dillon Lakes/Silverthorn in the middle of Colorado and started walking SOUTH on the CDT from there back towards Pagosa Springs to give the snow in the San Juan Mountains some more time to melt.

So after 3 days of following the trail SOUTH, we are now in Leadville - as the name suggests, this is an old mining town full of charm. However, just as in Silver City (New Mexico) we are sharing the town with hords of bikers! This time we are witnessing a stage of an "Across the Rockies" road bike event. Staying in a lovely lush hostel with lots and lots of bikers!

The last three days have been easy in terms of trail finding as we are now on the same route as the "Colorado Trail" which is very VERY well marked and made. Still some snow as soon as we get above aprox 10 500 feet and in the forrests (of which there has been quite a lot - lodgepole pine). It's been warmer, which means that instead of slipping around on top of the old snow, we post-hole into it - sometimes up to our hips which is very amusing to the onlooker. But the longest we've been thus entertained has been one morning (South of Copper Mountain) so it's been ok.

But a lower elevation we are walking through lush green aspen and fresh flowers. Still very cold and night and ice on the tent most mornings. Because of that, our routine has changes quite a bit and we no longer get up early (it is just too cold) but tend to wait till the sun hits the tent at about 7:00. Instead we hike later - it is light till 20:45 (which, given that we are approaching the longest day of the year is still a pretty short day if one is - as we are - used to long Scottish summer days with hardly any darkness!).

Met fellow CDT hikers Ellie and Mike who have been going North , bypassing the San Juans. Very nice talking to nutters like ourselves. Happy trails to them!

Heading off tomorrow towards Salida, our next stop. Weather still unsettled and we've had some form of rain every day since leaving Silverthorn.

Cumbres to Wolfpass Section

2009-06-12T00:00:00.001+01:00

Southern Colorado Rockies photo

2009-06-11T23:57:00.002+01:00

Brian in typical rockies scenery that we walked across in southern Colorado. lovely and quite a change from New Mexico !

Pagosa Springs - no spring!

2009-06-11T23:53:00.002+01:00

The last 65 miles of the trail took us into spectacular high mountain scenery at between 12000 and 12600 feet. Finally we are in what us Europeans would understand to be the Rocky Mountains (though technically the next stretch is called the San Juans)!
The downside is that this high up, spring is only just thinking about springing and there is still a lot of old snow (which we gingerly tip-toed along for many miles) and fallen trees (which we sprackled and clambered over as best we could). These impediments meant that we only progressed about 15 miles per day (as supposed to our "normal" 20 mile days) and that it was rather hard going. After 4 days of struggling among spectacular scenery (well, except maybe the last day which was really all about fallen trees and gratuitous slippy snow slopes amongst the spruce forrests), we made it to Wolf Creek Pass and got a lift (from an RV!!) into Pagosa Springs in the evening.
We are now in Colorado which means that for dinner that night we had vegetarian choices other than bean burrito or vegetable tostada (hurra!) AND we could have a wine and a beer respectively with our greek salad and houmous platter (licensed restaurants are rather few and far between in rural New Mexico!). The hotel had a jacuzzi and the town has a wonderfull natural hot spring spa pool with over 20 small basins to sit in, right next to the roaring San Juan river!
Yesterday, our first rest day, it rained all nighte and rained and rained untill 14:00. All of this would have fallen as snow on the hills where the trail is!
The next section of the trail is higher, longer and reputedly tougher. Because of the snows, we have therefore come up with a plan to "flip-flop" about 300 trail miles ahead to a place called Silverthorn and walk South from there, back to Pagosa Springs. This will hopefully allow spring to progress on the hills and will mean less old snow when we finally get to the San Juan mountains! That plan needs fleshed out, but we know that dear old Greyhound can take us from Durango (next town over) to our destination. Will report back when we get somewhere! For now the hot springs beckon again!

Northern New Mexico photos

2009-06-05T17:52:00.008+01:00

Following on from the previous update here are a random set of photos of Northern New Mexico......

Approaching the Chama River and Ghost Ranch in pink rock sedimentary mesa with sagebrush below.

A close up of what we think is the delightfully termed skunk cabbage. Anyway they are nice plants and grow in wet meadows so are a good water indicator for us!

Martina camped in a stand of aspen at 9,500 feet in the morning sun.

We are in rolling hill country here in northern New Mexico at about 10,300ft and beginning to see more snow.

We meet up again with Ted and Richard after we all took different routes through the forest. An opportunity to dry everything out again before the rains start in the afternoon. Our walking is typically on old disused jeep roads as seen here.

