2025 - In Review

 

I didn't really intent do to a long-distance hike every single year; it just kind of happened. A brief accounting of some of the highlights:

• 2018: Continental Divide Trail
• 2019: Route In Between
• 2020: Greater Yellowstone Loop
• 2021: Desert Winter Thru-Hike (Arizona portion)
• 2022: Tahoe Rim Trail
• 2023: Pacific Crest Trail
• 2024: Desert Winter Thru-Hike (the whole enchilada)

Some of those were longer (CDT, RIB, PCT). Others were shorter (looking at you, TRT). But all of them had at least a plausible claim of being a "long-distance hike".

This year, 2025, was different - no thru-hikes, for the first time in many years. My longest trip this year was a week-long section on the Colorado Trail. And the biggest events of the year had nothing to do with hiking. But we'll get there. First, let's begin with some silly stats.

Gear:

• Tents: 3
• Fancy new tents purchased as an amazing wedding gift by my parents: 1
• Packrafts: 1 (but Steph bought one too!)
• Pairs of hiking shoes: 3 
• Gear organization strategies that actually worked: 1 
• Phones: 2
• Phones whose camera got all nasty, resulting in an unsightly dark spot on all my photos for several months: 1 

Trips:

• Thru-hikes: 0
• Weekend backpacking trips: 10
• Week-long backpacking trips: 1 
• Packrafting trips: 2
• Brought a stove: 2
• Brought a stove, but completely forgot the ramen noodles to cook on said stove: 1

Highest/Lowest/Fastest/Slowest:

• Highest point (literal): 13,042' (an unnamed thirteener in the San Juans) 
• Lowest point (literal): 3,960' (Green River in Canyonlands NP)
• Longest day, in miles: 26 miles (Dominguez Canyon trip)
• Highest point (metaphorical): Belly-flopping into the cool, refreshing Green River on a sweltering trip with scant water and heavy backpacks
• Lowest point (metaphorical): About five minutes prior
• Longest waterless stretch: 25 miles
• Hottest temperature: 95
• Coldest temperature: 24 

Experiences:

• Hitchhikes: 1 (this may be a new record low for me)
• Buses taken: 4
• Trains taken: 1
• Ubers taken: 1 
• Random PCT acquaintances bumped into on the Colorado Trail: 2
• Long-time hiker friends, trail magicked in Silverton: 2 

Previous years in review: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014.

Steph took an amazing New Zealand trip in February, but my year got off to a slow start. My first backpacking trip of the year wasn't until April, when we meandered through an archeologically-rich canyon system in SE Utah with our good friends Paul and Joan.

 

Later that month, we took another delightful trip in Utah's Escalante country with Justin and Emily. There was a little more water in the slot canyon than last time Justin and I visited, and we had great fun splashing through pools and helping each other navigate obstacles.

The momentum continued in May, with perhaps my favorite trip of the year, a packrafting adventure in Canyonlands National Park. Of note, I drank unfiltered water from the Green River, as I'm wont to do, and was fine. Meanwhile, Steph treated the water and still got giardia. I guess a decade of abusing my gut with crappy cow water is finally paying dividends!

Memorial Day weekend brought a solo trip for me - a high-mileage butt-kicker of a packrafting trip in the Dominguez-Escalante canyon system not too far from home.

But we saved the best for last in May. On the 31st, on a hike along the Colorado Trail, Steph said "yes". 

In June, as wedding planning kicked into high gear, we still managed to squeeze in a pair of short trips. The first was a weeknight backpacking trip. We left directly from work on a Thursday night and headed up onto the Uncompaghre Plateau. We hiked a couple miles in, set up our tents, and ate a bedtime snack. Up at first light the next morning, we hiked back to the car, drove back down to town, and made it to work right on time. Gimmick? Sure. But it was really special to sleep outside on a weeknight.

Later that month, we threw the packrafts in our packs and headed down to the Curecanti National Recreation Area. On a Friday evening, we hiked a few miles down a beautiful trail to water's edge. The next day we blew up the packrafts, and spent the day clowning around on the reservoir. Up early on Sunday morning, we hiked back to our car and slid into church back in Montrose at the last minute.

July brought more small adventures. Justin and Emily came to visit over the Fourth of July, and after spending a night car camping, we went on a beautiful overnighter outside Silverton. We were blessed with gorgeous weather and a top-ten campsite of all time at 12,400 feet.

We explored a basin in the San Juans at the end of the month - one we'd had our eye on for a good long while. I climbed an unnamed thirteener along the way, and we feasted on fried chicken in celebration of Steph's birthday.

We only got out once in August, a hundred-mile section of the Colorado Trail (CT). We parked our car near the Copper Mountain ski area and took a series of buses and light rail to the CT's eastern terminus in the Denver metro area. From there, we gradually climbed through the foothills until we reached the Continental Divide. The last two days of our trip were true mountains-proper, and an excellent preview of future jaunts on the CT. 

That was the last trip for a while. Wedding planning consumed every spare minute for the next couple months. But so worth it to marry my best friend and favorite adventure partner!

As we turned the page from October to November and life started to settle down a little bit, we snuck away for a beautiful fall weekend on Cedar Mesas in southeast Utah. We saw plenty of stylish fall colors, beautiful rock grottoes echoing with the cheerful sounds of trickling water, and traces of previous cultures that called these canyons home.

In December, we stretched our legs with a quick local trip into the Gunnison Gorge.

A Tribute

As mentioned, September and October were pretty crazy. On September 28th, Steph's father Collin walked her down the aisle to me. During the ceremony, our parents took a moment to douse us in prayer as we began our life together. It was the best day of our lives. Scarcely twelve hours later, Collin suffered a massive brain bleed in his sleep. He never woke up, passing away exactly one day - to the minute - after he walked Steph down the aisle.

I still don't really have the words to contextualize just how much he meant to Steph, her family, and to me. The biggest thing - he love his Savior, and even now is praising him face-to-face. And that gives us hope in the midst of some pretty deep grief.