T-3 weeks and counting. Anyone who's been following what's going on on the Continental Divide Trail and Colorado this year knows that it's been a crazy snow-pack year. Not only a big snow year, but a lot of late snow, coupled with a very cool spring. Parts of the San Juan's are still in pretty much winter mountaineering conditions.
Our original plan had been to do the Colorado Trail starting in mid August, including both the Colorado West and Colorado East full Collegiate loop. I'm ready for a break from Ohio and Glide is theoretically retiring from her job this week. Time will tell how many daily phone calls she gets from her former employer to deal with day to day issues. But with that said, we've decided to take a quickie trip to Colorado to get away from Ohio and be a bit of a retirement vacation for Glide. (Isn't retirement permanent vacation?)
So we've decided that while we're out there, we'll do the Collegiate East segment of the Colorado Trail. This will give us a good 70 mile / four or five day shakedown cruise to try out our new ULA packs and the new quilt that hopefully (better!) will be done for that trip. This also gives us an opportunity figure out what else needs to be adjusted in our gear before we come back to complete the CT and August.
With less than two weeks before we hit the road. I'm shifting into panic mode with what seems like a million things to do before we leave. We purchased a food dehydrator food dehydrator last weekend at Cabela's (on sale, $50 off!) and are starting to dry some fruits and veggies for the trip.
And our MYOG, two person quilt is still not done. And it's a critical item before we leave. But it will get done as well all the other critical items. And those things that don't get done well, they'll just have to wait.
The good news is the snow is melting fast, especially on the northern sections near Twin Lakes where I was worried about deep and steep snow crossings. But now it looks like the snow will be melted down to manageable levels and we should be able to complete this section without ice axes or snow tracks.
We're both excited. And this should be a fun shakedown cruise for us.
Showing posts with label Life on the Trail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life on the Trail. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Monday, May 20, 2019
Friday, January 25, 2019
Calling Cards
I spent my formative years with a "real" professional job doing computer "stuff". For all those years, I always carried business cards. And I collected a huge pile of them. They have proven to be very helpful through the years to remember people and products.
Now that I am a recovering computer professional no longer tied to the computer and phone all day, why would I still need a business card? Well, this in not my first hike. And you cross paths (trails) with all sorts of people in the wilderness. And it turns out that exchanging information happens out there too.
So why scramble around to find a pen and scrap of paper to jot down a phone number, email or blog address when you can just hand someone a card with everything already printed (and legible too--my printing sucks)
So Glide & I have a shared business card to pass out. Yea, we will still scramble to find the pen and paper to get YOUR information, but at least half the process is automated. Ahhh, efficiency on the trail...save those valuable minutes so I can get to my Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream quicker :-)
It is a custom design I did in Adobe Photoshop. I think they are pretty cool.
Since we are doing the Colorado Trail, the card has a CT theme. We "borrowed" the Colorado Trail Foundation logo (Please support them) for the front.
And the back has all the links and details. The QR-Code is a VCard so you can scan it with your phone (with a QR app) and save the contact information
They were printed by GotPrint on 2.5" x 2.5" card stock with rounded corners. I wanted them to be small than typical business cards and the rounded corners make then unique and less prone to dog-eared corners after 500 miles in your pack.Now that I am a recovering computer professional no longer tied to the computer and phone all day, why would I still need a business card? Well, this in not my first hike. And you cross paths (trails) with all sorts of people in the wilderness. And it turns out that exchanging information happens out there too.
So why scramble around to find a pen and scrap of paper to jot down a phone number, email or blog address when you can just hand someone a card with everything already printed (and legible too--my printing sucks)
So Glide & I have a shared business card to pass out. Yea, we will still scramble to find the pen and paper to get YOUR information, but at least half the process is automated. Ahhh, efficiency on the trail...save those valuable minutes so I can get to my Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream quicker :-)
It is a custom design I did in Adobe Photoshop. I think they are pretty cool.
Since we are doing the Colorado Trail, the card has a CT theme. We "borrowed" the Colorado Trail Foundation logo (Please support them) for the front.
And the back has all the links and details. The QR-Code is a VCard so you can scan it with your phone (with a QR app) and save the contact information
I hope to see you on the trail so you can get your copy!
