Trail Logs for September 1 through September 30, 2001

September 1  10:00 PM.  Near Deep Gulch in the Sierra Madre Mountains, WY. Yesterday I hiked the 28 miles into Rawlins by 3 PM and was able to get my resupply box out of the post office before Labor Day weekend.  It look me several miles of walking around town to find a motel near a laundromat, but by 5:30 I ended up at the Best Western Cotton Tree, got a good long shower, washed clothes and ordered a pizza.  It was a good town stop and it was nice to have a few hours in the evening to enjoy, off my feet!  The long night hike the day before really paid off, so it was worth walking until 11 PM to get in 38.5 miles. This morning I was out by 7 AM but spent a half hour on my phone giving a live radio interview on KSL radio in Salt Lake City.  They asked the usual questions about mileage, how I'm feeling, what's best and hardest about my trip, and when I expect to finish.  Since I've answered all these questions many times before, I had no troubles during the interview.  I guess I'm getting used to all this!  After the interview I called home to check in.  Mom and Dad had heard most of the interview over the Internet feed.  But the biggest news was about my cousin John Robinson.  He is a very accomplished ultramarathon runner and he was one of two people to complete the Nolan's 14 race this year!  It's the first time anyone has climbed the 14 designated 14,000-foot peaks in the Collegiate Range of Colorado in the prescribed 60-hour time limit.  Way to go, John!  I guess extreme accomplishment runs in the family!  What's next, John?  The Barkley?  (For those unfamiliar, it's a 100-mile run consisting of five laps around a mostly cross-country course that has 22,000 feet of elevation change per lap!  Since the race director instituted a reverse-lap requirement, no one has completed it in the allowed time.  Only Mark Williams has completed it when all the laps were run in the same direction.) Another pleasant surprise is that Peter Bakwin and Buzz Burrell are interested in walking with me for a couple days in Colorado.  These are the guys who hold the speed record on the Colorado Trail and the John Muir Trail.  I followed their adventures closely in 2000 when they ran the JMT in just over four days.  That's over 50 miles per day!  It would be an honor and a pleasure to walk with you two!  But guys, I carry a sleeping bag and I sleep in it at night.  You might want to try that.  ;-) Today was a long walk on dirt roads heading uphill toward Medicine Bow National Forest.  I misread the notes on my maps and thought the first part was 22 miles.  After 11 hours I still hadn't finished it and was wondering why I was so slow.  Then I saw a road sign that said I had come 34 miles!  What a relief.  I just hope I added up the section miles correctly when I put the food plan and schedule together!  I hiked about 38 miles today.

September 2  8:45 PM.  Near Red Mountain, Sierra Madre Mountains, Huston Park Wilderness, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY.  There was no moon at sunset this evening to extend the day as has been possible the last few days.  The trail here is a series of wooden posts, so sight is critical.  Therefore, it's an early camp tonight.  That's okay because I'm a little burned out from the long days and long miles recently.  I will appreciate a little extra sleep tonight.  Bow hunting season started on the 1st.  It's also Labor Day weekend and I'm seeing many people on the trail.  There were at least eight bow hunters and dozens of ATV riders.  The poor elk and deer are so scared it's sad.  I saw one doe and two elk today and all ran off so fast you would have thought I was the angel of death!  I treat the hunters with courtesy and respect, but around the animals I feel like apologizing for being human. September 3  9:00 PM.  North Fork Elk River, Routte National Forest, Colorado. Colorado at last!  An awesome state and the last one on the CDT for me.  33 miles today, and I met three more southbound CDT hikers!  John and Mario I met just before the Colorado border.  They hiked New Mexico early in the year as I did.  Jonathon Ley is hiking with me until Steamboat Springs.  It's nice to have company for a change. September 4  8:45 PM.  Five miles south of Buffalo Pass, Routte National Forest, CO. Jonathan Ley hiked with me all day today.  He's fast but stops more often than I do.  We pushed each other to a 37-mile day!  The lightning over Lost Ranger Peak and Mt. Ethel also pushed us along quickly.  But it was a good, mostly dry day and the trail got almost to 12,000 feet!  The Mt. Zirkel Wilderness was quite beautiful.  Just as I expected Colorado would be.  The aspens are already starting to turn yellow.  This should be a spectacular time to see Colorado.  I'm really looking forward to 600 miles of this!