Colorado border at last- now to camp before the thunderstorms hail on us again!

Good Bye New Mexico, Hello Colorado !

2009-06-05T15:46:00.004+01:00

Ghost Ranch and its beautifull sandstone cliffs was our last look at the desert. Since then, we have been in cool green aspen, pine and spruce forrest and rolling alpine meadows. Depending on altitude, spring is only just beginning to think about springing ! Some meadows are already busy with blue iris, yellow lillies, purple lupins, red columbines and indigo delphiniums - as well as the less exotic (to the European eye) dandilion. A few hundred feet higher, the snow has only just gone and the flowers are not out yet. The omnipresent lizards have been replaced by stripy chipmunks. Still lots of humming birds around though and lots of ravens (caw caw!)

It has been easy walking (with tricky navigations since there are many old and new trails up here). We are told that the weather we are having is unusal for this time of year: it has been thundering (sometimes for hours) and raining out of static clouds (no winds!) every day for a couple of weeks now. Above 10 000 feet (3300 m), the nights have been very cold indeed with lots of condensation and frost on the tent (inner!).

Two days ago in the afternoon, we crossed the state border into Colorado (with fellow hikers Ted and Richard, who joined up with us again in Ghost Rhanch). We made a celebratory fire at our campsite that night and Ted burnt his last New Mexico maps. We've come 650 miles (1080 km) since the border!

Chama, where we are now, is in New Mexico again - we had to hitch-hike from a pass on the road in Colorado back into New Mexico! Chama's main attraction is a narrow gauge steam train and we are in a charming 1930's hotel next to the "station" and can hear the train hooting! Lots of knick-knack shops, nice cafees and very friendly people!

The next section is appartently quite snowy. A few other hikers have already opted to walk on the road to the next resupply town rather than flogg trough the snows. Mary-Joy, our supporting trail-witch in Montrose,CO (I'm sure she'd rather be called that, than being called a "trail-angel") has sent us ice axes and bigger boots as well as some extra clothes. So we are now in a position to go and have a look at how much snow there is. It's only 65 miles to the next resupply town - there will be hot springs there! Great incentive to plod on!

Brian is away to try and find somewhere in Chama where he can download photos from the last section.

M

At Ghost Ranch New Mexico

2009-05-31T00:00:00.002+01:00

A shortish 55 mile section from Cuba to Ghost Ranch New Mexico www.ghostranch.org

We had an extreme change from semi-desert in Cuba to a 3000ft climb into fir and spruce green mountains of the San Pedro Mountains. Our tent had its first coating of frost and ice camped up there at 10,300ft on a lovely meadow next to running water. Our next night was also next to a river in the Ojitos canyon before we followed the Chama river to Ghost Ranch.

The scenery here is dominated by pink, red and yellow sedimentary cliffs and its pretty cool. The artist Georgia O'Keeffe painted here for 50 years. No photos as the computer won't let me download but next stop for us is the Colorado border, 84 miles away at Cumbres Pass. We then aim to hitch (or get the scenic train line) back to Chama NM to resuply with winter gear (boots and ice axes) ready for the snowy and high San Juan mountains of Colorado.

Hope the Scottish readers are enjoying the hot spring weather !

Brian Saturday 30th May

From Cuba NM......

2009-05-28T02:50:00.011+01:00

We are now in Cuba New Mexico after 515 miles of walking from the Mexican border. We had a 500 mile sing song to a certain Proclaimer's song whilst walking along a cliff top mesa yesterday. This last 100 miles has had some of the most varied terrain and weather of our trip so far. From wild wet wind and cloud over the Mt Taylor mountains to dry arroyo and mesa country later on. We have enjoyed the scenery particularly of the desert mesas with lots of cactus bloom, twisted juniper trees, slick rock sandstone and endless vistas. We saw a group of 3 jeeps pass us in the last 6 days, the rest of the time we were on our own. We have been accompanied by the yelping of coyotes each night and morning but have not managed to capture them on camera yet. The lizards and skulls have been more photogenic so far and we hope the photos below give a flavour

brian 27-05-09 Cuba NM (no relation to Fidal Castro's Cuba !)......

