CARROT QUINN

dispatches from the wild

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PCT 2013

Day 156: Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart

January 3, 2014April 19, 2015 / carrot quinn / 22 Comments

September 23 Mileage 20 Mile 2648 to mile 2668

Day 140: Salvation

December 10, 2013April 19, 2015 / carrot quinn / 2 Comments

September 7 Mileage 23 Mile 2350 to mile 2373

As-promised photos of Goat Rocks

December 4, 2013April 19, 2015 / carrot quinn / 2 Comments

These photos all taken by Ramen, not me. Thanks Ramen! And how ironic is it that my phone/camera dies on one of the most beautiful parts of the ENTIRE TRAIL?

Day 123: What even goes there

November 4, 2013April 19, 2015 / carrot quinn

August 21 Mileage 27.5 Mile 1994.6 to mile 2022 plus 1.5 miles to Big Lake Youth Camp . .

Day 111: The moving sidewalk is real

October 17, 2013April 19, 2015 / carrot quinn

August 9 Mileage 30.5 Mile 1727.5 to mile 1757.5 (plus .5 miles to camp)

Day 106: The Road

October 12, 2013April 19, 2015 / carrot quinn / 5 Comments

August 4 Mileage 22.5 Mile 1662 to mile 1684.5 . . . . .

Day 99: climbing and the infinite wisdom of yogi teabags

October 6, 2013April 19, 2015 / carrot quinn / 2 Comments

July 28 Mileage 14 Mile 1506.5 to mile 1520.5 . .

Day 91: Ass chafe and laundry-room bunkbeds

October 1, 2013April 19, 2015 / carrot quinn / 1 Comment

July 20 Mileage 19 Mile 1365 to mile 1383 plus 1 mile to water . . . . .

Day 88: Slow and humid and slow

August 7, 2013April 19, 2015 / carrot quinn / 3 Comments

July 17 Mileage 22.5 Mile 1295 to mile 1316.5 + 1 mile to water . . . .

Day 87: Oh Belden and the glory of the Braatens

August 7, 2013April 19, 2015 / carrot quinn

July 16 Mileage 15 Mile 1280 to mile 1295 . . .

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💕Home sweet home💕

A few months ago I got a rly sicc deal on a chevy express van that had been mostly built out already- it had insulation, flooring, a roof fan, a fold out bed and solar. My friend Emma helped me add lights, another solar panel and a fridge, and I ended up with this sweet ass beast of a camper that gets terrible gas mileage but has p good clearance and is hella comfy. I'd originally intended to stay in Tucson for the summer, but then it got hot and our lease was up and I had this van so... I packed up the dogs and drove north. ✨ My first misshap was just outside Phoenix, when the van decided to die on the freeway in 100 degree heat. I managed to get it off the road and into a parkinglot with shade structures, where I poured water on the dogs and their beds and we lay there sweating and waiting for the day to cool. I had a hunch it was the fuel pump, which was a problem in my last van, in which case it shld run again after a few hours. It did and we made it to Flagstaff, where I spent a few nights in a motel while the van was getting a new fuel pump, after which it ran like a dream. ✨ I cruised north to Missoula, Montana, where my friend Margaret lives in an ancient crumbling punk house with 6 other queers. We ate food and went on dog walks and I researched good public land spots where I might go live out my mountain writing retreat dreams. I found some, and herein begins my summer of working on #TheSunsetRoute while squatting on public lands, wandering in the forest amongst the lupines, napping in secret clearings, eating lots of that precooked brown rice that comes in a bag and bathing with only baby wipes. In Montana the sun sets at like 10pm and there are like, so many flowers, man. ✨ Vehicle breakdowns and occasional walmart parking lots aside, it's going to be a p cute summer.

