fitness | Adam Fuller

Three rims, 46-ish miles, more than 11,000 feet elevation gain, in something like 18 hours

I conquered this bucket list beast with a buddy on September 30, 2023.

Six days and 105 miles in the wilderness alone

“In the wilderness, life is stripped of distractions. It is quiet. The topography demands discipline, simplicity, and fierce attention. Solitude in the wilderness makes irrelevant all the people-pleasing habits that have become interwoven into your personality.” — David Brooks, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life.

This is a recap of my third annual solo backpacking adventure on the Colorado Trail.

The goal is to eventually complete all 28 Segments (486 miles) of the Colorado Trail, starting in Denver and finishing in Durango, segmented out to roughly one week of backpacking per year.

The broader goal is to build a habit of going into the wilderness alone every year.

Crested Butte Ultra 50-miler

I’ve been chasing a 50-miler since 2016 and it felt great to finally slay this dragon at the Crested Butte Ultra on October 1, 2022.

I finished the 50 miles, which featured 8,300 ft of elevation gain, in 13:51:07 and placed 51st out of the 61 runners who finished the race. By my count there were about 111 runners registered for the 50-miler, which means about 50 runners did not finish.

It was a long, brutal, beautiful day – highlighted by a nasty storm that ripped through the course in the early afternoon – and the craziest race I’ve done to date. I was just thankful to finish the race in one piece before the cutoff time at 9pm; I finished at about 7:50pm.

Colorado Trail Segments 11-14

Five days and 91 miles in the wilderness alone

This article has three sections: (1) hike recap, (2) summary of lessons learned, and (3) gear list.

Colorado Trail Segments 2-10

An eight-day, 160-mile through-hike into the wilderness alone

First step: go into the wilderness alone.

That was one of the notes I jotted down in 2019 when I read The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life, by David Brooks. The message ties to the book’s fifth chapter, entitled “The Wilderness,” where Brooks writes:

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Grand Canyon R2R2R