Gearing Up

Just over a month until I leave good ol' Colorado and head down to the Mexican border!

Somehow, with every big trip, I find it is absolutely "necessary" to purchase some new gear. Functional, lightweight, and good looking!

Camp Nanotech Ice Axe.

This bad boy pictured up above has one job and one job only. In the event that I slip on an exposed snow covered ridge, the pointy end gets slammed into the ground and (hopefully) stops me from plummeting into the unknown.

---

As you can see, chrome red is my new color. Black pack - red gear.

Why?

It's the Ferrari Theory. If I look fast, I'll be fast. I've been researching this little gem for years now, and let me tell ya, it is sure is true.

Anyways! More on gear soon (as in, I may actually have all of my stuff together sometime soon, and I'll let you know what I'll be carrying as soon as I know what I'll be carrying)!

Also! Maybe some info as to what the "plan" really is.

Black Diamond Trail Ergo Cork Trekking Poles.

These poles are tried and true work horses. Having accompanied me on both the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail, plus a few trail crews and other outings, without any mechanical failures they are an absolute go-to set of poles! *

View fullsize

.... speaking of "functional, lightweight, and good looking"....

* Final Note: While my original Black Diamond Ergo Cork Trail poles served me well, they do (like all inanimate objects)  suffer from their own Achilles heel. It turns out pill bugs (Latin name: Armadillidiidae), also known as wood louse or rolly pollys, love eating salt. The experienced outdoorsman may overlook this fact and simply ponder the curious coating of pill bugs on his/her trekking pole grips. Let it be said, they are slowly, but surely devouring your poles. You've been warned.

One Step Leads To Another (Part 3)

To view Part 2, click here.

I may not be bright, but I sure aint dumb.

View fullsize

Sorry, I don't have a single photo of Vail. This is the Sierra Nevadas instead.

Not wanting to make the same mistake again, stuck in a rut in good ol’ Jersey, I flew to Portland, Oregon. New Jersey hadn't worked out thus far, and at the (nearly inevitable) risk of financial losses I decided it was time for a change. The plan was, I would stay with my extended hiker family in Portland while trying to dig up some work and a place of my own to call home. Mega huge thanks to Smiles (and her entire household!), Beef Nuggets, and the all the lovely trash at the Hiker Haus (Panorama, Zana, Morrissey, Clutch, Kristo, and everyone else who made room for me on the couch).

I spent about three weeks in Portland dishing out resumes to just about every single restaurant and coffee shop in the city. As a hiker, this was great. I was putting in miles and got to know just about every inch of the city. As a job seeker, things did not go as smoothly. Portland is a city with a lot of young people looking for work and the few restaurants I did come into that were looking for help were getting upwards of fifty resumes daily. My search for housing was equally difficult; I needed low rent, a short-term or month-to-month lease, and not having a car I wanted to be close to the action.

I began to look into bailout options. I couldn't remain in Portland without a source of income and a place to call my own. Then one day, while searching craigslist in a last-ditch effort to pull things together, I saw that Veggie (AT 2010, PCT 2012) happened to be online. I recalled that she used to work in Vail, Colorado selling t-shirts. Very suddenly, the ball was once again rolling. Veggie contacted her old employer and put in a couple of words on my behalf. I then gave him a call and sent him a resume. His response, "sounds good, Dan. We can get you started and moved in as soon as you get out here."

I booked a flight to Denver that night and arranged to spend a few days in Boulder, CO with my good friend Mouse (AT 2010, CT yo-yo 2011, PCT 2012). Following that short visit he dropped me off here in Vail, Colorado where I have been living and working since.

I've got a stress free job and a great place to live with only a ten-minute walk or a short bus ride to the gondola. I spend my days off and many mornings enjoying the mountain as I train for the 2018 Olympic Games (I've got four whole years, it's in the bag).

Life has been good out here in Colorado.

Best of all, the job also allows me to leave for half a year. In fact, it's encouraged, leaving me free to hike all summer. Job and home will be waiting patiently right here for me to return. It may not be glamorous, but I live my day-to-day life doing what other people spend thousands of dollars to do for a single week.

You sure won’t hear me complaining.

It took a little while to get things sorted out. And arguably, I could probably be doing "better", or "more". I don't care, though. I'm content -- for the time being. I like where I live and I like the lifestyle that living here allows me. One step always leads to another.

It’s hard to say where I, or anyone else for that matter, will end up next.

And oh yeah, I’ll be hiking the Continental Divide Trail this year.

One Step Leads To Another (Part 2)

To view Part 1 of One Step Leads To Another, click here.

I returned to New Jersey once more. Again, unemployed and without enough income for a place of my own, I ran into an opportunity to work with a religious based service group on a week long trip to West Virginia. Their program is an excellent mix of service to those in need and an educational component dealing with environmental justice. Admittedly, the program's religious base did not align with my own, but their physical project and educational objectives seemed worthwhile, coupled with their need for additional adult assistance, I was driven to sign on for a week. This was, in many ways, a desperate attempt to have a positive teaching experience after such a difficult one in Texas.

And it was.

My week volunteering with the project was exactly what I needed. A worthy work project, physical labor, dedicated, self motivated, and interested students, a well organized and coordinated program, and of course, excellent leadership from all involved throughout the week.

I may have made an impact in West Virginia, through my physical labors and also through the students I worked with. But, West Virginia undoubtedly left a positive impact on me. I was once again re-invigorated.

The week ended and I returned to New Jersey, once more unemployed, but this time full of positive thoughts. Low and behold, it was only a few days before I received an email and promptly thereafter a phone call concerning a trails project in Nevada. Without other employment options and with the promise of two months of life outside in Nevada I took the job, and within days I was headed to Reno. I was no longer crew leader, but member. This afforded a less stressful opportunity to do some good work and focus on my own learning objectives with a group of fellow crew leaders, all having just finished up their own summers leading throughout the country.

And it was good.

View fullsize

It was good, that is, until something bizarre happened. The U.S. government shut down. As an American citizen of twenty-four years I had assumed that government shut downs were the business of third world countries and places of similar turmoil and unrest. I never questioned that one day we'd have a functioning government, the type who pays  those it has employed, -- the next day we would not. I was wrong. (This, might I add, was in no way the fault of the organization I was working with. We were contracted through the Bureau of Land Management and when they ceased operations we were forced to do the same.)

View fullsize

There I was, once again, unemployed, homeless, and this time in the middle-of-nowhere Nevada desert. We spent nearly a week just kicking our heels out in the desert with the hopes that maybe tomorrow, the next day, or the day after that, the government would resume operation and we therefore could do the same. This did not happen. In fact, the government would remain in this state for over half a month.

With light pockets, having earned only half the pay we had expected, we gathered our gear, packed it in, went back to Reno, and booked flights back "home".