September 5  10:45 PM.  Indian Creek, Arapaho National Forest, CO. 28 miles today and a resupply stop in Steamboat Springs.  Jonathon Ley hiked with me in the morning but stayed in Steamboat Springs tonight.  Along the way we met Sunshine and Seahawk, two more southbound CDT hikers.  They are from Santa Cruz, CA and are also staying in Steamboat Springs tonight.  That makes seven southbounders I've met so far and two others I passed but did not meet.  Jonathon now believes there are about 16 southbounders this year.  That's more than I expected!  I'm about in the middle of the pack now. Steamboat Springs is a big town and a fairly tough hitchhike.  It took me six hours to get into town, resupply and get back out.  On the way out, I was thumbing a ride in the rain.  There were some huge thunderclouds this afternoon. It's mostly clear now (about 11 PM) and the moon has risen, so the coyotes are howling up and down the valley I'm in.  Cool. While in town today I found out that Hewlett-Packard bought out Compaq, the company I used to work for!  It's all the more strange because in '97, when I took a leave of absence to hike the PCT, the company I was working for, Tandem Computers, was taken over by Compaq.  This year I left for an even bigger hike and an even bigger takeover happens!  I'm betting the folks back at the office are hoping I don't do too much more of this!  ;-)  Another irony is that when I graduated from U.C. Berkeley in '83, the company I most wanted to work for was HP.  If I'd stayed with Tandem/Compaq for one more year, I'd have gotten my wish! September 6  7:45 PM.  Road 735 near Parkview Mountain, Routt National Forest. CO.  I decided to camp a little early today because it was cold and raining.  I needed a good campsite to set up my tarp and stay reasonably dry.  Last night I had to set up the tarp at 3 AM as a big thundercloud was raining on me.  So I got a little wet and had to spend time drying out in the sun this morning.  As luck would have it though, the rain stopped just as I got the tarp up tonight, so it looks like I'd have done better to hike late.  Oh well.  At least it looks like this rain will not last into tomorrow, as I feared.  There are too many cross-country and ridge-walk sections coming up, that rain would make much more difficult.  Today I bypassed the summit of Parkview Mountain due to lightning concerns.  It's been really booming all afternoon.  The alternate will add a couple miles so I walked 30 actual miles, but only about 29 trail miles.

September 7  8:00 PM.  Grand Lake, CO. 34 miles today in brisk weather.  The rain yesterday turned into a dusting of snow by morning.  The temperature hovered around freezing all day, as the only snow to melt was that in the occasional sun.  The highlight today was the Never Summer Wilderness, which lived up to its name.  Besides being cold and snowy, it is spectacularly beautiful.  The trail goes over 12,388-foot Cascade Mountain with views across the wilderness and into Rocky Mountain National Park, a corner of which I also crossed today.  Because of the cold, there were no thunderstorms either, so the ridge walk was not disrupted by worries of lightning.  Wonderful.  I also saw a moose near the wilderness and a herd of elk in the National Park.  It was also a thrill to cross the tiny Colorado River, which has its source in this area.                         September 9  9:30 AM.  Buzz Burrell's home, Boulder, CO. Yesterday was quite an adventure.  It started raining as I was eating my pizza in Grand Lake on the evening of the 7th.  It didn't stop.  I looked for a reasonably priced motel in town, but the cheap ones were $60 and up, and no vacancy.  I still expected the rain to stop at any time, so I found a covered porch and camped there.  It rained all night and there were a couple inches of snow on the ground by morning.  I packed up at first light so as not to upset any locals with my choice of campsite, and walked to the post office in the snow.  A call home confirmed that the forecast was for clearing skies, but scattered snow flurries. Buzz Burrell, Peter Bakwin and Stephanie met me at the post office about 7:45 PM.  They had decided to day hike with me rather than camp because of the snow.  They left a car 10 miles down the road from the Devil's Thumb trailhead, a 28-mile hike from Grand Lake.  It should have been a reasonable hike given that they are all accomplished ultramarathon runners, but the weather was going to get worse, not better, through the day.  We had a great time hiking together and talking about my trip, ultra running and such.  The only people we saw on the trail were the volunteers at the border to Indian Peaks Wilderness.  They said everyone was leaving, not entering as we were.  Snow showers continued through the day and each one was hopefully "the last one."  By 5:30 PM we were getting a little tired slogging through snow that was now 8" deep and having some trouble finding the trail.  With just two more hours of daylight we still had five miles to go to the trailhead.  The situation was not dire, but we were all aware that we didn't have much margin for error left.  I had the only sleeping bag and it was going to be such a cold, wet night that I had already decided to leave the trail rather than camp.  Buzz ran ahead to leave footprints in the snow that the rest of us could follow, even in the dark.  But at 7:50 PM, just as it was getting too dark to follow the blazes, we all got to the trailhead!  Whew!

