[cdt-l] Sending a letter I tried to send two weeks ago

Thu Jul 13 11:29:28 CDT 2006

Hi everyone

  Heres a letter I tried to send from salida two weeks ago but was unsuccefull.  Looks like your site is up again. So Im resending it from durango.

  The questions about trailfest are probebly no longer relevent but im still trying to find out how I reach montana from here.  Havent decided if Im going to hike the 150 or so miles of the southern san juans from silvertone to cumbers pass, and hitch north from there to montana, or just buy a used bike here in durango and bike north to montana, leaving the southern san juan for another year.

  Anyway here is the old letter:

  Hey evryone

Roni (from Israel) here.

First - a warning - this guest entry will be long, boring and will include lots of questions and endless rambling. 

The reason for its length is that right now (Monday?) I'm stuck here on the C.D.T. in a cabin that miraculously materialized from nowhere in the middle of one of the worst hail storms I've ever been in.  

As I still have more than 10 miles to Monarch Pass, several of them above tree line, I decided that the best bet for me if I want to remain warm, dry and alive is stay here on the surprisingly comfortable couch in the cabin until the weather improves (or until I run out of food - whichever happens first).

I've been sitting here on the couch for 6 hours now, and after reading the 4 week old Newsweek someone kindly left here from cover to cover, after staring for half an hour at the sawdust that has been dripping regularly from the upper beam of the cabin (I think there's a bug that's burrowing into it), and realizing that pursuing the burrowing bug would involve leaving the comfy couch, I finally decided to  do something more positive and write this post on my PocketMail which I hope to send tomorrow from Salida.

As I mentioned, this post will be long and boring and will include many questions.  Hopefully, some of you will take the time to read this long post and answer as many questions as possible for me.

  PLEASE ANSWER ME DIRECTLY AT roni_h at pocketmail.com (and not only on this list) as I don't know if and when I'll next have internet access (I can get e-mail from any payphone).  Thanks

O.K., here it goes:
I'm currently hiking the Colorado trail south, though I veered west yesterday to the C.D.T. as I found this last section of the C.T. unbearably annoying.

Yesterday, I passed through Princeton Hot Springs and by pure chance noticed in a local newspaper that the C.D.T. trail fest is supposed to happen in Buena Vista on July 15th. 
To tell the truth, I didn't actually know that such an event even existed.  I can only imagine that you have discussed the event on this list, but as I have been completely out of internet access I would ask you to repeat that info for me.

1) What exactly is this event? (I'm hoping it's unlike Trail Days in Damascus which, as I just discovered, consists mainly of drunks vomiting on themselves and of gear salesman trying to make as much money as possible).  

2) Is there any chance anyone I know might be there?

3) Would it, in your opinion, be worth changing my time schedule, and perhaps even shortening my hike, to attend it?

I had originally planned to hike south on the C.T. not to Durango (the official terminus of the C. T.) but rather hike on, along the C.D.T. in the San Juans all the way to Cumbress Pass, thus hiking the section of the C.D.T. I had to go around when I thruhiked it in 04'.  This reminds me of question number 4.

  4) How many miles is it from the road to Creede to Wolf Pass on the C.D.T. and are there any good resupply points in between? 

The sawdust rain is driving me crazy - I'm off to get the bug that's responsible for it.

O.K. I'm back.  There was some kind of buggy head sticking out of the hole in the top beam, where the sawdust cascade originated and I think I heard a crunch when I pushed a pen into that hole.  This definitely still isn't a bug or sawdust free cabin, but its dry, its warm and it has this great couch that by now has my butt marks entrenched on it - so I'm happy.

Back to my boring questions and here are the most critical ones for me regarding transportation. Transportation is a real problematic issue for me, as I don't have a car (or a driver's license).  After my traumatic Greyhound trip from Virginia to Denver a few weeks ago I swore I would never take Greyhound again unless I really, really have to.  I'm pretty certain that what the Greyhound people do to their victims -- sorry, passengers, is not allowed by the Geneva Convention. Regardless, the Greyhound routes are now few and bizarre. For example the bus from Durango to Denver will go via Albuquerque and will take about 30 hours (assuming it's on time)  so that means that if I decide to go to trail fest I'll have to get a ride or hitch there, which brings me to the next question:

5)Is anyone going to trail fest who could give me a ride on the way from Cumbress Pass/Antonito , Pagosa Springs or any other town in the San Juan area? I will be more than happy to share the gas money with whoever gives me a ride.

 From what I've seen on the map, if I can reach Cumbress Pass by the 14th and hitch to Antonito.  I will probably be on the route of anyone going to Buena Vista from N.M.    the problem is that reaching Cumbress by the 14th would mean I'd have to average 20 miles a day, even in bad weather like today, and I'm not sure I can or even want to do so.  Another option is to get a ride from somewhere like Pagosa Springs or even Durango and cut my hike a little short, and hike the southern San Juans another year.

  So if you can offer me a ride from somewhere in southern Colorado please write me.   Just don't change your plans because of me, 'cause even if you do offer me a ride from somewhere, I won't be able to commit myself to taking it - how far and fast I hike depends on factors I don't have control over, like the weather

Here's my almost next to last question:
>From the C.D./C.D.T.. I plan to go north and hike the Pacific Northwest Trail, which stretches from where the C.D.T. ends in Montana to the Pacific Ocean.  So after Colorado I'm looking to reach northern Montana or alternatively Seattle.  My decision on which direction I'll walk the P.N.T. depends on whether transportation to Seattle or Montana will be easier - which brings me to question number seven.

7) Is anyone leaving trail fest north to northern  Montana or Seattle area and could give me a ride? Again, I'll be more than happy to share the gas money.

And finally, if I end up not going to trail fest, here's  my last question which probably has been posted before by thruhikers flip-flopping from Colorado to Montana.

  8) Would it be feasible to hitch-hike in a reasonable time from Cumbress Pass all the way to northern Montana without getting stuck somewhere in Wyoming and dying from dehydration?  I know I could probably fly from Denver to Missoula or Great Falls but I'm too cheap, sorry, "economically conscious" to pay the $300 for a ticket from Denver to Missoula.

O.k. it's now 8 p.m. and it's already getting dark here.  Time to put up my hammock in the cabin.

So if anyone has any ideas about transportation, or just wants to join me for the P.N.T. my e-mail is roni_h at pocketmail.com

Don't let the bed bugs bite.

Roni   www.trailjournals.com/roni

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