2009-05-21T18:56:00.004+01:00

Just a quick note on Pie Town: it is really called that! There are about 10 houses in Pie Town and 2 Pie Shops and a post office (where we sent ourselves resupply food for the next 90 mile stretch). Some bloke moved out there in the 1930's and started selling pie to passing tourists. He changed the name of the town to Pie Town (with resistance from the post office who considered it a silly and undignified name) and it became a famous place to stop and eat pie. The current owners of the Pie-O-Neer have revived this fame and their pie is incredible - never seen a crust as fluffy as that! They have been subject of articles in many foody magazines and even been covered in a TV documentary on a US TV channel dedicated to food. There is another restaurant in town that also does breakfast and burgers as well as pies: the "Daily Pie"! We ate at both.

In Pie Town a lovely woman called Nita has made her old house available to hikers (she and her family moved to another house in town) including shower, washing machine, kitchen and a lovely porch to sit on in the evening. We stayed there with Ted and Richard and also met Jim and his dog Slick who are long-time Divide travellers (on horseback though) and are currently looking after the place (Jim fixed the bathroom door while we were there).

Brian managed to stash some water a day up the trail with the help of Gordon and his van (Gordon was there to support another set of thru-hikers). We left Pie Town quite late (15:20), aiming to get to a ranch which has a tap in the garden for hikers to get water - 16 miles down the trail. Richard came with us and Ted decided to stay another day in Pie Town.

We hiked hard on dirt road and made it to the ranch just as the light began to seriously fade! Ranchers have guns. They have big yard dogs. They might not expect a bunch of dirty tramps (that's us) walking up their drive in the dark ... we were a bit nervous as we approached the big steel shed at the Thomas Mountain Ranch.

But as we timidly "hallo-ed", a small door in the shed opened and a friendly man in his 70's asked us in, overtaken by his even friendlier wife who immediately ordered us to put down our things, make ourselves at home, we would be sleeping in the shed tonight. The shed contained a whole household (kitchen, living room, dining room, big TV and huge fireplace with a roaring fire in it). Did we want some bread and butter pudding? John and Ainsi Thomas made us completely at home and were splendid company over dinner. The previous day had been their 58th wedding anniversary!

Suddenly there was a knock and a voice outside the door. Ted had changed his mind as he saw the three of us hike up the road and had come after us. So that night we slept in the shed and in the morning we got real coffee.

The kindness and hospitality of people here is quite incredible!
M

From Grants New Mexico

2009-05-20T23:41:00.002+01:00

415 miles Grants New Mexico.
Quick update from the Grants library. They have blocked the USB ports so I'm afraid no photos- boooh.
I (Brian) broke the camera a couple of days ago by falling on it in Sand Canyon. The shots are ok but the camera is knackered. Funny enough it survived an immersion in the Gila River a week previously . It wouldn't work after a fall in the river but after a day strapped to the top of my rucksack it spluttered into action. The super-hot , dry weather has its uses! I have bitten the bullet and bought a replacement in WalMart, Grants.

Yesterday we crossed Route 66 which I liked- yes we got our kicks on Route 66!

We have been walking through a recent (1000 yo) lava zone called El Malpais. A nice varied stretch for us. Previous to that we walked through Pie Town- well, we walked 26 miles in a day into Pie Town driven on by the target of eating as much pie as possible. Unfortunately we made it there at 16:30, dry, dusty and hungry, only to see the 'closed ' sign on the cafe - the PIE-O-NEER. We sat there on the wooden porch, heads in hands, wondering what to do next when Stan from the cafe opened the door, took pity on us, and let us in. Hoooorrraaah. We both had double pie and ice cream washed down with diet coke and coffee.

Today it rained in Grants. Thats a seriously significant event for them here and we are glad to see it. We might just see some more water out there on the hills. It looks like we might get more rain too.

We have about 230 miles more in New Mexico, in about 18 miles we will reach Mt Taylor at 11, 300ft our highest point yet.

Brian

Howl howl!

2009-05-13T03:35:00.002+01:00

Another post from Reserve!

Two days ago we stopped as usual around 17:30 next to a pathetic excuse for a water source (a few greenish puddles forming in an otherwise dry stream bed) and started pitching our tent. We noticed 7 ravens flying above, two vultures and some sort of raptor bird. The ravens kept flying over the campsite and back to somewhere just East of us. "Maybe there is a dead animal there" suggested Brian.

Being keen on ravens, I (M) suggested that there would be a good chance of wolves being nearby, too, because any wolf documentary I have ever seen also has ravens in it and it is a well established fact that ravens co-operate with wolves in the North West to guide them to carcasses or sick animals or even to herds in winter, so as to ensure that there will be food for the ravens once the wolves have made a fresh kill or openend up a carcass (which the ravens can't do very well with their beaks).

