Thru-Hiking Journals

Day 152: September 8th, 2025 Forward progress: 20.7 miles Total distance on trail: 2,391.6 miles Our plan to be hiking by 7:00 was immediately thwarted by... you guessed it... rain. It started drizzling around 5:30, pouring by 6:00. None of us were interested in starting our last day in those conditions, so we shouted through the walls of our tents at each other that none of us were going to start packing until the rain let up. By the time we had originally planned to leave,

Day 140 Forward progress: 21.1 miles Total distance on trail: 2,165.3 miles Well, I slept terribly. Not sure why. Perhaps the soda I had at dinner? But that's not unusual while I'm in towns, so I'm not sure why it impacted me so badly last night. I got under 5 hours of sleep, which is not ideal. But whatever. The guy who gave us a ride to Augusta also gave us a ride back to the trail. The drive was just as overstimulating as before -- despite changing seats, the dog still cho

Day 129 Forward progress: 10.0 miles Total distance on trail: 1,952.9 miles It would have been so easy to stay in town another day. There are so many ways to exit Butte, one of which would cut off 25 miles -- a full day, if we wanted to.  But we didn't. We did only have a short day planned today, so we hung around town until around 2:00. Vibes and I hoped to get Bushwhack and Zoolander to come out with us, but they wanted another day in town and are planning a different route

Day 116 Forward progress: 15.0 miles Total distance on trail: 1,701.8 miles I can feel my motivation slipping. Town feels too comfortable, hiking feels too exhausting, filtering water feels too annoying. We spent several hours yesterday mapping out the remainder of the trail. If you would have asked me even two weeks ago if I would consider taking the Big Sky Cutoff, which routes the trail such that it removes about a few hundred miles, including basically the whole part of t

Day 107 Forward progress: 16.7 miles Total distance on trail: 1,540.1 miles I really tried to sleep in. I did. But I hit 6:30 and simply couldn't stay asleep. The others slept longer. Since I'm by far the shortest, I had a weird spot on the floor in the corner, and I had to play Frogger to get around the two beds and two other sleeping pads on the ground to get to the bathroom without waking anyone up. The morning was hectic; since I had sort of been anticipating today being

Day 96 Forward progress: 15.4 miles Total distance on trail: 1,273.3 miles Even with blackout curtains, we were all still awake before 7:00. Habit, I guess. But none of us were willing to get out of bed for a while. Just felt nice to mindlessly be on our phones, not being social, not thinking about anything. After eating our money's worth at the motel breakfast, we had second breakfast/early lunch at a coffee shop. We only planned 15 miles for today, so no need to start too e

Day 83 Forward progress: 10.4 miles Total distance on trail: 1,032.1 miles Waking up inside is always a weird mix of comfortable and jarring. Comfortable because... duh. Jarring because my tent comes to feel like home, and it's always strange to wake up not in your home. Sarah agreed to drive me and Shadow back to the trail in the early afternoon, so we just had a bunch of time to kill. Vibes was going to come too, but his abdominal muscles have been spasming for the last day

Day 71 Forward progress: 11.6 miles Total distance on trail: 843.2 miles I didn't get out of bed until 7:30. I could have slept another hour at least, but I heard Gearhead making breakfast for all of us and I didn't want to be lazy while he was busying himself for us. He made German pancakes, which Goosebump and I are convinced are just slightly thicker crepes and the Germans insist are a totally different thing. Either way, they were a delicious way to begin the day. After c

Day 62 Forward progress: 8.8 miles Total distance on trail: 724.0 miles Packing up this morning was weird. I've been away from trail now for 2 full weeks. My legs are probably going to have to readjust and I'm no longer acclimated to the altitude. My pack has never been heavier; I'm carrying my winter gear (ice axe, microspikes, hiking pants, snow gaiters, waterproof socks), and since we're unsure of the conditions moving forward, we have 8 days of food for the upcoming 80 mi

This river trip was exactly what we needed to relax and let the snow melt out. I learned a new style of camping, saw some incredible views, and experienced the desert in a unique way. Our daily mileage breakdown is as follows: Day 1 (CDT Day 52): approx. 10 miles Day 2 (CDT Day 53): approx. 21 miles Day 3 (CDT Day 54): approx. 24 miles Day 4 (CDT Day 55): approx. 9 miles Day 5 (CDT Day 56): approx. 24 miles Day 6 (CDT Day 57): approx. 3 miles Day 7 (CDT Day 58): approx. 9 mil