But still, it was 10 miles down the road to the car.  Buzz, who had been waiting at the trailhead for 20 minutes, was shivering and we were all none too warm.  Fortunately, about ¼ mile down the road I spotted a truck in a campsite.  There were no lights, but I went over there anyway.  I found a couple guys camped there and they drove us to our car!  Wonderful!  We all survived and had a good time overall.  It had been a dangerous situation, but we were all in good enough shape to get out of it, thankfully.  Today I'm taking a zero!  Gasp!  I.e., I'm not hiking at all today.  The trail ahead goes up on a 12,000-foot ridge and that's just not a good idea today.  A weather station near Boulder reports 20 degrees and 35 mile per hour wind at 11,000 feet this morning.  Brrr!  I'm choosing to let the sun melt some of that snow and warm things up a bit before I head back out there.  As I've said before in similar situations, I'm firmly committed to big miles every day, but I'm not stupid.  This is not the day to be pushing the limits.  September 10  4:45 AM.  Peter and Stephanie's home, Boulder, CO. It's an early start to the day, but it's a 2-hour drive to the trailhead.  Stephanie was kind enough to get up this early and get me there.  I had a wonderful stay here in Boulder.  It's a beautiful town full of people interested in the outdoors, although I'm sure it seems more that way because I met friends and family of Buzz and Peter.  Buzz's son Galen ran the Imogene Pass Run, a tough 18-mile trail run at high altitude, and came in first in his age group and 8th overall!  Wow.  There were about 1,000 runners in the field.  Stephanie has run many ultras, including a 2nd-place finish at the Leadville 100 in 1999!  I also met David when Peter, Stephanie and Buzz took me out to dinner last night.  Buzz and David talked about rock climbing in the local area.  Just walking around town, I can see some awesome rocks to climb.

September 10  9:45 PM.  Near Berthoud Pass, Arapaho National Forest. CO. I got back on the trail today, but for a while this morning I wasn't sure it was a good idea.  The snow was about a foot deep heading up to the divide.  On top, the snow was less deep but the wind was blowing 40-50 mph.  It was COLD!  But the wind died down throughout the day and now is just a light breeze. I hiked the high point of the CDT today, 13,391-foot Parry Peak.  The views are excellent, but I've lost my camera!  Hopefully it's at either Buzz's home or Peter and Stephanie's.  I also lost my sunscreen, knife and lip balm.  All were in my right front pocket and must have fallen out somewhere.  The snow, wind, tough cross-country trail and big elevation changes limited me to 25 miles today, but at least I'm still making progress.  For a while today I had doubts about making it through all this snow and cold.  It sure reminds me of the AT last winter!  September 11  7:45 PM.  Ptarmigan Trail junction, South Fork Williams Fork, Arapaho National Forest, CO.  These Colorado Rockies are sure tough hiking!  25 miles again today, and I'm bushed.  The snow is not much of a factor anymore; it's the trail itself.  It follows the divide and goes from peak to peak.  In many places there's no trail, or the trail is under snow and I follow the divide cross-country.  Some places are so steep I feel more like a climber than a thruhiker.  But the views are superb and this is the kind of trail I really enjoy hiking!  It's certainly nice that there have been no thunderstorms recently.  Being on a ridge top at 12-13,000 feet would be quite dangerous if there was any lightning, and there are miles and miles of that kind of terrain here.  I love it!

