Pre-Game – The Walk

Because?

Most people my age are dead, sick, or devoted to others. It is impossible to recruit someone who is willing, able or willing to assume a perpendicular position, carry weight, be gone for months, get dirty, sleep outdoors.

Then I go alone. It’s just something I’ve done for seven decades. I always find “my people” when I do what I love anyway and I have always been an outsider and outsider by the social standards of the time.

I secretly learned to read a compass, map, and simple outdoor skills decades ago. Girls, at the time, were prohibited from camping, were not allowed to compete in “real” sporting events in America, and were dismissed by society as weird and likely to never marry. Sellers only make for men.

No wonder the sixties were violent.

Education and awakening

Due to my miserable class rank, I was allowed to attend the University of Colorado. Boulder, home to CU’s main campus, was a hot spot for social disruption and repair. It was cheap then too. So I went.

I advised taking «girls» classes.

She is expected to become a nurse or teacher. The idea of ​​getting a “real” degree was so difficult that I gave up the fight and became a biology teacher.

Work experience

My first teaching assignment was as a “floater” traveling from room to room, teaching science and Spanish to high school students in rural Texas. Due to burnout, I finally taught a class and the years flew by.

I raised two children, several dogs, and a patient husband. My dogs died, the children grew up, they left home; My husband died, so did the dog, and suddenly I was alone. It’s time to reinvent yourself!

What is the choice? either it becomes negative or it takes on a new life.

I researched Long Trails, light gear, went to the gym, went to a real estate attorney, got a hiking breed dog and off I went, doing everything I could in many states and countries.

I still do it.

The summer of 2025, I read a book called Santa Fe Trail to Taos, New Mexico by Pam Neely.

Neely has worked for decades to have a decent hiking trail in New Mexico, USA.

I have a summer place near Durango, Colorado. After realizing the simplicity of portable watercolors and learning about Bob Ross, the SF2T tour was novel, convenient, doable, and a great place to paint.

It sounded good: remote, new; wild.

I am a retired public secondary school teacher. Forty years of teaching were enough. I was analog in a digital society. It was time to leave, but now I needed a new identity: Long Distance Hiker sounded good to me. Why not? I am ready, willing, able.

Hikes through Durango

I started with my load butterflies backpack, hiking poles, portable watercolors, compass and trail maps in southwest Colorado, during the summer of 2025.

Texas Winter Training

Summer ended in Colorado around Labor Day, then I traveled back to the Texas suburbs, where my winter home was located.

If I were to do the “new” trail in New Mexico, summer of 2026, I would be fine.

«Good». I joked with the mute Bob Ross stuffed animal. “What do you think of state parks?”

I went for a walk nearby with Bob, carrying a heavier backpack, sleeping outside, trying out the new stove and freeze-dried meals.

Taking gear in my car to state parks allowed me to focus on my skills without worrying about transportation.

As I walked, I mentally planned everything I would need: food, water, cooking utensils, tent; Emergency things.

If you were to do the SF2T tour you would probably have to carry more as there are currently no routine resupplies.

This website contains affiliate links, which means The Trek may receive a percentage of any products or services you purchase using the links in the articles or advertisements. The buyer pays the same price they would otherwise pay, and their purchase helps support The Trek’s ongoing goal of bringing you quality backpacking information and advice. Thank you for your support!

For more information, visit the About page of this site.