Thursday, September 26, 2019

Whatever Route Itinerary

Whatever Route
Mexico-Canadian Rockies




Itinerary:

Note: the itinerary was always tentative. In other words I did not start out with what’s below. Below is what I edited after I hiked a section, with the dates being somewhat similar. For example, I did not minus the week off for my granny’s death.

My method was was to plan about a week or week and a half out, constantly. I shipped packages to places that I knew I would have to hit based off land boundaries, friends that I was to visit, as well as having packages pre-packaged and shipped from a helper in CO as I saw my timing and location near to a particular town.

There are some towns I did not foresee me walking through or visiting, while there are other towns completely gone from my original and vague itinerary. My concept, based off family issues and work obligations leading the priorities, I wanted to free-form a route based off being in the present, reacting to weather and forecasted weather, fulfill my curiosity of seeing places I had not seen before, adapt in a logical thru-route manner to a vast landscape in which I felt my intimate knowledge of the West would empower and help create flexibility and creativity within the route. In other words, I wanted the land and my spirit to intertwine.

Others can utilize this itinerary, although to utilize my method I would suggest further practice to gather experience and more confidence in those skills necessary to embark on the type of adventure I describe above. Although my experience was liberating and incredibly rewarding, this was no easy adventure and challenges pushed me from all around.

Estimated mileage through Gaia GPS: (~3288m)

Estimated mileage with mapping discrepancies and on the ground movement:
(~3430m, possibly as high as 3500m)

•Columbus NM-Silver City (~160m) 
*4/11-4/17

•Silver City-Alma (~80m) 
*4/18-4/20
In town

•Alma-Greer (~107m)
*4/21-4/26
In town 

•Greer-Forest Lakes (~129m)
*4/26-4/30
In town

•Forest Lakes-Flagstaff (~141m)
*5/1-5/6
In town 

BOX #1
Forest Lakes PO

•Flagstaff-South Rim (~102m) 
*5/7-5/11
In town

•South Rim-Jacob Lake (~108m)
*5/12-5/17

BOX #2 
GC South Rim PO
Grand Canyon Village

•Jacob Lake-Lee’s Ferry (~85m)
*5/18-5/21
In town 

•Lee’s Ferry-Tropic (~90m)
*5/22-5/24
In town 

•Tropic-Torrey (~110m) 
*5/25-5/29

BOX #3 
Tropic PO

•Torrey-Huntington (~155m)
*5/30-6/5

BOX #4
Torrey PO

•Huntington-Vivian Park (~120m) 
*6/5-6/9

BOX #5
Huntington PO


Break: *6/10-7/4


•Columbia Falls-Waterton (~95m) 
*7/5-7/7
In town

BOX #6 
@ Polebridge Mercantile w/GDT maps

•Waterton-Coleman (~85m)
*7/7-7/10
In town 

•Coleman-Boulton Trading Post (~125m)
*7/11-7/15
In town

Boulton Trading Post-Banff (~68m)
*7/16-7/18
In town

•Banff-Crossing Resort (~138m)
*7/19-7/23
In town 

•Crossing Resort-Jasper (~127m)
*7/24-7/28

BOX #7
The Crossing Resort

•Jasper-Mt. Robson (~83m)
*7/29-8/1
In town


Flip: *8/2-8/4


•Columbia Falls-Ovando (~175m)
*8/5-8/11
In town 

•Ovando-Whitehall (~175m)
*8/12-8/18
In town 

Whitehall-West Yellowstone (~200m)
*8/19-8/24

BOX #8 
Whitehall PO, from mom
ENV #1 w/maps to Jackson

•West Yellowstone-Jackson (~160m)
*8/25-8/31
In town 

Jackson-Montpelier (~190m)
*9/1-9/6
In town 

ENV #2
To Stephan w/maps to Vivian Park

•Montpelier-Hyrum (~95m)
*9/7-9/9
In town 

Hyrum-Vivian Park (~185m)
*9/10-9/15
In town 



 







2 comments:

  1. This is great. In 2001 I created and hiked a circumnavigation of the Colorado Plateau (the "Everett Ruess Trail") and my route through AZ and UT seems to match your AZ and UT sections for the most part as part, but it's hard to tell for sure without details. I'd be interested in seeing closer details of your route from roughly Greer, AZ to Huntington, UT. I hit much the same resupply towns you did, but without seeing details (kmz or gpx maybe?) I can't tell for sure if we chose the same routes, although I see much of the same places mentioned (Highline Trail, Mogollown, West Clear Creek, Paria, Hackberry, etc etc). Anyway, would you be willing to share the details? Happy to share my route as well, if you're interested.

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    Replies
    1. Hey there Soren. Shoot me an email at dirtmonger4@gmail.com. Let’s connect that way. Love to see what ya had.

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