Walk the Parks

For years Base Camp has been a resting and resupply, and sometimes water drop stop, for those hiking the Hayduke and Discovery Trails. The Hayduke starts in Arches, goes to Zion and does a few more parks in between, over 800 miles long. It's not really a trail as much as it is GPS coordinates.

The Discover Trail starts in Delaware and goes to the Golden Gate bridge, nearly 4,000 miles long. When they get to me they've been hiking the trail for a very long time, usually at least 18 months with six to eight more to go.

Then last year I learned of the TAT trail, Trans-America Trail. It starts on the east coast somewhere and goes to Oregon. It's a motorcycle trail for combination street and off road motorcycles. This year was a tough year for some of the riders going down Lockhart Basin and I did several rescues and preventive journeys down there for TAT riders.

Last month sometime Steffi and Andi came through on their bicycles and said they are doing the Trans-Continental Trail, for bicycles, and it comes right through here. They had done 19,000 miles since the 4th of July when they left Anchorage Alaska and were on their way to Chile in South America. A total they thought of around 35,000 miles. In the first 19,000 miles they hadn't gotten a single flat tire. They got two of them coming down Hurrah Pass.

So I'm going to town and I run across a guy with walking sticks, almost always a Hayduker or Discoverer. His name is Blake Robinson and he's doing the Walk the Parks trail. Actually I think he's making the trail. 20,000 miles, 47 National Parks, 2 feet, and 1 dream. You can find his journey at walktheparks.com.

I love this country. I love it's people.