Hiking the CDT; Whose idea was this?!!?

After hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT) three years ago, Turtle Trax (https://thetrek.co/author/stephen-calkins/) and I decided it would be a good idea to hike the Continental Divide Trail (CDT). I’m not entirely sure how we came to that decision.

I started the AT back in the 21st, but I went home after a month for personal reasons. On the 23rd, I made another attempt. Before the Smokies, I met Turtle Trax (TT) and we have hiked together ever since. Almost until the end. But fate had different plans for both of them. TT sprained his ankle literally 50 meters from the road that serves as the exit for the whites. He went off the road for a couple of weeks and I continued without him. The plan was for him to be gone for a couple of weeks and then move on without going through the targets. He did just that and we joined together again and kept walking. Then fate turned towards me.

Wild Coyote (another tram member) and I started the morning like anyone else. He had a deadline to reach the Katahdin summit, I didn’t. In the middle of the morning he speeds up his pace. Since he’s a faster hiker, that’s fine with me. I follow behind him at my own pace. There is a very simple rock (pictured below) that is 1.8 miles from Otter Pond Rd and 1.4 miles from the Kennebec River. This rock is known to me and my family as Heart Attack Rock. Yes, you can guess where this is going from the name.

There is a small stream that you cross. The “bridge” is just one of those cut down trees and it looks as slippery as snail snot!! I decide to just cross, since it’s just above my knee depth and not moving very fast. As you cross it, the path goes uphill. The AT always goes uphill; Why must it always be uphill?!!? I’m tired so I take 5 minutes. I have a mile and a half to the ferry and an hour to do it. This section is not difficult at all, especially after having already walked 2046 miles and the Whites. Turns out the trail doesn’t go straight up the hill. It curves and rises gradually. Hurrah.

At the top, I’m tired again and it’s only been 5 minutes since my last break. What the devil? So I continue until I find a nice rock to sit on. Now I’m sitting and I don’t feel well. What double hell? I sit there for 15 minutes. A couple of SoBo hikers pass by and ask how I’m doing. I manage at this point and greet you. I wouldn’t see any other hikers. More and more time passes and I don’t feel better. If anything, I feel worse. My chest hurts, but not like the TV symptoms of a heart attack. It feels like a pulled muscle, but I know it’s not a rib. I have a cell phone signal and I call my girlfriend. I talk to her for another 10 minutes or so. She convinces me to call 911. Since I’ve never had this feeling before and it doesn’t go away like any other hiking pain, I do it. I still don’t know if I’m having a heart attack.

After another half hour on the phone, first with the 911 operator who has no idea what I’m talking about when I say Otter Pond Rd, AT and Kennebec River, and then again with a forestry technician. The Kennebec ferry guy shows up to check on me and carry my backpack since he’s also the local SAR. We start walking back to Otter Pond Rd. Once I get moving I start to feel better. I’m not setting any land speed records but I’m getting along just fine. There is a helicopter above burning fuel. I tell the ferry guy he can call the pilot and tell me I don’t need him anymore. He does NOT do it.

Before reaching the road, Holler from Hope & Holler (more agile) comes running. Wild Coyote and I had decided to walk ahead of the rest of the tram the previous afternoon. Holler has heard that a hiker is having a heart attack and will be flown out. “Hey, he shouts, turns out that hiker is me” and that’s what happened. I got into a very cramped forestry helicopter with 3 forestry technicians. They dropped me off in an ambulance from Skowhegan, ME. They had their own adventure getting to me. If you have the choice between 911 and a GPS SOS, use SOS! Anyway, the ambulance lady hooks me up to her portable EKG machine and informs me that I am indeed having a heart attack. Well SHIT!! That wasn’t in the plans and will likely ruin my hike.

Immortalized Heart Attack Rock

Spend the night at Skowhegan Hospital on blood thinners and then take a Life Flight to Bangor where my care will continue. The next morning they inserted two periods. I didn’t sleep much that night, kind of like the nurses checking on the patients all night. The monitor to see where the period was going was turned so the doctor could see it but I couldn’t. The nerve!! Then I went to sleep. I slept until noon. I woke up and was ready for lunch. Believe me when I say that hospitals have NO idea what hiker hunger is. After lunch I tell the nurse at the front desk that I have to move. He hooks me up to some telemetry so they can keep an eye on me and I start walking down the halls. I’m looking for a window with a view of the river below. There are none in the cardiology department. Grrrr. I’m halfway through the hospital when a nurse coming out of the elevator starts giving me dirty looks. «You don’t belong here.» I don’t know where “around here” is but I still can’t find my window. She drags me back. It turns out that the telemetry ground wire is not connected; The alarm never sounded. I could have run out the door!!!!

The heart attack occurred on September 21. Katahdin closes October 15. I have 156 miles left to go. I’m looking at my phone, doing the math in my head. The nurse notices and after my attempt to escape earlier, I wasn’t released from the hospital until I came up with an exit plan that included having someone come get me. A couple of days later… Enter the stage Left: My girlfriend. At this point I’m already climbing the walls. I have to get out of there. I was told I needed to let the periods have time to grow inside the artery walls so they wouldn’t move. More grrrr. Ok, well, I’m going to go home but I want to make it clear that I don’t like this new plan. While I was at the hospital, I called Turtle Trax to see where I was. He had been looking for me that day but ended up down a side road or a detour. He was also straying from the path. He sprained the same ankle AGAIN.

On September 1, 2024 I returned to Otter Pond Rd and Heart Attack Rock. Turtle Trax was also on the trail. He was going to do the Whites while I was at Shaw’s, where he got off. I arrived at Shaw’s in 7 days. The time trial faced other hikers and did not finish off the whites. He jumped up to me and we left Shaw’s the next day. Shortly after leaving the tree line on the Hunt Trail heading up Katahdin, there is a rock you need to climb. It is about 6 feet tall and smooth. There is an eyebolt on the rock that has been beaten almost flat and is of little help. On that rock, with tears in his eyes, TT turned. Until that moment, I knew I could reverse and go down safely. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to do that if he got over this rock. I knew I could get through it after turning my brain off from the heights and possible fall. We didn’t know if something worse would come or not. I really wanted TT to summit with me, but I couldn’t turn back. According to fate, that is the worst place in the entire AT. Even the Whites’ Wildcats weren’t that bad, although it’s close. I could have made it instead of going back. It just goes to show the importance of good local information.

On Thanksgiving the 25th, TT invites me and my girlfriend to his timeshare in Orlando. Since we live 45 minutes to an hour away, we accept it. At night, mention the walk along the CDT. «Do you want to go?» I had just started a new job in August. “No, I don’t want to go, when do we leave?”

And here we are, we won’t start for a couple of weeks (June 9-10, 2026), but we are reviewing our equipment. Deciding what to take, what to leave, what to upgrade, and what new equipment to buy. Will we see you there? If not, you can follow me on my YouTube channel at Side miles (https://www.youtube.com/@SideMiles)

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