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Thursday, December 18, 2008

Three Trails in 30 Years

By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
          For some, a hiking trip means a day or two outside, for others it means a 30-year project.
        Mike Madden, a 58-year-old from Sandia Park, recently finished a 7,500-mile project that had him traversing the United States, from Mexico to Canada, three times on three different trails.
        The three long distance hikes, the Appalachian, Pacific Crest and Continental Divide trails — which are in the Eastern, Western and Central United States — are called the "Triple Crown."
        The task is daunting and Madden said if he had started with the goal of hiking all three, he doesn't think he'd have done it.
        "I don't think it occurred to me until I started the Continental Divide Trail that I might end up doing all three trails, given enough time," he said.
        Madden said there are 93 people who have make the claim of having done all three trails. Although it took Madden 30 years to finish, he did most of his hiking in just five years.
        Starting in the spring of 1978, Madden would take months to walk 1,000 miles or more on one of the three trails almost every year. That lasted until 1983, and he finished off the last 1,500 miles of the trip in week-long increments through the 1980s and in 2007 and 2008.
        "As I got more into a family and into the workplace, I couldn't take off a whole summer at a time," he explained. "I would grab a piece of the trail in two weeks and then go back to the job and the family."
        He kept going back to the trails, though, for the tranquility he found in the woods, he said.
        "When I walk, it's like meditation," he said. "I just kind of get in the rhythm and in the groove."
        The experience wasn't always mellow, though. Madden said he had a near-death experience in Montana, where he slipped on ice-crusted snow and slid down a slope, nearly hurtling off a 1,500 foot vertical drop. He stopped himself using an ice axe he was using as a walking stick, he said.
        Another danger in the woods is social, he said. Although he's had quite a few hiking partners, Madden had his share of hangers-on as he trekked through the woods, he said.
        "Some people are obnoxious, other people are overly quiet," he said. "You can always just take a rest and they'll move on. It's pretty easy to shake somebody."
        There are also interesting characters inhabiting the woods, he said. One of the more remarkable characters he met on the trail was Michael Cogswell, a 6-year-old boy who hiked the entire Appalachian Trail — more than 2,170 miles from Maine to Georgia — in 1980, Madden said.
        By contrast, Madden recently hiked with a 78-year-old and a 60-year-old on a portion of the Continental Divide Trail through the Gila Wilderness in southern New Mexico.
        "I was the young buck of the three of us," he said. "I was amazed at how good of shape Virgil (the 78-year-old) was in."
        That hike involved about 140 river crossings — which is no exaggeration — Madden said.
        "The Gila is still a wild river," he said. "There are no dams from the source through New Mexico."
        He said one of his best experiences on all three trails was actually in an unlikely spot, the Great Divide Basin in Wyoming. It is near a uranium mine, Madden said.
        "It didn't have national park status, no real nationally recognized intrinsic beauty," he said.
        What it did have was a spring that was the only source of surface water for about 10 miles, which is where Madden camped and waited for wildlife.
        "If you're at a place that you think game will come to, the thing to do is to quit early for the day and just hang out," he said.
        A herd of elk, over 50 wild horses, a coyote with a playful little pup and deer all happened by the spring, he said. It was the best wildlife encounter he had, he said.
        Madden's advice for those looking to put some miles under their belts too?
        "Just get out and enjoy it," he said.