September 12  8:30 PM.  Near North Tenmile Creek, Eagles Nest Wilderness, CO. Today I heard the bad news about the terrorist hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon buildings.  It happened yesterday morning, but I didn't hear until I got into Silverton today for resupply.  I knew something was wrong when I saw all the flags at half-mast, and when I got to a newsstand I couldn't miss the headlines.  What an outrage!  At this time there's speculation that Arab extremists are the culprits.  I can think of nothing more insanely twisted than violence in the name of God.  I can see backlash already, but I hope most people can differentiate between Arab terrorists and Arab Americans.  There's already too much misplaced hatred in this world.  24 miles today, much of it in shock.  The cares of the world intrude, even out here. September 13  9:00 PM.  West Tennessee Creek, 2 ½ miles past Tennessee Pass, San Isabel National Forest, CO.  It's amazing what some well-graded trail will do.  32 ½ miles today, even though the days are getting short.  I'm now on the Colorado Trail, which has so far been a well-marked and well-maintained trail.  It almost doesn't seem like the CDT!  I find I'm still watching the map closely in case the trail markings are wrong or non-existent, but so far the Colorado Trail has been a real joy. It rained quite a bit this afternoon, but it was reasonably warm and I was not on any ridges when the lightning was booming.              September 14  9:00 PM.  Near Twin Lakes, CO. 30 miles today, but I'll have to wait until morning to get my resupply box.  Buzz and Peter will be here again, so they can drive me into "town."  I went by Mt. Massive and Mt. Elbert, the highest point in Colorado today.  But there was too much lightning to consider climbing either one.  I don't really have the time anyway.  The seasons are changing fast right now.  The days are only slightly longer than 12 hours now and the aspens are starting to drop their leaves.  There's no more snow in the forecast, but "the end" could come at any time.  It might not come until October, but I don't want to chance that.  It would really be a shame to get stopped by deep snow just before I get through Colorado.  I don't even want to think about the possibility.  This is why I've been grinding out high mileage days all summer  so I'll have a cushion before winter sets in.  I sure hope it works out that way.

September 15  8:30 PM.  Silver Creek, Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, near Mt. Yale, CO. It was a good day today.  Good company, good weather, good miles.  Buzz and Peter joined me just as I was breaking camp.  We hiked 2 or 3 miles down the road to where Buzz had the car waiting.  Then we drove into Twin Lakes just in time for the post office to open.  I got my resupply box and packed, and we headed out on the Colorado Trail.  It was a wonderful mental rest for me.  We all knew the CT and the CDT follow the same route through here, and Buzz and Peter know the route well.  I didn't even get out my maps.  We took the newly designated CT route around Hope Pass.  It saves several miles and a big climb.  We kept up a good pace as I struggled to keep up at times.  When Peter and Buzz got to their end point, we had done 33 miles!  I got out my maps to see where we were and found out Jim Wolf recommends the Gunnison Spur of the Colorado Trail, not the CT proper!  We'd been following a route near Mts. Harvard, Columbia and Yale, but they are a little east of the divide.  I'd even swear there were some CDT signs today, but it's definitely true that we were off the official CDT route as well.  Perhaps the CDT vision of a corridor of several trails is being realized here.  Anyway, I can reconnect with the Wolf route up ahead without much difficulty, so no harm done.  And this route is quite scenic, so I'm not missing anything.  I hiked a bit after Buzz and Peter left, so it's a 35-mile day. Peter and Buzz talked about an attempt to beat my PCT speed record.  They believe a fully supported attempt could take quite a few days off my 84-day, six-hour mark.  I would certainly like to help them as part of their crew and also as consultant on gear and logistics.  It would be a nice variation to see the PCT from all the little road crossings after all the hiking I've done there.  We're all going to check our schedules and see if we can get this done next year.  September 16  8:30 PM.  On the Colorado Trail, on the slopes of Shavano and Tabeguache Peaks, Isabel National Forest, CO. It was the best of days.  It was the worst of days.  This tale of two trails began with a climb to 12,000 feet.  A quick break and I was off, eating my granola.  40 minutes later and 1,500 feet down the hill, I realized I'd left my trekking poles at the top!  Duh!  So I wasted an hour and a half and four miles retrieving them.  Other than that fiasco, this was a wonderful day.  A little rain, but not too bad and LOTS of colorful aspens.  This really is the time of year to hike the Colorado Trail.  I still haven't reconnected with my planned route, so I don't know how far I went today, but it was probably only about 25, given my backtrack.  But I can't imagine that the other route is any more beautiful than the golden aspen-filled route I took today.  Wow! I'm now at the end of a seemingly endless string of 14,000-foot peaks, the same ones that my cousin John Robinson climbed in the Nolan's 14 race earlier this year.  Now that I've seen some of these great peaks and the great gulfs between them, I'm even more impressed that he climbed 14 of these in 60 hours!  Wow.  It has taken me three days just to walk alongside them!  Congratulations again, John!

