<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div class="" style="">I 'm guessing the campground was Lagunitas. I don't remember a private ranch per say but it is surrounded by the Tierra Amarilla on the west. That's what keeps us off the divide leaving north of Chama. Chama and Banded Pks. Those first two defining mountains in the south san juan.</div><div class="" style=""><br class="" style=""></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">I'm in the same boat in regards to being a "lowly section hiker." And also wondering about an ideal start date ID/MT. Heading north. </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue',
Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class=""><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">It's one thing when one plans a thru and finds themselves demoted to a section hiker Vs. a conscious choice of only hiking sections.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">There's something less fulfilling about it, if your not fulfilling your intentions.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; "
class=""><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">That's where I'm at from this 2014 season hike. A measly 2000 miles and I feel like a failure. Completely short handed. I know that's my own problem. I'll confess, even worse I opted for the Big sky variant and regretted every moment of it leading to the point of bailing out in Big Sky MT. A complete mental collapse around it. Not to mention funding. Somebody should take this out as an option. And save it for the yo yo's to whom it was created for. It is completely more directionally sound however, but way off the divide theme.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;
" class=""><br class="" style=""></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">Now I'm stuck with 550 miles from there or going back to southern yellowstone and finishing the official some 900-1000 mi.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">Even if I would have finished the variant I wouldn't have felt like I hiked the CDT. Not meeting the demand of the divide.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class=""><br class="" style=""></div><div style="color:
rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">Most will say it doesn't matter what routes you take on the cdt but I would ask are you hiking the CDT? Can you hack the Weminuche or climb the highest on the divide. Or hike the basin in the hottest time of the season. Short cutting, flipping blah blah. I think once you start doing this, one tends to loose their "thru" hiking status. And is transposed to a chunker. I know this topic will get heated and the debate will go on and on and peoples' feelings will get hurt. And everybody will get defensive. </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class=""><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size:
16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">Thru the seasons and thru the land, over the trail, to the border we go!<br class="" style=""></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class=""><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">(Disclaimer): these are my feelings and interpretations.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">And really none of
it matters. I'm just glad to see and meet everyone out there. It was a great class of 2014.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">I'm just trying to come out of my shell with all this.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class=""><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">The CDT is an epic awesome passage. I'm so <b>enthralled</b> that it exists for us..........</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,
'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class=""><br class="" style=""></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class=""> We do what we can and make the most of it.<br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">And the irony is, in reality hiking sections probably would be the most enjoyable. Bravo to the section hikers that "embrace" this.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; "
class=""><br class="" style=""></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">Anyone with PTS (post trail syndrome) out there?</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class=""><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class="">VD</div></div></body></html>