May 12 Mileage 30 173 miles from Mexico I sleep ok, I guess. I've been waking up at four a.m. for some reason, and then sort of tossing and turning. Adjusting. I am still adjusting to the trail. On the walk out of town to the trail I stop in at the store and buy … Continue reading CDT day 8: down to the magical Gila

May 11 Mileage: zero I never meant to zero this early in the trail. Some of us are havin some foot pain and we're not tryin to get injured in the first week (it's a long trail, as they say) and so we're taking a day off. I mean I guess I could hike out … Continue reading CDT day 7: zero in Silver City

May 10 Mileage 28.5 143 miles from Mexico It's cold- I sleep curled in a tiny ball in my sleeping bag and when I wake at dawn Spark announces that it's thirty degrees. I slept amazing tho and by god, am I ready to hike. Which we do. We're up high still, walking on real … Continue reading CDT day 6: beautiful pine forest yay / roadwalk FTW

May 9 Mileage 27.5 112.5 miles from Mexico I wake in the dark motel room, not too cold, not too hot. I slept good. The heady orange light of dawn is just beginning to work its way around the edges of the blackout curtains and soon my friends are awake too, sitting up in their … Continue reading CDT day 5: and then the orcs got us

May 8 Mileage 10 85 miles from Mexico Dead-bird water for my morning oatmeal. Walkin ten miles over the bright open desert to Lordsburg, flat windblown little town with the nicest people you'll ever meet. We eat burgers and I take a wonderful shower. Do laundry. Run errands. Pay bills on my phone. Lay in … Continue reading CDT day 4: Lordsburgers

Mileage: 25 75 miles from Mexico I sleep good and wake up feeling like my real hiker self- ready to walk all over this convoluted earth. Today is going to be great. The boys slept good too and we hike fast across the big open desert, dropping lower and the plants growing sparser until we're … Continue reading CDT day 3: pyramid mountain and the big flat thing

May 6 Mileage 25 50 miles from Mexico The full moon rises heavy and yellow and bathes everything in silvery light. The birds go crazy, like it's morning. I don't know how I'll sleep, but then I do. In the morning I feel like shit. It's a hangover- a desert hiking first-week-back-on-the-trail hangover. Oh well, … Continue reading CDT day 2: hangover

May 5 Mileage 25 25 miles from Mexico There is a sleep deprived flight, Tuscon full of heat lightning, reunited with my nice dude-friends Spark, Track Meat and Mehap, all grown slightly older and wiser and I guess I have too. We walk delerious through sunday-night Tuscon, which is full of drunk hipsters, until we … Continue reading CDT day one: I feel/about/because

Waiting for my flight. Everything got done, nothing went awry that couldn't, eventually, be fixed. All the signed books have been shipped! Woo-hoo! They're en route via media mail, which takes 5 to 9 business days. International orders take longer. If your book hasn't arrived after two weeks please email me- carrotquinn4@gmail.com. I've been thinkin … Continue reading Sleep deprived at the airport

Now that my book is published, I've finally started getting ready for the CDT, which is awesome. Organizing and assembling 2,800 miles' worth of resupply boxes feels like a peaceful vacation after the process of publishing a book. If you ever want a stressful thing to feel more relaxing, just do an even more stressful … Continue reading Gear updates for the CDT and other fun things