Welcome to our AT blog!

We are Bill and Monty Chipman aka on the PCT and the CDT as “Fixit” and “Third Monty” . We’re aiming at a thru-hike of the AT this summer of 2020.

HOW DID WE GET STARTED?

Back when I (Monty) was a teenager, my family and I were fishing near a bridge over the Tuolemne River in Yosemite, when a man came along, riding a horse and leading a pack horse. He stopped and asked my dad to take a picture of him crossing the bridge. Afterwards, we asked him where he was headed, and he said something that set off all kinds of flashing lights in my mind. He said, “Oh, I’m riding from Mexico to Canada.” Whaaaaaat? That’s when I found out about the PCT, and a dream began that someday, somehow, I would HIKE from Mexico to Canada.

Fast forward to 2000. My husband Bill and I were looking ahead to 2005, when he would retire from his job. We’d done a bit of backpacking, and said, “If we are going to hike the PCT, we’d better do it ASAP, before we get too old!” Bill was 65 and I was 57. We started reading journals, reading Ray Jardine, and getting ready. I sewed our packs (a la Ray Jardine), our clothes and our raingear.

PCT THRU-HIKE, 2005

The PCT season began with the ADZPCTKO (Annual Day Zero PCT Kick Off) event on the last weekend in April, and we were there to enjoy it, but NOT to start our hike. We could not start until May, because we had some family obligations to take care of first. We sure enjoyed the Kick Off! Two weeks later we were back, got a trail angel ride from San Diego to Campo, and we were launched. Back then we thought it was a very big deal to do 20 miles in one day, and were very proud that we were able to do that, and even more.

It was a bit tough for awhile, feet-wise. We didn’t know then, that the key to training for a long trail is CARRY WEIGHT! So we had to get through some blisters, pain, etc. Then we started getting “trail grapevine” news that the Sierras were “impassable–you risk your life going in there right now.” It had been a VERY BIG snow year, and when we met hikers who were turning back, we decided to “flip up” to Oregon, continue on to Canada, then return and do the Sierras in late summer when the snow was gone.

So that’s what we did (though we sure hit plenty of snow in Oregon!) and in October, we had completed the entire PCT. It took us 5 months. We were ridiculously thin and very tired, but other than that, felt AWESOME. “Let’s do this AGAIN!” we said.

PCT THRU-HIKE 2010

So 5 years later, much wiser than previously, we trained with weight, planned for a lot more miles per day, and got ourselves to Campo using public transportation. We hiked in to the ADZPCTKO party, had a blast, and headed for Canada! This time we were covering a minimum of 25 miles a day.

It was another BIG snow year, but we were determined to push through the Sierras anyway. Then, oh bummer, we had to do a detour (the PCT was closed to protect an endangered frog) and somewhere along that detour, we got water that had some kind of bug in it. By the time we reached Tehachapi (where the Sierras officially begin), we were both very sick. There was nothing for it but to go home for 2 weeks to recover. But we would not let that stop us, and even though we still felt a bit shaky, we were back on the trail.

Bill hikes the John Muir Trail every year, usually in June when there is still a lot of snow, and as we climbed higher and higher, he commented, “I’ve never seen this much snow before.” Yeah. Getting through the snow was tough (postholing is NOT fun!) but the worst part was getting across the rivers. There are no bridges and it was “whitewater roar.” But there are good techniques for getting across that kind of thing, and we made it every time. For myself, I must admit I did a lot of praying, “OK, Lord, it’s me again…I know You are with me, I know You will help me with this, but I need to talk to You as I get through this.” Then with every move of my foot or trek pole (you move just ONE thing at a time when getting across whitewater) I’d be saying, “OK, Lord, guide me, help me.”

We made it! Then it was on through northern California, and Oregon (we whipped through Oregon at over 30 miles per day–easy trail), dodged a forest fire, crossed the Columbia River, and 3 weeks later we were at the Canada border. It had taken us 4 1/2 months (which included 2 weeks off being sick, so actually it was 4 months).

That’s when we set our sights on the CDT! It sounded seriously scary: the trail motto is “Embrace the Brutality.”

CDT THRU -HIKE 2016

The CDT is very different from the PCT. A lot of the time, we knew, there would be no trail to follow–just a route. And it was a tough route. And it was a route with lots of options. The CDT is a sort of “Choose Your Own Adventure” trail. We had two sets of maps so that at any given point, we could decide which way to go. The “Bear Creek Survey” maps are the “official” route, but the “J-Ley” (Jonathan Ley) maps show all the alternatives, with notes as to what to expect with each option.

The CDTA provides a shuttle ride to the Mexico border and the start of the trail. It’s 25 miles of 4WD very rough road, and we had to sign a paper absolving the CDTA of any responsibility if we got caught in the crossfire between Border Patrol and illegals. There were 6 of us in the shuttle that day, near the end of April. All of us “got lost” at least once even on that first day. One of the guys got SO lost that he ended up wandering into Mexico, where he managed to sprain an ankle and had to be rescued by the Border Patrol. Bill and I “got lost” a couple of times but after some puzzling and map study, managed to figure out correctly where to go next.

And that’s how it went. The CDT is an amazing trail/route. Wow! Beautiful, dramatic, gorgeous, all of that! But we figure we lost almost 2 weeks worth of hiking time with “being lost.” There were days when we’d hike almost all day, only to discover we had it totally wrong, and had to go all the way back. Finally we said, “ENOUGH!” and bought a Garmin GPS, loaded with waypoints from the “Bear Creek” maps. After that, we were never “lost” for more than 20 minutes. It was great!

We reached our last resupply point at East Glacier (just before the “finish” in Glacier Nat’l. Park) and when we heard the weather report for a big snowstorm coming in 3 days, we decided to roadwalk the rest of the way to Canada. We could do the road walk in 3 days–the trail would take 5 days. We’d already had to bail offtrail once due to a snowstorm, and had been snowed ON several times, and did not want to be “up there” amid the high peaks of Glacier in another big snowstorm. So we made it–BARELY in time before the storm hit, and Glacier NP basically closed for the winter. Whew. It had taken us 4 1/2 months.

HIKE THE AT??

Hiking the AT was never part of our plans. While visiting our daughter who lives in western Massachusetts, we did do one dayhike just to “check it out”, by climbing Mt. Greylock on the AT trail. We were walking along, commenting on how “There are no views” and “This trail sucks, it’s all roots ‘n rocks”, when we caught up with some AT thru-hikers. We asked them, “Is the whole AT like this? Just a green tunnel, no views?” The hikers sort of shuffled a bit and finally said, “Yeah…kinda…except for in Georgia at the start, you can see because the trees don’t have leaves yet.” We told them, “Man, you guys, when you finish this trail, come out West and do the PCT! It’s big, vast views that change every day and the trail is a lot better, ’cause it’s built for horses!” And we decided, “We will NEVER bother with the AT. What a waste of time!”

But finishing the CDT, we started to think about “Triple Crown.” And finally we decided to go for it. So AT, here we come.