September 17  8:20 PM.  South Fooses Creek, Colorado Trail, San Isabel National Forest, CO. I don't know how many miles I did today, but it's in the 20's.  Resupply was tough today.  I expected to find my box in the Monarch Lodge near Garfield, Colorado.  The lodge is closed until November 15th but I walked in anyway.  They used to have a post office nook but don't anymore.  The boxes come there but someone complained about not being able to pick one up there, so the post office people moved all the boxes to Salida, Colorado, 12 miles down highway 50!  It took me an hour and a half to get a ride there, but they had my supplies.  Overall, it was a 4-½ hour stop plus the one-hour road walk to the lodge because I figured on walking up highway 50 to meet the Wolf route.  But when I was hitching back I could see huge storm clouds over the divide and the locals said it looked like it was snowing up there, so I chose to continue on the official Colorado Trail route that simply crosses highway 50.  After walking in the rain until dark, I'm now just a mile from the divide and at 11,500 feet.  I have not seen any sign of snow, even higher up, but some may fall tonight or tomorrow as the forecast is for showers.  The beauty of the aspens continues to astound me, particularly when they are sunlit and silhouetted against a clear blue sky.  Wow! September 18  8:00 PM.  Cochetopa Hills near Spanish Divide, Gunnison National Forest, CO. This was a much nicer day than I thought it was going to be.  The forecast was for showers.  The last time that was the forecast, it snowed over a foot in the next two days.  This morning dawned cloudy and wet.  Above 12,000 feet, there was fog and some snow from yesterday.  But it cleared up by noon and was only partly cloudy!  I didn't feel great today, but the nice weather and trail added up to a 36-mile day!  Not bad for 13 daylight hours.  The land changed dramatically today.  It's much drier now.  Volcanic rocks replace granite, and the east now drains into the Rio Grande instead of the Arkansas and Mississippi.  The change was so sudden that I'm not carrying enough water to get me through the night comfortably.  I have enough to cook or drink, but not both.  I'm cooking.  I felt a little weak today and it may be because I'm not eating enough.  The colder temperatures are burning more calories again.