We have our dinner (Mac&Cheese) and crawl into our sleeping bags, doze off after a long day's hike. And it gets dark ... and then suddenly nearby a beautyfully plaintive voice rises and is joined by 4 or 5 others to a harmony of high notes, deeper than the coyote and without the comical yodelling. A perfect howling pack of wolves! And closer than any coyote we have heard to far. It only lasted a few minutes and I had to wake Brian up to hear it ... but I am very happy now. One of the aims of this hike has been to hear wolves and I thought this wouldn't happen till we got to Yellowstone!

In the morning we heard some coyote singing in the same direction as the ravens and vultures had been patrolling over the previous evening, so I assume that the coyote got the remains of whatever delicious dead thing once the wolves had moved off.

VERY HAPPY

some more shots...

2009-05-13T01:42:00.005+01:00

An evening dip in the Gila

New Mexico has some flat arid plains....

and greenary....!

update from Reserve NM 12-05-09

2009-05-13T01:19:00.008+01:00

We have now hiked about 290 miles north of mexico and are in the (very small) town of Reserve, NM. Our best scenery has been on the 50 miles of the Gila river (lower and middle fork canyons for those who know the area) . Its been exciting- hot , dusty, too much water, too little water (!) and some coyotes , wolves and very few people on the way. We have met only two other hikers and we are now hiking with them! Richard and Ted are from Florida & Indiana respectively and are both retired but are hiking hard. Ted hikes in sandals and has no stove. Richard bivvies.
Martina on the first (of about 100!) crossing of the Gila.

Brian and Martina at 'Doc Campbells' welcome stopover half way up the Gila.

Ted and Martina cool their feet on the Gila middle fork....

Ted , Martina and Richard at 6.30 am on the top of 'Waggontongue' mountain....

A shot of Lance Armstrong from about 10 days ago cycling the 'tour of the gila' in silver city...

2009-05-03T17:26:00.006+01:00

5:30 am - the wristwatch alarm bleeps inside a 2 meters oblong bubble of green fabric that has sprouted overnight between the Yukkas and spiny bushes. The dark night sky is being pushed away by brightness in the east and a few late coyotes are having a final sing along in the distance.

Birds are singing joyfully in the thorny bushes, doves are cooing softly. Rustling of down sleeping bags, groaning. Then the hissing of a camp stove and water poured into pots. The sky is growing lighter by the second. 30 minutes later the sun's rays are hitting the tent and we finish our tea and start packing up for another hot day walking in the desert. Birds are singing, quail are hooting, ravens and vultures are out, checking if anything has died in the night. We start walking at 6:15 while it is still reasonably cool. By 10:00 it gets hot. By 12:30 -13:00 we stop to rest in whatever shade is available. It doesn't cool down again till darkness falls at 19:30 but we start walking again between 14:30 and 15:30 just because we need to make the miles.

The route goes between water sources which have mostly been tanks and troughs installed by cattle ranchers for their cows. Groundwater pumped by windmill or solar energy to the surface. Not always great: one time we had to lift freen fibrous algal matting off a low trough to get to the murky green water (see photo below). Another time a swarm of bees had taken up residence in the opening of a tank and water had to be got with a cup tied to a long stick (and a steady nerve)- see photo above. On two occasions, the friendly people of New Mexico who live in these remote parts (a weathered cattle farmer and a couple of very friendly self-proclaimed "Hillbillies" with a Harley Davidsons in their living room - I am NOT making this up) have allowed us to use water from their privat supplies (garden hoses) which was deeply appreciated.

Only the last couple of days have we been getting out of the desert and up into the hills. As we were uphilling, the junipers got taller, were joined by different types of pine and finally aspen. Cactus gave way to shrub oak. We even saw some flowering strawberries and lupins. The trails turned from jeep dirt roads into single file paths, it got cooler and shadier. We even found a towel size patch of snow near our highest stop so far : a fire look out on Hillsboro Peak at 10,010 feet (or so the sign said).

On Hillsboro peak we slept in a bothy and were very kindly received by the fire warden for coffee in the morning - AND he made us sandwiches to take for lunch that day! Thank you Phil!

Yesterday we were excited by our first running water in a stream bed.

The two times we have hitch hiked (to Hilsboro to resupply and into the town we are in now) the first car going our direction has stopped. People are incredibly friendly and helpful. It has been almost overwhelming!

