Due to the remoteness of the Continental Divide Trail and the relatively few people that attempt it each year (20-30), we expected to be largely separate from the other CDT hikers. This proved to be the case for the first six weeks or so, until in central Montana when we hit a whole mob of south bound hikers. All of them had really bizarre names, like Princess of Darkness, Skittles, Lovebarge, Pi, and Disco…at that point we found out about “Trail Names.”
Although we didn’t think we would, we began to bump in to some of those same south bound hikers again in New Mexico. Most memorable was one evening when it was getting on near dark, it was cold, we were in snow and up pretty high. We had set up our camp an hour earlier when we saw a woman hiking. We said to ourselves, that has got to be a CDT hiker. Who else would hike alone in the dark?. Her name was Lisa a.k.a. Lovebarge and she stopped to spend the night with us that night. We built up a fire, and enjoyed getting to know her a little. She was really interesting and had some great stories, but what fascinated me most was her being a single woman hiking the country alone. I asked her what kept her from being afraid of animals and people? She had a very good answer which has stuck with me. She said, “I think logically, like when I might imagine there is a predator near by I just tell my self, ‘There is no predator’, and even if there is it probably wont attack me.”
I thought of this quite a bit while I was on my first Solo (our solo was 24 hours alone last week), I had my journal, food, water and my shelter. We each found places on lightly treed ridge that we liked, with views out over a big grassy park, spaced privately about 100 yards apart. We had three journal assignments: 50 things that we would like to do in our lives, reflections on “I am”, and What I am thankful for today.
I have an unexplainable fear of mountain lions and being out at night by my self was a very big deal. While I was sitting by my fire with my mug of hot cider watching the full moon rise and the sunset, Lisa’s advice came back to me. Be logical. During that night, it was brilliantly helpful to me. I lasted through the night (yay!), and had a really meaningful experience. I was sad when it was time to pack up and go, but I had a great sense of accomplishment. The best part over all was just sitting, being still and looking out over the mountains and the grassy park. I felt so calm.
that’s it? Then what happened?