September 19  8:20 PM.  Cochetopa Creek near Eddiesville Trailhead, La Garita Wilderness, Gunnison National Forest, CO. 33 miles today in beautiful fall conditions.  The aspens continue to thrill me.  Such color! This morning a couple hunters I met said they had heard about my trek on Paul Harvey's radio program!  Wow!  I had no idea that was going to happen.  I met a northbound section hiker from the Netherlands today.  His name is Mark.  Earlier in the day he met two other southbound thruhikers, Kevin and Sharon.  They are undoubtedly the people whose footprints I've been seeing for the last couple days.  Hopefully I'll meet them in the next few days. September 20  7:00 PM.  The Motherlode Restaurant of Lake City, CO. There's nothing like some good restaurant food after a long day hiking.  My appetite has been increasing with the cooler days and today is no exception.  Today was the start of the long-awaited San Juan Mountains!  I'm finally here in the last high mountain range of the CDT, right when I hoped I would be!  It's still summer, barely, although at this altitude, fall would be a better description of the conditions.  Much of today's hike was above 12,000 feet.  The views are awesome and many of the surrounding mountains are still clothed in golden aspen groves.  Astounding!  I also saw a big herd of elk today and several groups of deer.  This is a "special permit" hunting zone, so there are very few hunters and lots of game.  It's a nice change from the areas where all the animals are so scarce and on edge that I barely see them. I passed up a popular CDT shortcut today known as the "Creede Cutoff."  I would have taken it if it had been later in the season, but I've been working hard all summer to get here early enough to enjoy ALL the San Juan Mountains.  They are certainly worth visiting.  I was tempted to climb 14,014-foot San Luis Peak, but I DO have a schedule to keep!  I'd sure feel stupid if winter caught me because I spent too much time peak-bagging.  Colorado is living up to all my high expectations as an awesome place to hike!

September 21  8:00 PM.  Pole Creek, Rio Grande National Forest, CO. It took awhile to get out of Lake City this morning, but I got a good breakfast before the post office opened and got back to the trail by 10:30 AM.  23 miles today.  I got a new pair of shoes in my resupply this time.  It's my 7th pair this year and my first since Waterton, almost 1,800 miles ago.  These Montrail Vitesse are sure durable.  The trail continues to be high and scenic.  I'm camped at 11,850 feet, and the high point today was 13,334-foot Corey Peak.  This is a truly spectacular area and any CDT hikers who took the Creede Cutoff and missed this part should make a point to come back and see what they missed. Earlier this evening I saw a flock of five Bighorn Sheep in the canyon of Lost Trail Creek.  They are the first I've seen since I saw one in Glacier National Park.  Exciting!  September 22  8:30 PM.  Near Ute Lake, Weminuche Wilderness, CO. I met three people today.  Early this morning I finally caught up with Kevin and Sharon, two CDT southbounders I've been tracking for several days.  They are doing a CDT trek with very few shortcuts so they're seeing all there is to see out here.  They pack very light and do good mileage each day but are not paranoid about mileage.  They stop for lunch or to admire the view, and will spend time in town when it suits them.  All in all, they have an excellent attitude and I enjoyed meeting them.  This was also the day that Albuquerque ultra runner Andrea Feucht came to visit me.  We met at Stony Pass a little later than planned, but there was still plenty of daylight left for her to hike with me half a day and then run back to her Jeep at the pass.  She fed Kevin, Sharon and me some goodies as well, including some awesome caramel brownies.  And since she is a board member of the Hardrock 100-mile race that is run in this area each July, I learned a lot about the course and its difficulties.  It certainly sounds like a serious challenge! Last night was very cold and tonight is shaping up to be about the same.  When I got up at 5:50 this morning, the temperature was 18 degrees!  That's by far the coldest night I've seen in many months.  28 miles today.

September 23  9:00 PM.  Cherokee Lake, Weminuche Wilderness, CO. 29 miles today in milder conditions.  It was 23 degrees this morning, but I don't expect it will be that cold tonight.  It was nice enough, in fact, to night-hike for an hour or so.  I went over an area called the knife-edge by moonlight.  That certainly added something to the experience.  It continues to be very high here.  Much of the day I was over 12,000 feet and I'm camped at about 11,200 feet tonight. September 24  9:00 PM.  One mile south of Spotted Lake, Weminuche Wilderness, CO. 27 miles today in the continuously awesome San Juan's.  These mountains stretch out for as far as I can see in all directions and the trail is often right on the ridge top at 12,000 feet.  This is an amazing place to hike.  I also met another CDT southbounder today.  His name is Drew, trail name Semper Fi.  I didn't expect to see another thruhiker, but it turns out I passed him a couple weeks ago when we had all that snow, and he got ahead of me today by taking the Creede Cutoff.  He was camped when I almost went by without seeing him, but he heard me and yelled hello.  So I ended my day a little early and camped here too.  We'll hike to Wolf Creek Pass in the morning and hitch into Pagosa Springs together.  I've said it before, but it's still true.  It's nice to have someone to talk to.