Now we are in Silver City, NM, where a bike race is going on (the Tour of the Gila). Apparently Lance Armstrong is amongst the riders. The town is lovely and has lots of cafes. We are hoping to continue on Monday towards the Gila river (lots of WATER!!!).

2009-04-23T22:05:00.005+01:00

After a bit of fuffing around with Greyhound buses yesterday, we were picked up this morning by trail angel Keith in Deming. Keith took us to the Mexican Border in his truck and gave us the low-down on water sources and beta he's had from other hikers that have recently passed this way. We then walked into Mexico (the border town is calles Palomas and has had a bit of trouble with warring drugs cartells we are told) where everyone seemed to know Keith and he knew everyone. For the Scottish readers: Keith would be given the title "big man" in the fair city of Glasgow - in the best possible way.!

About 50 meters into Mexico, we had what I (M) have been wishing to do for a long long time: a Mexican meal (tostadas for me and burrito for B) in Mexico! It was tasty, the pre-meal salsa was distinctly hotter than anything you'd get in Scotland (I was given some butter to suck on to extinguish the flames inside my mouth), and the restaurant/gift shop where we ate was just lovely, full of colourfull shiny things (which tourists can buy if they don't - like us - have to carry everything on their backs)!

So far we have been checked by the border patrole/customs three times: once in the bus approaching Deming (where they had a dog sniff our luggage while an olive green official checked our passports), once on the way back from the restaurant recrossing into the US (fair enough) and then again as we walked away from the border after taking some souvenir photos. We are told to expect more checking over the next couple of days.

Keith then left us to the hot wind and the rattle snakes ... well, to walk along the road for only three miles from the border into the American town of Columbus to be precise. Our daily distance on this part of the hike will strongly depend on water availablilty and we are going to try to ensure that we are camped near water every night to allow us to rehydrate over night and not have to carry too much extra weight in the shape of H2O. The next water from here is 18 miles along the trail, so we are staying in Columbus tonight (in a red clay and cactus campsite that looks just lovely!) and starting early tomorrow morning.

Used to the soggy hillsides of Scotland, it must be said that so far, New MExico feels incredibly dry, hot and dusty to us. The kind of landscape that makes your tongue stick to to the roof of your mouth just by looking at it, leave alone walking through it. We've been warned of rattle snakes, scorpions, spiky vegetation and drug runners as well as border patrole (the last two in the list being armed with guns). But there's also hope of spotting Ibex (a population descended from some Persioan ibex released in the past) and a small thing that looks like a pigmy tapier or pig. I'd also like to see a road-runner (New Mexico's state bird) and lots of lizards.

At the next resupply stop in about 3 days in Deming, we are hoping to meet up with Keith again. There is a winery there (yessss!).
We have uploaded some photos of our trip so far here.

Brian and Martina head south

2009-04-22T00:24:00.002+01:00

We are in sunny Durango , CO and aim to start walking late on the 23rd April Thursday. We have had a great and interesting time so far- hot pools in Glenwood Springs CO, deep snow in Montrose CO, meeting the Martin family, a red rock canyon walk near Grand Junction CO with Mary Joy (with big horn sheep and lambs), a day in Mesa Verde Nat Park CO (fantastic Anasazi cliff dwellings in high canyon country). Brian lost half a tooth in Mesa Verde and has had some emergency dental treatment from a friendly practise here in Durango. Looking forward to starting our walk!

brian and martina
Durango CO

Cairngorm wanderings

2009-04-05T18:30:00.003+01:00

Martina is away helping with lambing at a friends farm, and brian was out in the cairngorms in in lovely spring conditions but screaming winds!

Scorn

2009-03-31T18:24:00.003+01:00

Pure jealousy! One of my weegie (Glasgow) born colleagues' feeble attempt at parody. Mine first (missive to all colleagues to direct them to this blog) followed by his repost - a challenge for all East coasters and foreigners!

"Dear colleagues,

I will be departing on leave from tomorrow afternoon until the 1st of November. Husband Brian and I will be attempting to walk through the USA from Mexico to Canada – the aim is to leave a continuous set of foot prints from one border to the other. We’ve done something similar along the Pacific Crest Trail in 1998 and succeeded in walking the whole way (seems a long time ago…). This time we’ll be on the Continental Divide Trail which goes through New Mexico , Colorado , Wyoming (Yellowstone) and Montana , roughly following the line of the Rocky Mountains . 2800 miles – averaging 20 miles per day and stopping for resupply roughly every 5-7 days (depending on where a road to a town crosses the trail or we pass a friendly ranch, ranger station or petrol station that accepts supply parcels we’ll sent to ourselves). We’ll be camping all the way (looking forward to hearing the coyote at night).

