Taking a Day Off in Lincoln, MT

I arrived in Lincoln on July 1st, and I have been resting after a strenuous, yet rewarding hike through the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat Wilderness areas. The CDT is a lot of work, and my waistline is reflecting the number of calories I have burned in the last week. Yikes!

I am leaving on the 3rd of July, and I will hike into Helena on Monday, and then turn around on Tuesday, and hike to Butte, where I will take another zero day.

I have just updated my trail journal, and I am in the process of uploading pictures to my Flickr account. I am hoping to get a few videos on the blog tomorrow, so please be patient as I try and get some of this stuff done. This whole digital diary thing is a lot of work!

I am feeling great, and my legs are growing stronger every day. I love being in the wilderness, and it has been a real pleasure to be "home" for the last few weeks. The amazing thing is that I get to stay at "home" for another 5-months.

Resting up in East Glacier

I am East Glacier Park after spending an incredible 7-days in Glacier National Park. I encourage anyone and everyone to come up here to see this unique, untouched national treasure - seriously.

I have updated my trail journals and flickr sites, but I may have to wait a while to upload video, since internet is so spotty here, and I have a lot of requests from other hikers to use the computer.

I am having the time of my life... again. I will update things again when I arrive in Lincoln, MT, which will be in about 8-9 days.

New Video on my hike is Here!

I am in Glacier National Park, and it is awesome. I tried loading a video to YouTube, and it did not work out, so I will try it again later on. I will post it on the sidebar. Today, I anticipate writing another journal entry on Trail Journals, so look out for that. I just got my permit to hike Glacier, and now I am waiting for So Far, Luna, and Gazelle to arrive. On the trail tomorrow, and I cannot wait. Yeah!

Peace,

Freefall

Gear Check in Indiana

I threw all my gear on the lawn at Lake Luther, the camp I used to work at out here in Indiana. I went through everything, set up the tent, unfurled my clothes, and laid out all my equipment, like I was going to have a yard sale. The picture on this post shows everything I am taking with me on the CDT, and the other picture is of the pack when it is filled up. Cool, eh?

I am learning that there will be several hikers (maybe 12?) at Serrano's up at East Glacier Park. Because of the numbers, I am thinking about starting the hike on the 16th, because our numbers will exceed the capacity of the back country sites in Glacier National Park. It seems that this CDT hiking thing is catching on in popularity. Anyway, starting on the 16th would also allow me to hike with Gazelle and Marlowe, who will both be starting on that day. The question is: will So Far, Luna, and Chance go along with that date (I need to e-mail them!).

Anyway, I am having a great time out here in Indiana. I have enjoyed reconnecting with friends and family out this way. The weather out here has been perfect the last few days, and the mosquitoes are not fully out yet - I have a feeling though that they will be vicious here in a week. I wonder if they will be bad in Montana?

I cannot wat to get on the trail. Only another week before I will be boarding the train to East Glacier Park! Yipee!

Experimenting With Maps!

While I am here in Parker, Colorado for my niece's graduation, I decided to experiment with my GPS, Google Earth, and tools from EveryTrail.com. What I came up with is this map below. I plan to include these maps when I get into town, and I hope to make them even more interactive with pictures and the whole bit. Anyway, this is just an experiment, which will only help tell the story of my hike on the CDT this year. Yeah!

Walk Around The Pinery

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

Mail Drops Schedule Has Been Added

I have added a list of mail drop here on the blog (scroll down and look on left hand side). You can also go to my Trail Journals page to get more detailed information. If you would like to send a letter, postcard, or a small care package, I would gladly appreciate it!

Back from ADZPCTKO - Now Focus on CDT

I had a great experience at ADZPCTKO this past weekend. I reconnected with friends, talked trail, and basically got to hang with my tribe for several days. Wow! What a lot of fun.

I also got to see a lot of hikers who are attempting the CDT northbound and southbound. Among those who were at the Kick Off were So Far, Luna, Suge, and Gazelle (who, by the way, has just committed to doing the CDT!). We had five of the nine hikers that I know of who will be starting out at the Canadian border on June 15th, and I am looking forward to hiking with all of them. Yeah!

I am heading back home to San Francisco, where I will begin loading up boxes to move my stuff out of my apartment by the 30th of this month. It is an amazing thing to think that I will once again live a thru-hiker lifestyle until next November. As a lot of hikers were making their way out of Lake Morena this morning, I couldn't help but think, "That will be me in a few weeks." What a great feeling!

Now I can better focus on the CDT. My awesome and honorable role as Presentation Coordinator for ADZPCTKO kept me from devoting more time and energy on the CDT. With events ending today, my sights are set on Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Wind River Range, the San Juans of Colorado, the Gila National Monument, and all other beautiful and unique places along the CDT. I am almost there!

Trail Journals Updated, Blog To Get Updates Next Month

I just updated my Trail Journal, but I will hold off on blog design updates until I leave San Francisco. I only have a short time left here, so I need to get as much done with food dehydration as I can, and I only have two weeks left to use a dehydrator. THIS IS CRUNCH TIME! I look forward to dressing up the blog with a few relevant widgets so that everyone can follow this hike in a unique way. More to come. Stay tuned!