September 25  9:20 PM.  Silver Pass, San Juan National Forest, CO. It was a short hiking day with a long stop to resupply in Pagosa Springs, so I hiked just 16 miles today.  There was road construction going on along the road to Pagosa Springs, so cars were coming by in caravans every 20 minutes or so.  It took 1.5 hours to get a ride and another hour to get to town.  My box was in the post office, but my maps were not, so I bought one at the local outfitter that Drew had visited when he did the New Mexico sections in June.  Then we had lunch and an ice cream cone and I headed back to the trail.  By the time I got back and on the trail it was 5:15 PM, an 8-hour town stop.  Ouch!  Anyway, it's the last one on the CDT and the trail is in great shape so far, so I'm making good time again.  Drew stayed in town for the night and hopes to rejoin Kevin & Sharon when they arrive.

September 26  8:00 PM.  Near Blue Lake, South San Juan Wilderness, CO. I hiked 32 miles today, leaving just 25 to finish the CDT tomorrow!  I was hiking this morning by 6 AM, an hour before sunrise, but in the high country I need more hours than the day is long to get 30-plus miles.  I saw one of the biggest bull elk of the year today.  It ran off with its cows too quickly for me to count antler points, but it made the other elk look like juveniles.  Hearing elk bugle has become such a common occurrence that I hardly notice anymore.  What a place!  I also saw a coyote for the first time in several months. September 28  9:45 AM.  Greyhound Bus Station, Albuquerque, New Mexico. I'm done with the CDT!  I finished at 5:20 PM last night and Allen Stibora was there at Cumbres Pass to pick me up.  Wonderful!  Although it was in two chunks, the CDT took me a total of 88 days to complete.  23 days in New Mexico in April and 65 days since July 24th for the Canada to Cumbres sections.  Since there are so many choices of route on the CDT, it makes little sense to talk of a speed record.  After all, it's possible that no two people on the CDT have ever gone exactly the same route.  But my 88-day time is certainly one of the quickest CDT times ever.  So now I've completed the PCT-CDT double.  That has never been done and I'm proud to have accomplished it.  But my joy is only partial since my goal has always been the Calendar Triple Crown, and for that I have 575 miles in New England yet to go.  I'm about to embark on a bus ride that will get me to Bennington, Vermont in just over two days.  Good thing I can sleep on the bus!

September 29  9:00 PM.  Chicago Greyhound Station. I'm almost 36 hours into my bus trip to Bennington, Vermont.  I've been sleeping fine, but I always forget how arduous a trip like this can be.  Give me a 35-mile day any time over this!  I've already lost my checked bag (my backpack!)  It went on the bus I got on in Albuquerque and was not there when I went to claim it in St. Louis.  Either someone took it or someone moved it to a different bus at one of the intermediate stops.  Either way I'm probably in trouble and am planning on having to replace all the gear before I restart the AT.  I called my Dad and, as usual, he's a large part of my recovery strategy.  He's shipping a bunch of backup gear to Bennington by Express Mail and I'll shop locally for the rest.  One way or another, I'm going to get through this.  Thanks, Dad for always being there when I need you!  I certainly would not be this far without your support all year.  September 30  9:30 PM.  Bennington Motel, Bennington, Vermont. I survived the bus ride.  57-1/2 hours of sitting has made my tail bone the sorest part of my body for a change.  It will sure be nice to get out on the trail again.  The bus station here was closed when I arrived so there's no telling if my pack is here or not.  I'll find out in the morning.