The “10 Mile Day”
by Jessie Faith
“Hey let’s take it easy and have a 10 mile day,” says Dad in our morning meeting.
Whoosh…a big red flag goes racing up in Mom’s, Cody’s and my minds, Deso whimpers, and the burros flee.
The first thing that you should know is that after 13-17+ miles with big climbs on most days, a 10 mile day should be relatively easy day, despite any climbs or descents. It should also feel rather short. The second thing that you should know is what our 10-mile days are really like. We’ve had 5 or 6 of these so called “off days” as my dad refers to them. I’d call them “memorably
hellacious.” When the guide book says strenuous, it means strenuous. And when it says easy or moderate, you should expect strenuous, some difficult navigating, probably some backtracking, and undoubtedly bushwhacking as well.
Lets see…..our last 10-mile day came at the end of a long hard week and was one of our better ones. The guide book described our day as “Moderate” on their easy-moderate-strenuous scale. Here’s how it really played out. Guide said first up, a 1.000 foot decent which felt
surprisingly like an uphill, then a 800 foot climb back up the Divide ridge (turned out to be 1,200 feet up) and for the last five miles a gradual down hill on a two track. Then the book said “impossible to get lost!” just to make us feel like complete idiots as we wandered around the woods looking for our trail I suppose. We did hit the road at the predicted mileage, which was about the only thing that went as planned.
Now, we knew that we were supposed to walk down hill and
that Salmon Idaho was out to our left which was our re-supply point, so we turned left on the road and
walked a mile and a half, at which point we came to a dead end. Oh joy here go we again. We began to back track, but what else could we do? Back past the point where we ate lunch, back past the spot where we came to the road, and then, on down the road. So our 10-mile day was officially 13 miles and our consistent down hill was on occasion a rolling up hill. Well, what can I say, it isn’t like we expected an easy day or anything.
The Daily Routine:
June is completed, we are 400+ miles into the journey, and the days have moved towards a regular pattern. For those of wondering “what are they doing out there?” here it is....
4:30 am Bobby wake up and check burros on picket line. Let Deso out of the tent. Go back to sleep.
6 am Natalie and Bobby get up. Bring kitchen panniers back from hither and yon where they have been placed overnight in case a bear comes into camp. Put a pot of hot
water on the camp stove for drinks. Bible lesson study while waiting for the sun to come over the ridge. Picket the burros out on a line to their hind feet so they can graze.
7 am Sun’s up and dew is cooking away. Wake the girls up. Bobby and Cody make breakfast (bagels, oatmeal, or sometimes a coffee cake with bacon). Wash up with a pot of hot water from the stove. Discuss the days plan. Have a morning inspirational together.
8 am Begin process of breaking camp. Natalie and Jess brush and saddle burros. Coco take down tent. Bobby do dishes and pack up t
he kitchen panniers. Everyone pack their backpack and grab a morning snack from the bag.
8:45 am Load burros. Pass the “I’m the Boss” pin from whoever had it the day before to whoever earned it with some deed of wonder. Get on the trail and aim for 7-8 miles before lunch.
9-Noon Hike - 2.5/ miles per hour if it’s on trail and all is well, which is 75% of the time. As slow as 1/mph the other 25% when it’s off trail, cross country, checking the compass and GPS every 4.5 seconds, fighting blow down, and reminding the burros how much fun all this is. Jess hike in front with Dad and help navigate while leading Wellstone. Natalie lead Ping. Cody hike in back and listen to a book on her I-pod.
Noon Hour long lunch break. Unsaddle burro packs and put them out to graze. Cody break out
the crackers, cheese, tuna, apples, chocolate and whatever else she has planned for us. Bobby and Jess check the bird book to see if any new species were identified (81 found thus far – goal all 270 of the birds native to the Rockies – best find thus far a Short-eared Owl with nest). 
Natalie and Coco check flower book and see what new plants they have found (hopefully something edible – favorites thus far are the puffball mushrooms and wild siberian onions – just coming in are the strawberries and wild carrots). 5 minute nap. Realize that once again there are far to many mosquitoes to even think about ever sleeping. Check the map. Load up.
1 pm Coco move to the front with Bobby, Jessie Faith and Natalie turn on their I-pod books, hike for a couple more hours and try to make 4-5 more miles before the afternoon break. Mileage largely depends on 3 factors: trail conditions, steepness of climbs, and weather. A thousand feet of climbing requires about the same amount of effort as a mile of walking. Thus, if you have 1000 foot climb over the next mile you can plan on it taking as long and as much effort as a couple of miles on flatter trail. Afternoon is when the storms roll in so things slow down when the climbs are big, rain is falling, lightening threatens, the trail disappears and it becomes a cross country slog. The volunteer trail crews which are building this trail have done an amazing job putting a trail into high altitude, challenging terrain, but it’s not all in yet
and you never know when the trail will just disappear and you are on your own for the next mile or two or twenty.
3 pm Afternoon journaling break. Everyone find a good spot under a tree or along a steam and break out your journal. Time to reflect, record, ponder, and prepare something humorous or inspiring for the evening journal sharing.
“Hey let’s take it easy and have a 10 mile day,” says Dad in our morning meeting.Whoosh…a big red flag goes racing up in Mom’s, Cody’s and my minds, Deso whimpers, and the burros flee.