"A few miles of rocky jeep track takes us to a ranch at the AZ/NM state line, where we know from our maps there is a good, graded dirt road, one that we imagined our friends would be able to drive in their passenger vehicle. Our friends are standing next to their subaru in the gloaming, holding a box of cinnamon sugar gluten free donuts. Billie’s dog lopes towards us, her tail spinning like a helicopter propeller. I eat a donut and hug my friends. I’m not frustrated anymore, and my exhaustion feels far away. I’m happy, so happy." ✨ We finished the #mogollonrimtrail on May 15, and all posts from the trail are now up on my blog, link in my profile. Thanks yall, for following along. And thanks to everyone who donated to the two asylum appeal fundraisers I linked to the blog posts- we met our goals for both! 🎉🎉🎉 Which is so awesome!! 😀🎉🎉🎉 ✨ I'm back in Tucson now, back at work on #TheSunsetRoute. It's hot. There are dogs. I drink a lot of iced tea. It's good. ✨

"The temperature drops as we climb, and the rain falls harder. I’m warm on the ascents but as soon as the trail levels my body cools, and I wish the trail was clearer so that we could go faster, I wish we were already at the vault toilets at the road. I visualize the vault toilets, a sheltered space out of the wind. I can’t stop to eat or drink, it’ll make me colder. I’ve got to protect at all costs the small warm room that lives in my core. I check in on Muffy- she’s cold too. I visualize us boiling water for tea in the vault toilet. Has there ever been anything better than a vault toilet." New blog posts from the #mogollonrimtrail are up, link in profile! 😀

"As we walk past the log cabins I think of how tightly we white people cling to the myth of the American west, of pioneers in wooden wagons, immigrants setting out and persevering through great hardship. Making due. “Conquering” the land. Thriving against all odds. As white Americans it is our only remembered ancestral connection to the earth, and I believe that this is one of the heartbreaking reasons we hold onto this myth so tightly. My ancestors were poor immigrants fleeing famine and violence in Ireland, but it doesn’t matter. Just because a people experiences oppression at one point doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of commiting even worse oppression onto others. Israel’s current occupation of Palestine is a good example of this. My ancestors were scabs, brought into the west in droves to help force Indigenous people off their land, as well as kill them. In order to create real cultural change, we’ve got to change the myth. We have to let go. We have to tell the true story of this country, a story that centers Indigenous people. It’s the only way that anything will change." ✨New posts from the #mogollonrimtrail up on the blog! Link in profile.✨

"I often dream that I’m lost in some huge, ancient, labrynthine, falling down house, wandering forgotten corridors and discovering secret rooms, meeting interesting people or alternately, being chased. One house in particular I’ve visited a number of times in my dreams; sometimes friends are living there, in lofts they’ve built of scrap wood or behind curtains of dumpstered velvet, in rooms with peeling wallpaper and antiques left behind from tenants a century ago. Sometimes I’m living in this house. Sometimes I come home and my friends are gone, and strangers are occupying my room, and I can’t find my things. I wander the halls and climb narrow staircases, searching. I move deeper and deeper into the heart of the house. Always there’s a feeling of mourning, of having lost something beautiful and irreplacable forever. An aching, excruciating longing. Tonight I visit this house in my dreams and the people there are strangers but there are scrapbooks left behind by my friends who once lived there, their collages are still on the walls, their knickknacks still line the windowsills. I beg the people in the house to let me look at the scrapbooks, walk through the rooms, touch the items. The people don’t know who I am. They think I’m insane. I don’t care, though." ✨ Day 23 from the #mogollonrimtrail is up on my blog- link in Profile! Muffy and I have 13 more posts just waiting to go up, the next one will go up when Francis' fundraiser reaches $3,500- it needs just $45 more! And thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has already contributed! 😀

u can also find me on my public facebook page

u can also find me on my public facebook page

Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart: the book

recent posts

Mogollon Rim Trail day 36: Fin June 2, 2019
Mogollon Rim Trail day 35: narrows June 2, 2019
Mogollon Rim Trail day 34: Blue May 31, 2019
Mogollon Rim Trail day 33: Raspberry Creek and Blue River May 30, 2019
Mogollon Rim Trail day 32: Alpine May 30, 2019

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