The Thing About Boots

The Thing About Boots Outside of the more technical aspects of trail mapping I have come to understand a few things about life in the Colorado Rockies.

Number one. There is no such thing as breaking in a pair of boots, but there is such thing as breaking in a pair of feet.

Number two. There is no such thing as a bad sunrise or sun set, unless of course it is raining/sleeting/hailing/snowing and you can’t see it.

Number three. Storms depend on your rain gear. If you think the storm will be soft and neglect to waterproof yourself, it will rain harder than you ever thought possible. If you think the storm will be rough and do waterproof yourself, the clouds will clear and the sun will come out. This is just how it is.

The CDT mapping crew is rapidly hiking our way to our goal of completing the state of Colorado, we warmed up in New Mexico, covering more than two hundred miles through the Gila National Forest and El Malpies National Monument, some of the highlights were stumbling into a forest fire (seriously the trail ran right into it, immediately to one side was a burning forest, on the other side the forest was untouched), and walking over Ah-Ah lava (Ah-Ah is both the technical term for the rock and the actual sound you make walking over this jagged, shattered volcanic debris). From New Mexico we embarked on a backpacking trip through the South San Juans, where I decided to fight a mountain and snow field, promptly lost when they cheap-shoted my knee, and had to seek medical assistance (thanks for the ride Kevin). Skipping the Weminuche Wilderness we (by we I mean Danica and Jerry as my knee was out of commission) walked into and out of the collegiate peaks area, and made our way up to Rocky Mountain National Park and into Wyoming, leaving a 200 mile section in the middle of the state for the end. I had to sit our about three weeks of hiking, I suffered from hiking envy and Danica suffered from jeep envy. Luckily we both got over our respective envies when I was cleared to hike again.

The Colorado Rockies are some of the most breathtaking (literally, climbing a mountain sucks the wind out of you in a hurry) and savage country in the continental US. And the Continental Divide Trail is some of the gnarliest trail in the US; it is still in a very primitive trail which sets the stage for rugged adventures and a true test of self and will. This job has been a challenge for each of us and by rising to that challenge we have experienced some amazing country.

Number Four: A wet tent plus freezing nights means your sleeping bag will be frozen to your tent in the morning. You only live once. So smile and deal with it. Unless you believe in reincarnation then you live a bunch of times. But this does not mean you do not need to smile and deal with it.

Chris Hawes

Southwest Conservation Corps CDT Mapping Crew

Jerry furiously nesting a feature as an August snow storm hurtles toward us.

A female moose dining on some aquatic vegetation just south of Rocky Mountain National Park