The first thing that you should know is that after 13-17+ miles with big climbs on most days, a 10 mile day should be relatively easy day, despite any climbs or descents. It should also feel rather short. The second thing that you should know is what our 10-mile days are really like. We’ve had 5 or 6 of these so called “off days” as my dad refers to them. I’d call them “memorably
hellacious.” When the guide book says strenuous, it means strenuous. And when it says easy or moderate, you should expect strenuous, some difficult navigating, probably some backtracking, and undoubtedly bushwhacking as well.Lets see…..our last 10-mile day came at the end of a long hard week and was one of our better ones. The guide book described our day as “Moderate” on their easy-moderate-strenuous scale. Here’s how it really played out. Guide said first up, a 1.000 foot decent which felt
surprisingly like an uphill, then a 800 foot climb back up the Divide ridge (turned out to be 1,200 feet up) and for the last five miles a gradual down hill on a two track. Then the book said “impossible to get lost!” just to make us feel like complete idiots as we wandered around the woods looking for our trail I suppose. We did hit the road at the predicted mileage, which was about the only thing that went as planned.Now, we knew that we were supposed to walk down hill and
that Salmon Idaho was out to our left which was our re-supply point, so we turned left on the road and
walked a mile and a half, at which point we came to a dead end. Oh joy here go we again. We began to back track, but what else could we do? Back past the point where we ate lunch, back past the spot where we came to the road, and then, on down the road. So our 10-mile day was officially 13 miles and our consistent down hill was on occasion a rolling up hill. Well, what can I say, it isn’t like we expected an easy day or anything.The Daily Routine:
June is completed, we are 400+ miles into the journey, and the days have moved towards a regular pattern. For those of wondering “what are they doing out there?” here it is....4:30 am Bobby wake up and check burros on picket line. Let Deso out of the tent. Go back to sleep.
6 am Natalie and Bobby get up. Bring kitchen panniers back from hither and yon where they have been placed overnight in case a bear comes into camp. Put a pot of hot
water on the camp stove for drinks. Bible lesson study while waiting for the sun to come over the ridge. Picket the burros out on a line to their hind feet so they can graze.
7 am Sun’s up and dew is cooking away. Wake the girls up. Bobby and Cody make breakfast (bagels, oatmeal, or sometimes a coffee cake with bacon). Wash up with a pot of hot water from the stove. Discuss the days plan. Have a morning inspirational together.8 am Begin process of breaking camp. Natalie and Jess brush and saddle burros. Coco take down tent. Bobby do dishes and pack up t
he kitchen panniers. Everyone pack their backpack and grab a morning snack from the bag.8:45 am Load burros. Pass the “I’m the Boss” pin from whoever had it the day before to whoever earned it with some deed of wonder. Get on the trail and aim for 7-8 miles before lunch.
9-Noon Hike - 2.5/ miles per hour if it’s on trail and all is well, which is 75% of the time. As slow as 1/mph the other 25% when it’s off trail, cross country, checking the compass and GPS every 4.5 seconds, fighting blow down, and reminding the burros how much fun all this is. Jess hike in front with Dad and help navigate while leading Wellstone. Natalie lead Ping. Cody hike in back and listen to a book on her I-pod.
Noon Hour long lunch break. Unsaddle burro packs and put them out to graze. Cody break out
the crackers, cheese, tuna, apples, chocolate and whatever else she has planned for us. Bobby and Jess check the bird book to see if any new species were identified (81 found thus far – goal all 270 of the birds native to the Rockies – best find thus far a Short-eared Owl with nest). 
Natalie and Coco check flower book and see what new plants they have found (hopefully something edible – favorites thus far are the puffball mushrooms and wild siberian onions – just coming in are the strawberries and wild carrots). 5 minute nap. Realize that once again there are far to many mosquitoes to even think about ever sleeping. Check the map. Load up.
1 pm Coco move to the front with Bobby, Jessie Faith and Natalie turn on their I-pod books, hike for a couple more hours and try to make 4-5 more miles before the afternoon break. Mileage largely depends on 3 factors: trail conditions, steepness of climbs, and weather. A thousand feet of climbing requires about the same amount of effort as a mile of walking. Thus, if you have 1000 foot climb over the next mile you can plan on it taking as long and as much effort as a couple of miles on flatter trail. Afternoon is when the storms roll in so things slow down when the climbs are big, rain is falling, lightening threatens, the trail disappears and it becomes a cross country slog. The volunteer trail crews which are building this trail have done an amazing job putting a trail into high altitude, challenging terrain, but it’s not all in yet
and you never know when the trail will just disappear and you are on your own for the next mile or two or twenty.3 pm Afternoon journaling break. Everyone find a good spot under a tree or along a steam and break out your journal. Time to reflect, record, ponder, and prepare something humorous or inspiring for the evening journal sharing.
4 pm Back on the trail for the last bit of the day. Depending on the factors above we’ve been making 12-17 miles a day with up to 5,000 feet of climbing. We have had some longer days but only when we were on jeep roads or something where we could just set our teeth and hike without having to do much figuring out of the where or how. We are right on schedule and that average of 12-17 will do us fine if we can keep that up the next few months. Later, once we are in New Mexico we’ll need to be up at 20-25 miles a day, but that’s later and we are trying not think about 20-25 a day right now.