Ending a Seven-year Journey on The Colorado Trail

Two weeks ago I stepped off trail and into the Junction Creek Trailhead parking lot in Durango. Elated and exhausted, I stumbled over to the sign to make a quick video of the moment. I kissed the pendant around my neck (a sterling silver mold of Mani’s nose) and quietly said into the camera between deep breaths, “I did it.”

Completing The Colorado Trail has been freeing in a lot of ways. It allowed me to close a chapter of my life that has felt decidedly undone. A lot of things happened in those seven years that lacked any sensical explanation, and there was no real closure to any of it. Until now. I guess finishing the one constant through all of the bizarre stuff that’s happened since 2016 has allowed me to roll it all up into this trail finish and call it done. In any case, I feel good.

Something about this last stretch of trail solidified a few things in my mind, like my goal to buy a van and hit the road before my 50th birthday. Maybe it has something to do with the people who went above and beyond to get me on trail this season, or the people I met on trail— all folks who are different—crazy, perhaps, for daring to live a life outside of the boundaries and expectations of society, but who are genuinely very deeply content and inspired.

Folks like me.

There are countless ways to feel different these days. What we don’t see as clearly is that there are others out there just like us. When we pursue the things that are most important to us, no matter how challenging, we inevitably start finding those people. And once we start finding them, our path forward becomes a little easier.