Day 44 Forward progress: 13.7 miles Total distance on trail:  676.3 It feels like we did a million miles today for how much effort was put in. The whole day was hard. The first 11 miles were fun hard. The final 2.7 miles were brutal. I wanted to hit the SOS button and take an evac back to Chama. I actually meant to take today off, but I know the upcoming section is ripe with sketchy snow traverses, and I knew a lot of people were shuttling out, and there's strength in numbers

Day 31 Forward progress: 17.6 miles Total distance on trail: 530.7 miles I don't know if "happy" is the right verbiage for the day, but happy 1 month trailiversary to me! About half the hikers who were in town yesterday left. I was one of the later hikers to leave around 9:45. I didn't want to do big miles today, so getting an early start wouldn't have made sense. In classic New Mexico kindness, someone left coolers of beverages on the road walk back to the trail. Seriously,

Day 21 Forward progress: 16.0 miles Total distance on trail: 346.3 miles Pie Town was a weirdly easy town to stay in, even if we were confined to a diner, the room attached to the diner, and a hostel that could pass for a museum. Part of it is that the best option for camping on the way out of town is 16 flat dirt road miles away -- not enough to constitute a full day of hiking, which forces hikers to stay until at least early afternoon before leaving. If you run into friends

Day 11 Forward progress: 19.3 miles Total distance on trail: 177.5 Hiking out of town without Mitch today was really emotional. I feel so selfish, pursuing my dreams without him while he works and does responsible life things. I'm the one doing the trail, leaving home for months, causing both of us to cry. And he has the audacity to be supportive instead of angry. These past miles have been so fun. Since it was only a few days, we hiked together most of the time instead of hi

Day 6 Forward progress: 14.4 miles Total miles on trail: 98.4 miles Not to brag or anything but I slept in today all the way until 6:00. So... that's pretty huge! Given that we're still in the bootheel desert, we knew that hiking in the afternoon hours was not ideal, so our original plan was to leave around 4:00. We ended up hanging out in the hotel lobby until we got too antsy to stick around town much longer, and after a few last-minute chores and a late lunch, we got start

Crazy Cook Monument: the southern terminus of the Continental Divide Trail, just feet from the Mexican border Day 1 Forward progress: 14.2 miles Total distance on trail: 14. 2 miles Dude... what am I doing here? Even though I did this section of trail last year, I forgot how absolutely awful this first day is. When I asked Mitch if this day was better or worse than he thought it would be, he said worse. I thought I had adequately warned him. The Continental Divide Trail Coali

Well... it is that time, isn't it? I've definitely been putting this off, but I'm running out of time to officially announce my 2025 atte

It's not hip flexor tendonitis.

Day 12 Miles hiked today: 18.6 Total miles hiked on trail: 188.9 Somehow, I was one of the last people to roll out of camp this morning. It was 6:30 a.m., and somehow basically everyone was up and out before I was up. I guess my new sleeping pad has already proven its value; I slept so well and stayed so warm! And I never woke up partially on the ground! I maybe should have replaced my shoes as well. My plan is to get my new ones when Mitch visits next weekend, but the tread

Day 6 Miles hiked today: 21.9 Total miles hiked on trail: 111.0 Unclear how, but that was my best night of sleep on trail so far. I think once the wind subsided in the night, there was no noise from my tent, and therefore nothing keeping me awake. It also was a pretty cold morning, so it was hard to rouse myself from my quilted slumber. I'm waking up with a sore right foot because last night, while walking around camp with my Crocs on, some thorny desert twig on the ground lo

I realize that, as I embark on this journey, many if you may not actually be all that familiar with this hike. Unlike the Appalachian Trail, the birthplace of thru-hiking culture, the most popular U.S. thru-hike, the Continental Divide Trail boasts a less conspicuous reputation. The Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail complete the U.S. Triple Crown of thru-hikes. The former two are well-known and popular, but the CDT is the grungy blac

Today, March 7th, 2024, I cease to be a teacher. Again. The first time this happened was much more unpredictable. I was finishing up my first year of teaching, virtually, in June of 2020, a few months after I had put in my resignation in order to move out of state. Had I waited only 3 weeks to resign, I would have known that moving was no longer an option, and COVID was going to keep me in Ohio a little longer. I found myself working a series of odd jobs to compensate for my

Segment 22: 357.8 - 375.1 (17.3 miles) Segment 23: 375.1 - 391.2 (16.1 miles) Segment 24: 391.2 - 412.1 (21.0 miles) Segment 25: 412.1 - 432.8 (20.7 miles) Segment 26: 432.8 - 443.9 (11.1 miles) Segment 27: 443.9 - 464.7 (20.8 miles) Segment 28: 464.7 - 486.4 (21.7 miles) Day 23 - July 21st Daily miles: 19.1 Official distance covered on trail: 376.9 Segments witnessed: 22, 23 The beginning of today and the end of today may as well have been different days. The morning was com

