Hi. I am Ada Shaw.

I don’t think I’ve really introduced myself yet on this platform, but I would like this page (and all visitors) to have a clear idea of who I am and why I am here.

 

Hi. I am Ada Shaw. Thru-hiker. Writer. 

 

This summer, I am hiking the Colorado Trail (CT) with a super dope friend named Mary I met last summer working in Yellowstone National Park. On weekends, Mary and I would often find ourselves attempting the biggest mountains around for the pure accomplishment of it and we had a good time together hiking around the park and surrounding areas. This summer, though, Mary and I are attempting something a lot bigger than just one mountain:

 

We’re hiking 487 miles from Denver to Durango. 

 

And I am committed to writing about it, which is why I am here. 

 

I feel like I should confess that – shockingly – this isn’t going to be my longest hike ever. When I was 18, two days after high school graduation my mom and I flew to Spain and hiked El Camino de Santiago, a 500 mile pilgrimage made famous by the movie The Way, as well as 1,000 years of catholicism. That trail gave me the long-distance bug, and about three quarters of the way through that hike, I promised myself I’d hike “at least one big backpacking trip per year”. Two years later and here I am: on another ~500 mile trek. 

 

This one’s a bit different, though. 

 

The trek in Spain was a religious pathway, a spiritual journey. For 1,000 years pilgrims have taken that route, and the infrastructure showed this antiquity: there was always a cafe to eat lunch and a bed to rest in at night. The Colorado Trail, from all that I’ve read, is not like that. It’s pretty much straight wilderness. The 500 miles of the CT look a lot different than El Camino, with an average elevation of 10,000 feet, snowy mountains, and honestly, a lot more logistics that need to be thought out. 

I’m excited for the adventure. 

I’ve spent the last few weeks training, thinking, planning, and packing for the trail. In a few days I am flying out to Denver for about 6 days of acclimating. 

 

Then I’m off! 

 

Right now I’m feeling pretty frickin’ nervous, overwhelmed, excited, fortunate, and stoked. I can’t wait to see what this hike brings.

 

I’m here – on The Trek – to share my experience with whoever and whomever cares to read about it. So how am I going to pull this off from the trail, you ask? 

Well, I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and here’s what I’ve come up with: I’m going to try to write in a journal every single day, as much as I can remember. However, I am going to commit to writing every single time we stop into a town for resupply/ laundry/ etc. That means I will be writing blog posts every 3-6 days. Or something like that. 

 

Except I have a bit of bad news. Although I will be writing blogs, I’m not going to start posting them until after the trail is over. I’ve chosen this for logistic/ safety/ ease of life reasons. It just makes sense. I’m going out to the trail and I intend to enjoy it! Not everyday you get a chance like this! So I will be writing my blog posts out there, but I simply can’t bring myself to try to figure out and frustrate myself over posting them from spotty service towns and during my laundry time. This trek is going to be hard on it’s own, I don’t need to make it harder!

 

I promise, though – come August – the blog posts will start rolling in regularly as I go through my journal and post each section’s thoughts and memories and rambles. I promise it’ll be good, and you should stick around for that. 

 

I don’t think I’ll be completely MIA from the trail, though. I’ll make sure to keep you all a little updated, somehow. I’ll keep that a surprise though. Until then, I hope you’ve got the gist of what this is, and who I am, and if it doesn’t feel like you’ve quite got it, no worries. I’ll be back soon!

 

So basically, let’s review. Who am I? A Colorado Trail thru-hiker, a writer, and a girl really dedicated to her 500 mile hikes.

P.S. 9 days till I start the trail!! (whaaaaat?!?)