Dad told me during our 2nd meetup that he had been trying to figure out some way we could hike together for one of his 2 or 3-day segments between meetups. At that moment, I was not so receptive to the idea because I was still trying to balance all the responsibilities as his “support team”: grocery shopping, cooking during meetups (and feeding myself the rest of the time), seeking out various bits of gear, exploring and hiking on my own, and getting to our pre-arranged meetup locations—on-time. All of which I thoroughly enjoyed, but I had yet to really establish a rhythm or catch my breath. That, and the terrain through which the CDT wove between South Pass and Rawlins was, frankly, pretty underwhelming.
When Dad departed South Pass (hiking southbound on the CDT), I didn’t have much of a plan for what to do with myself before we met up in 3 days. I knew I’d need to get some groceries and gas, and that the nearest station was in Lander. After that, I decided I’d aim for a campground in the nearby national forest. When I discovered upon arrival that the campground was adjacent to a trailhead, I opted to stay a second night. On my “day off” in between, I hiked up to the first of the Stough Creek Lakes at an elevation of 10,500 feet, about 14 miles round trip. Much to my surprise, on the second night, Dad’s inReach location put him only 9 miles away from our 1st meetup. Given his 25 minute-per-mile pace and early starts (he usually gets going around 5am) that put his arrival at 8:45 the following morning! The problem was that I was at least 2 hours away, and was hoping to stop at a grocery store en route. So I also had an early start. I wasn’t sure whether he’d be in the mood for breakfast, as opposed to the cheeseburgers I’d previously promised, so I picked up the ingredients for both. After reaching our appointed lat/long at 8am, I hiked up a nearby hill that gave me a view of the CDT receding into the distance. Just like clockwork, Dad materialized out of the chaparral at 8:35am and we walked together down the trail to the Jeep. He wanted a shower, but in my haste to arrive on time, I hadn’t filled it. So we pilfered water from a nearby livestock reservoir, and he was able to clean himself up. Though his “hiker hunger” had not yet kicked in, I managed to feed him both breakfast sandwiches for lunch and cheeseburgers for dinner.
We drove a few minutes up the road to get cell signal
We bought a Jeep. When I tell people this, I forget that I have to clarify. A Jeep Wrangler. The One True Jeep. We call her « La Jeep ». She was born in 2006 and traveled 93,000 miles to find us. She’s the last year of the TJ generation. Sport trim with a 6-speed manual transmission, midnight blue paint, and 30″ tires. We got her to go off-road.
I’m getting evicted from another feedreader. Maybe this is a sign.
It was less than two years ago that I finally, begrudgingly made the switch to Google Reader after Ask.com shut down Bloglines (which I’d been using for an incredible five years). That time the alternative was clear. This time…this time I really don’t know what I’m going to do.
Several months ago, when we were booking our flights for the holidays, it seemed to make sense to skip our annual pilgrimage to Austin in order to see my family at a cousin’s wedding in St. Louis between Christmas and New Year’s. But when Stephanie learned last week that she could work from home before and after Christmas, it didn’t seem right to stick in San Francisco while my family was at home in Austin. I’m all for feeding that first-born spirit of making my own traditions, but frankly, the holidays are best spent with family (a chance I only get once or twice a year). So we decided that if we could afford to change our flights, we would. And we did.
Unfortunately mother nature didn’t quite get the memo, so on Sunday, our newly booked flight to Austin was canceled due to weather just after we got through airport security. To make a long story short, we got to Austin after midnight, an arduous 5 hours later than planned, but all that matters is—we got to Austin. Which meant we were able to spend a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family.