Almost a full year from my unexpected departure from the Colorado Trail, I am coming back to finish what I started. I want to be able to say that I'm exclusively excited to finish it, especially because this section is supposed to be the most beautiful part of the whole trail and I get to spend the next week doing something I love to do, but I can't say that and be telling the whole truth. Honestly, I'm angry that I have to do this right now. I should have finished this last

Yesterday, July 22nd, was not intended to be my last day. I don't want to get super into it, but last night after dinner, I started feeling incredibly unwell. I knew it wasn't normal, so I called my mom, and she advised me to go to the emergency room. I called another medical professional for a second opinion, and she recommended the same. I'm so glad that I was in a town. I'm so glad that I was staying at a hostel. I'm so glad that the owner -- whose name, coincidentally, is

CW 5: 67.6 - 92.0 (24.4 miles) Segment 15: 253.2 - 267.6 (14.4 miles) Segment 16: 267.6 - 282.3 (14.7 miles) Segment 17: 282.3 - 302.9 (20.6 miles) Segment 18: 302.9 - 316.8 (13.9 miles) Segment 19: 316.8 - 330.4 (13.6 miles) Segment 20: 330.4 - 343.1 (12.7 miles) Segment 21: 343.1 - 357.8 (14.7 miles) Day 17 - July 17th Daily miles: 15.6 Official distance covered on trail: 272.4 Segments witnessed: CW 5, 15, 16 I knew today was going to be hard, but I had no idea it was goin

Segment 10: 156.4 - 169.7 (13.3 miles) Segment 11*: 169.7 - 183.5 (13.8 miles) CW 1: 0.0 - 9.7 (9.7 miles) CW 2: 9.7 - 35.2 (25.5 miles) CW 3: 35.2 - 50.9 (15.7 miles) CW 4: 50.9 - 67.6 (16.7 miles) CW 5: 67.6 - 92.0 (24.4 miles) Day 10 - July 10th Daily miles: 17.0 Official distance covered on trail: 175.2 Segments witnessed: 10, 11 Took me a long time to agree to get out of bed. A warm, dry, elevated, non-deflatable bed. I was awake at 5:30, but waited until about 7:00 to g

The Colorado Trail is divided into 28 distinct segments. Each segment is characterized by its own features and mileage. Each post for the Colorado Trail is going to begin with a list of each segment covered in those days. Segment 1: 0.0 - 16.6 (16.6 miles) Segment 2: 16.6 - 28.2 (11.6 miles) Segment 3: 28.2 - 40.7 (12.5 miles) Segment 4: 40.7 - 57.1 (16.4 miles) Segment 5: 57.1 - 71.7 (14.6 miles) Segment 6: 71.7 - 104.0 (32.3 miles) Segment 7: 104.0 - 117.8 (13.8 miles) Segm

Not to the AT, though. Not yet. In a few days, I will be starting the Colorado Trail, a 486-mile hike from Denver to Durango. People say to allocate 4-6 weeks, so I'm giving myself just over 4, but anticipating around 4. It's wild to me to have a mental framework for what 486 miles feels like. That's not even 1/4 of the Appalachian Trail. That was basically Springer Mountain to Damascus, VA. I wonder if that means the hike will be fun the whole time without being mentally bog

Day 127 - July 5th Daily miles: 15.3 Official distance covered on trail: 2020.2 Finally. Finally we had good weather. Finally we got to see Maine's beauty. Today was such a good day of hiking. We didn't start hiking until just after 10:00, and the hostel provided a great breakfast, so we were rested and fueled when we began. The hiking itself wasn't too hard at any point. We went over a stretch of mountains called the Bigelows, and we were able to take long breaks at several

Day 112 - June 20th Daily miles: 9.3 Official distance covered on trail: 1803.7 WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW. Today was the most perfect day. I'm still just buzzing. It started with waking up in a comfortable bed at 6:30 and not immediately having to move. We decided that we were only going to do 9 miles today, so we didn't have to get started particularly early. And then when we got out of bed, it was nice to get out of a bed and not up off the ground. We finally started hiking aroun

