[Cdt-l] Planning, Transportation to the Southern Terminus, Snow Travel in the San Juans

[Scott Polewach]

Thanks to everyone that helped out by answering my earlier questions. I have a few more, in light of the good information I received earlier.

1.  I was told by one hiker that the actual miles hiked seemed to be far more than the miles listed by either Wolf or Ley.  Did any others have this experience?

2.  I know that I can fly to El Paso, TX and then take a greyhound to Deming, NM.  What is the best way to get from Deming to Columbus, hitching?

3.  Since I have to be off by the end of august/beginning of September (exact date is not yet set), I'm thinking of pushing the San Juans early.  I know that I enjoy hiking all day, and the result is that I hike a lot of miles, but I don't want to be forced to go faster than I want to, and I don't want to miss the Canadian border because of a minor injury that wrecks a tight timetable.  I'm really not interested in the creede cutoff, unless hiking the San Juans in the conditions I see are seriously hazardous to my health.

       a  What is the earliest I could enter the San Juans with crampons/ice axe?  I don't mean earliest easy/earliest reasonable, I mean the earliest with a relative amount of saftey.

       b.  What is the earliest  I could enter the San Juans with a pair of light snowshoes, such as the Atlas Race?  I would also have an ice axe.  For    
        this question, I am looking for a more 'reasonable' date, since I'm sure that the earliest 'possible' date with snowshoes would be very early.


4.   I currently plan to do the Columbus, San Juan, Red Desert, Mack's Inn, Anaconda, and Waterton routes.   I choose the routes based on the following preferences (in order) 1.  scenery, 2. resupply access (I like to be able to grab my maildrop and get out of town, unless it's really cold and rainy), 3. length (with shorter being preferred, unless both routes are very scenic/memorable, then i would choose the longer route).  

      a.  Are there any beautiful mountain ranges/great hikes that I will miss by taking those routes?
    
     b.  Given my preferences as listed above, would you recommend/choose a different route?  


5.  I am in process of planning out my maildrops.  Are there any sections that are particularly hard, or particularly easy? 




Thanks for everyone's help,


Hermes





     






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