Post-Walk Stuff CDT/Colorado

This summer I plan to walk the Colorado portion of the Continental Divide Trail (CDT). That means I’ll be walking across Colorado- from the southern border of New Mexico to the Northern border of Wyoming. I may also be hitting up all the wonderful breweries on the way.
The full extent of CDT runs through the U.S. Mexican border to the Canadian border over a vast 3,000+ miles.
I however, will only be walking the Colorado portion.

I plan to only walk the Colorado portion for several reasons:

• Colorado is my home and it’s the best
• limited time off work
• affordability
• manageable/attainable
• doing something awesome before I turn 30
• avoiding civilized responsibilities
• change of (life) pace
• awesome scenery/inspiration
• losing weight
• eating tons of junk food while losing weight! (fuck yeah!)

The Main Reason

In which I’ll discuss my personal life a little bit…

My best friend, my love, my husband- died in 2013 from a rare form of terminal cancer. I was only 25 years old, turning 26. He was 27 years old. Losing someone to cancer, at such an early age is a devastating experience as anyone could imagine. I didn’t really know how to handle it (who does?) So, I started self-medicating with booze. I traveled, worked, went to a lot of shows and partied. I just became numb.

One day on my way to work, I was listening to a program on NPR about veterans with PTSD walking the Appalachian Trail to sort out their mind. That’s when it clicked.

I need to sort out what I’ve been through, with no distractions.

I came to this conclusion, in that moment, driving to work- I would walk across Colorado. Even though it would be amazing to walk the whole extent of CDT, this is something I need to do- this year. Given the split decision I can really only afford to walk across one state. I’m not going to let walking the whole CDT hold me back from doing something I can logistically do now.

Over my two year binge I gained a lot of weight, I hate the way I look and feel. I am not fit- nor active. I’m a tattoo artist with a sedentary lifestyle. Running sucks, if I was being chased by a killer I’d just let him do me in. Gyms are the worst place on Earth. Dieting fails with a quickness. I’m a total food-whore. I’ve never been on any multi-day hikes. I own NOTHING for a long-ass hike like this.

       -Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right?

FEARS:

• Getting lost
  – I got lost in the mountains a few years ago (more on that later)
• I could give up on the hike
• Starvation
• Dehydration
• Crazy-raper-hillbillies

IRRATIONAL FEARS:

• possibly getting abducted by aliens on the trail.
• seeing/encountering an alien/UFO(s) in the woods.

 

closing thoughts..

My plan is to scrutinize every last detail of this trip. I don’t want to go ill-prepared. Going into something like this unprepared will result in discomfort, frustration, failure, or hell- possibly death. I’m a frugal bitch. I’ll do everything as cheap as possible, without sacrificing quality. I know my limits, I constantly break what I thought were my limits. I’ve learned a lot from failure so I intend on going smaller, multi-day hikes to test-run everything.