We expect to be within reach of public internet access probably every other week or so and will try to post photos and a blog. I know that the SEPA internet IS setting isn’t amenable to allowing access to our blog at work, but the photo site seems to be acceptable. So if you wanted to see how we are getting on, feel free to “pop in”."

Glasgow Version:

"Am gauni Paisley fur ra holidaze at Eestur,

Ra Police report hus phot-eez fae thi last paste-in a goat there. I um hopin’ to hit social services every other day as they huv drop in ceturs in Borheed Charstlon and Dykebar fur battered wives ( I asked if I could huv a go the last time I wuz at the Back Snedon Centre but they said that wuzni appropriate and wid a no cum back). The Holiday will be oan the Sectarian Divide Which runs mostly through Thrushcraigs and annexes the Charslston Coldellera which has a number of known hot spots. The kids an I dae this every year couz it cheap an the Sally Army gie oot survival boxes wae Ritz crackers and Primula cheese which geez the wains a hot meal at least wance a day if yi pit them in the microwave. Yi can also huv a Hot “Spring Release” operated shower as well but they check fur nits so it takes a basturd long time so we may furgo that pleasure. We wull be mostly taking the bus coz walking wid expose us tae the wildlife to much and some of them unerston English and realise we might be ripin the pish. Looking forward tae listenin’ tae the night sound of animals f$%kin’ or killin’ wan another ( the Foxes and birds will be a welcome interlude). We will be stayin’ at big brothers so will have intermittent internet access if I can get him af Ranger fan club site. I will however be mosltly bladered so willni be arsed tae type. If ony yis want tae keep up wi oor exciting travel itinerant itinerary; Naw! "

Our itinery

2009-03-25T20:34:00.003Z

The map here shows our tentative itinery including an expected arrival date at towns along the way from Mexico to Canada. There are a few variations included as things could well change through the summer ! Thanks to Cookie and Paul for providing the base map.

Maps, info and planning.......

2009-03-24T21:40:00.004Z

We have gathered lots of information to help us with our walk this year. The Continental Divide Trail isn't really a complete path, but is a mix of walking trail, vehicle track, cross country routes and suggestions. Our intended start to the route from Columbus New Mexico will not actually cross the official trail or the actual Continental Divide until about 150 miles! We are choosing this route as we think it will be more interesting and it has potentially better water sources.

Brian loves maps and has collected various types for the trip starting with Delorme state road maps for an overview of each state. These provide us with a view of nearby towns, roads and route options for our walk.

We also have some Trails Illustrated maps which are available for popular areas such as Yellowstone and Glacier National Park in Montana - these are about equivalent to UK OS maps.

Our main maps though are those produced by Jonathan Ley, who hiked the trail in 2001 and has since produced maps available on CD and updated each year with hiker comments. The trail is everchanging- new trail gets built, better options are found, trail gets flooded- and Jonathan updates his maps with these details. A great resource!

Jim Wolf at the CDT Society also produces excellent guides to the trail, less frequently updated than Jonathans maps but again very useful and we will be carrying these.

Finally we have town guides from 'Yogi'. She has researched the details of towns near to the trail with overview street maps, useful addresses of POs, motels, gear shops, groceries, stove fuel availability. We will be thankful for these!

January walk in the Cairngorms area of Scotland across the 'Burma Road'

2009-03-24T21:34:00.002Z

In January, we did a loop walk in the central Scottish Highlands from Slochd summit up the Dulnain river , then over the Burma road and back north over the hills to the Slochd. we had some great open views across snowy terrain.

Walking the Black Isle Coast.....

2009-03-23T21:17:00.005Z

In January and February we walked from Fortrose to Cromarty along the coast and back via the forest tracks a few times. The distance is about 18 miles and the coastal scenery is excellent.

West Highland Way video

2009-03-23T21:06:00.006Z

Hound Dog walking north of Tyndrum on the West Highland Way! (Before the rain -caw caw)

A short hike on the west highland way.....

2009-03-23T19:36:00.002Z

The West Highland Way is a 90 mile trail in Scotland that travels north from Milngavie on the outskirts of Glasgow, to Fort William. Hound Dog went for a two day trip this weekend starting at Tyndrum and walking for about 44 miles to Fort William. I camped at the Kingshouse hotel at the top of Glencoe on Saturday night. My feet now feel sore!!