Monday, January 1, 2018
About Pilot & Glide
Hi, This is Todd "Pilot" Herzog with Mary "Glide" Speer.
We are a retired Sexagenarian couple preparing for our first long distance hike. We both hail from Ohio but relocated to Salida CO in 2019.
Pilot did a four year stint at the University of Denver in the 1970's. I've been a hiker all my life, starting as a young child, on what, at the time, seemed like forced marches with my father. Ultimately this morphed into a lifelong passion for hiking.
Glide on the other hand, has led a more typical Midwestern city life with relatively limited outdoor exposure for most of her life. She picked up the hiking bug after we met in 2015.
Pilot is no stranger to the outdoors. I started hiking and camping as a young child with my family. But later as I got into my early teens, I did extended multi week, canoe trips in Minnesota and Canada. In my late teens, I spent six weeks in the Wind River range in Wyoming.
While while attending college in Colorado, I continued my outdoor pursuits and began climbing all of the 14'ers in Colorado. The 14'er endeavor was spread out over 10 plus years. Many of them were climbed in what could be considered winter conditions, as I was attending school out there and would climb them in the fall and some of them through the winter and into the spring. However, number we're done in early summer conditions, which still can have significant snow challenges.
So in the end, I'm hardly a novice at this and are more than adequately prepared for at least the hiking technical challenges that the Colorado trail is coming to throw at us.
What Glide lacks and experience she makes up for enthusiasm for this hike. She will shoulder any pack that's given to her and will tirelessly soldier on through even the longest days without a complaint.
Pilot spent his professional years doing computer and IT work. Glide on the other hand, worked as an officer manager and CFO for a mid size sheet metal and HVAC contracting company.
One would think that given our computer backgrounds, we would be gun-ho for all the high tech wizardry to navigate our way through the Colorado trail. But truth be told, I'd like to get rid of all of that. And stick to map and compass skills for our navigation. That being said, I am certain will reach a point in place where we'll reach for the GPS and try to navigate us out of whatever miss direction we've taken.
In the end, our goal for this hike are simple:
We are a retired Sexagenarian couple preparing for our first long distance hike. We both hail from Ohio but relocated to Salida CO in 2019.
Pilot did a four year stint at the University of Denver in the 1970's. I've been a hiker all my life, starting as a young child, on what, at the time, seemed like forced marches with my father. Ultimately this morphed into a lifelong passion for hiking.
Glide on the other hand, has led a more typical Midwestern city life with relatively limited outdoor exposure for most of her life. She picked up the hiking bug after we met in 2015.
Pilot is no stranger to the outdoors. I started hiking and camping as a young child with my family. But later as I got into my early teens, I did extended multi week, canoe trips in Minnesota and Canada. In my late teens, I spent six weeks in the Wind River range in Wyoming.
While while attending college in Colorado, I continued my outdoor pursuits and began climbing all of the 14'ers in Colorado. The 14'er endeavor was spread out over 10 plus years. Many of them were climbed in what could be considered winter conditions, as I was attending school out there and would climb them in the fall and some of them through the winter and into the spring. However, number we're done in early summer conditions, which still can have significant snow challenges.
So in the end, I'm hardly a novice at this and are more than adequately prepared for at least the hiking technical challenges that the Colorado trail is coming to throw at us.
What Glide lacks and experience she makes up for enthusiasm for this hike. She will shoulder any pack that's given to her and will tirelessly soldier on through even the longest days without a complaint.
Pilot spent his professional years doing computer and IT work. Glide on the other hand, worked as an officer manager and CFO for a mid size sheet metal and HVAC contracting company.
One would think that given our computer backgrounds, we would be gun-ho for all the high tech wizardry to navigate our way through the Colorado trail. But truth be told, I'd like to get rid of all of that. And stick to map and compass skills for our navigation. That being said, I am certain will reach a point in place where we'll reach for the GPS and try to navigate us out of whatever miss direction we've taken.
In the end, our goal for this hike are simple:
- Have fun,
- Be safe,
- Enjoy the trip.
- And lastly, Complete the Trail.
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