Day 98 - June 6th Daily miles: 17.6 Official distance covered on trail: 1541.5 Ok, I concede defeat: I already like my trail runners better than my boots. I am already switching my allegiance for long distance hikes to trail runners. Y'all happy??? The camping rules in Massachusetts are pretty strict, and there are no stealth sites throughout the state (or at least any that are technically allowed; I'm sure some people have made makeshift sites, but you're not supposed to), s

Day 88 - May 27th Daily miles: 23.2 Official distance covered on trail: 1324.6 Spent a lot of last night awake due to some pretty intense thunderstorms. I kept thinking it was the universe cleansing our palette of the past several weeks of just-okayness. New state, new beginnings, right? New Jersey has already proven to be really beautiful. Lots of lakes and ponds and streams, which I love hiking near. The rocks haven't totally died down, but even the really rocky sections we

Day 78 - May 17th Daily miles: 21.3 Official distance covered on trail: 1106.1 Man it feels goooooood to be back on trail! After taking 4 days off in DC to rest, we were all just itching to start hiking again. DC was a lot of fun though! Met all of Wilson's roommates, who were lovely; stayed with my friend Jackson, who was kind enough to let me and Mitch and Scott take over his apartment for a few days; and even saw my college friend Karrie, who just moved to DC for a nursing

Day 63 - May 2nd Daily miles: 20.5 Official distance covered on trail: 884.9 First day in Shenandoah National Park and also first day in my new boots! I have a few small blisters and my arches are sore, but I'm optimistic they'll be broken in soon enough. My last Salomon boots didn't need much time at all, so hopefully these are about the same. Was definitely ready to take them off at the end of the day, though. Since the tread is so new and hasn't worn down yet, I felt my fe

Day 50 - April 19th Daily miles: 12.7 Official distance covered on trail: 669.4 Today was the perfect example of the classic saying, "It's about the journey, not the destination." We'd set out to do 18.5 miles today but let ourselves do fewer so we could spend a good evening together. Girl Scout calls these days "smiles over miles" days. Tomorrow is Problem's 21st birthday, so while we resupplied, we also got a bunch of stuff to adequately celebrate such an occasion. She pref

Day 38 - April 7th (continued) Daily miles: 11.9 Official distance covered on trail: 472.4 Not much else to report on this day. Ate a lot of food. Drank a lot of drinks. Enjoyed the warmth while in town. We stayed at this one restaurant for about 5 hours just enjoying the sun and some good replenishments. We hiked back out to the trail and did a whole half mile to our campsite. Girl Scout has invented a new game for us to play. He found a clothespin at our campsite yesterday,

Day 26 - March 26th Daily miles: 11.0 Official distance covered on trail: 285.9 Hot Springs treated us so well. I would definitely go back! We stayed at the Iron Horse Station, and it was easily the best hotel experience I've ever had. Gary, the owner, was so kind and accommodating and fun to talk to. He's spent time in Ohio and his wife used to teach special education (which is what I do for work, in case you don't know), so we had a lot to chat about! The hotel itself had s

Day 17 - March 17th Daily miles: 0.0 Official distance covered on trail: 164.7 Hotel beds are so much nicer than I remember. I woke up feeling so refreshed and ready to go. Packed up our stuff, headed to the lobby, was all prepared to take a shuttle back out to the trail. Then, we saw every other hiker in the lodge hanging out in the lobby glued to their phones. As soon as Mitch and I got to the couches, it was apparent that the morning was a little more complicated than we'd

Day 12 - March 12th Daily miles: 15.5 Official distance covered on trail: 125.2 Woke up this morning with relief. A few days ago, there was a prescribed fire in the area we camped in. We'd gotten official word that the burn had passed, and it was safe "but possibly smokey" in the area, but when we got back to our camp site after our day in town, we could see fires nearby. They weren't on or near the trail, but close enough that we could see them, which was unsettling. Not muc

Day 6, cont. - March 6th I know we've only been hiking for 5 days, but wowww did a day in town feel great! I don't think a hotel room has ever felt like such a luxury. A shower has never left me feeling cleaner. A load of laundry has never brought me such joy. Even the hotel breakfast was fun. Dee, the woman running food service -- "Dee for Dee-lightful," "fourth letter followed by two fives" -- was just a hoot, and she made sure we went to our rooms with full bellies and smi

Day 1 - March 1st Daily miles: 11.6 Official distance covered on trail: 2.8 So... we started our hike today. Instead of the official southern terminus at Springer Mountain, we chose to begin 8.8 miles south at Amicalola Falls State Park. So far this year, 361 people have begun their journey there as well. My number in the log book was 362, Mitch's 363. Today started without fanfare. There was a small group of people from the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club who talked to us abo