We reached Mexico!

Howdy y’all,

We did it. Less than 48 hours ago, SpiceRack, Rooster, Crunchberry, and I reached the southern terminus of the Continental Divide Trail. It felt pretty good at the time, but I was grateful that we had the evening and morning to spend together at the monument before our rides showed up to snatch us back to the normal world. The weight of the achievement feels real, but only to my brain. My heart still hasn’t quite caught on that this long walk is over. The hike south reached its conclusion, but the emotional journey is far from over. Unpacking, dusting off, and reexamining memories of the trail in an attempt to make sense of the last five months will take even longer than the hiking did. I don’t know what comes next for me in nature or in life, but I do know that hiking the CDT was a fantastic experience and that I could not have envisioned a better ending. The weather, the place, and most of all, the people. The nearly five months on the trail are not defined by the finish, but, damn, it was a darn good finish.

Congratulations Rooster and Crunchberry on completing your Triple Crowns! I’m glad I could be there for the final steps.

Congratulations and thank you, SpiceRack. You are so strong and persevered through so much on this trail. You are an inspiration and I am so grateful to have you as my partner.
Love to you all.

But wait, this blog is weeks behind.
Yep, it sure is. Sorry about that. I can’t promise that there won’t be gaps here or there, but I’ll keep the final days posting as regularly as possible until there is no more to say. I know postings have come erratically for all summer, fall, and now winter, so I would like to say, thank you for your patience. On the trail, I’m a person first, a hiker second, and a writer third. Sometimes the first two can leave little left for the third. I hope you have enjoyed the journey nonetheless. Thanks for coming along. I appreciate your support, bigly.

And one more time… give.classy.org/cdt
Spice and I are still fundraising for Big City Mountaineers. Woooo hoooo! We are short of our goal, but have come a long way and are so close now. Honestly, in a lot of ways, hosting a fundraiser was a daunting task for both of us, especially on top of the normal planning and doubt that comes with preparing for a thru-hike. It has gone better than we expected, despite our inexperience and neglect as the trail served us up as much as we could handle. The fundraiser for BCM often felt like the least of our worries. But you know what? The money that y’all help us raise can and will make a huge impact on the lives of very real people. My words on this blog might be inspiring or whatever to folk sitting on a couch somewhere or at a desk “working”, but money for BCM translates directly to creating opportunities for kids to discover for themselves that inspiration comes from within, from being curious about the world, rather than by looking at a screen and worrying about how different they are, which has become too much the norm these days. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading things on the internet, but not nearly as much as I like getting to know myself and making friends in the strange corners of the earth.

Forget my journey on the CDT. I’m just another guy who sleeps better outside and likes to walk more than average. Help real people. You can. Period.
A bunch more info on BCM can be found on our fundraiser page here:
give.classy.org/cdt