2025 Goals / Projects -

See my 2024 goals / projects page for reference. This page (2025) was last updated on 6/11/2025.

Retrospective on the first half of the year

Whew! That’s the retrospective in one word. It’s been busy. Here’s what happened:

The guidebook was written and its maps created in four months, from January to the end of April. I managed to get the newsletter out every two weeks, and it has grow to just under 100 subscribers. I’ve posted to social media at least a couple of times a month.

I got a booth at the Fish & Game Expo in Albuquerque in February and got a tidal wave of response. Over the course of three days, I spoke to hundreds of people, answered hundreds of questions, and gave away more than 1,000 pieces of merchandise, mostly bookmarks and information sheets and stickers. After the Expo, it was irrefutable: People wanted this. This could take off.

The memberships were created for the Expo as well. And I got my first member. As of this writing, there are 11 members of the Santa Fe to Taos Thru-Hike. Huge thanks to all!

At the beginning of April, I was finally able to get a resupply point for the thru-hike. This had been a major logistical problem for doing the thru-hike, but for only $271 every quarter, suddenly I had a 12×24 secure location to offer resupply to thru-hikers. This also made the memberships for the thru-hike more valuable, opening up a potential revenue stream.

Also in April, I finally got the guiding application completed for the north half of the thru-hike route, through Carson. It took 72 hours of frenzied activity, but the 46-page application got done. It got approved, too. Yet the Santa Fe National Forest application is still stuck. It looks like it’s going to stay stuck. After a lot of consideration, guiding will have to wait until next year. Doing just the north half of the route, given all the other things that are happening, isn’t worth it. I’ll get my Santa Fe National Forest application in asap and just refocus the guiding project for next year.

I got recertified as a Wilderness First Responder in early May. I got a 98% on my exam. And I got to see Philmont Scout Ranch while doing that, to see the organizational culture they’ve built. And I got to see Carl Gilmore, the course instructor, again.

On May 12th, the guidebook launched. The Santa Fe New Mexican ran an article about the thru-hike that was one of the top-read articles for a week. Nearly 300 copies of the guidebook sold in the first two weeks. It sold out at local bookstores, sold out again, and made more than seven bestseller lists on Amazon. A Q&A event about the thru-hike at Travel Bug in Santa Fe attracted a rapt audience of over 100 people. The event was recorded, the recording posted. Dozens of people reached out to express support for the idea, and a wave of people have reached out saying they want to do the thru-hike or are now planning to do the thru-hike, some of them this year. The thru-hike’s first major donors were also in the Travel Bug audience. They represent and manage a charitable foundation that gave five figures to cover expenses for the members’ resupply and media and in-person outreach materials and tools.

The guidebook did what it was supposed to do: Raise awareness that the thru-hike exists, and prove that it is a real, doable thing.

There is still a mountain of work to be done to raise awareness that the thru-hikes exists and can be done. The guidebook needs a press tour, and at least 50 reviews. Fulfillment for the guidebook needs an upgrade, and the online store and merch needs to continue to expand. I need to get out on the trail and document my time doing the thru-hike, again, probably this time on camera more. I need to do my best to support all the people who want to do the thru-hike, including making the resupply in Tres Ritos as good as it can be. I need to get more funding. And I need to set up systems to do all of that, to lay the groundwork for this being taken out of my hands as the thru-hike grows into an organization.

For all the things that got done, there has been one severe disappointment–a true failure. I haven’t been on the trail. At all. I’ve been out on the little loop trail near my house a couple of times, but barely even that, and haven’t gone into the high country at all. I cannot lose my time alone in the high country. I need to find a way to meet all those “obligations” and goals and build this into something that lasts beyond me, but I must keep my heart connected while I do it. That may mean things go slower. That may mean things aren’t perfect, or that sometimes they aren’t even very good. I hate that. But it’s June, and I haven’t been on the trail. That has to change.

From my list of to-do items for the year, here’s what I’ve gotten done so far:

1) Guidebook. Done.

2) Do the full thru-hike. Nothing so far, but the higher elevations only cleared in the last few weeks.

3) Complete the guide applications. One done, one to go.

4) Update my Wilderness First Responder Certification. Done.

5) Stay on social media. Done, but keep going.

6) Newsletter. Done! But keep going…

7) Speaking. Three events so far, but the Travel Bug event was the true speaking gig. It was pretty darn great. There are requests to do another event like it.

8) Grants. None yet. Haven’t even applied for any.

9) Membership. Done. It took me forever, but I also updated the information packets. It’s dizzying how much the thru-hike has changed and grown in the last year.

10) Partnerships. Not sure it’s a partnership, but Los Rios River Runners bought an ad in the guidebook, and Cisco has been incredibly helpful with introducing me to people and talking up the thru-hike in Taos. Still a long way to go with partnerships.

Extra credit #1: Volunteers. No progress on this yet, but the need is becoming more urgent. Someone emailed me asking if there are meetups for the thru-hike. There aren’t any now, but there should be. I should try to have info sessions in Taos, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and at the Tres Ritos resupply. And one fabulous person has offered to help with assembling the storage unit lockers. Long way to go with all this, but it just needs a little attention (and a lot of driving and visibility and boosted posts and merch and everything else).

Extra credit #2: I found a resupply in Tres Ritos. Cue the sparkle raining down. And donors appeared to fund at least part of the wilderness store. Wow.

2025 Goals / Projects – second half of the year

Get out on the trail. Nothing is more important than this. Fortunately, it looks like things are clearing enough to pivot into making this the priority.
Continue promoting the guidebook. Get 50 reviews. Do interviews and podcasts and try to get at least six more speaking gigs.
Continue social media and the newsletter.
Apply for four grants.
Continue work on doing guided trips next year, including completing and submiting the application for guiding in Santa Fe National Forest.
Get the resupply and wilderness store up and running.
Do at least four more information sessions.
Get a booth at at least six more events.
Reach out to all the people I’ve met and build relationships. Build partnerships.
Find two board members with experience in hiking, conservation, or similar areas.
Support everyone who’s interested in doing the thru-hike. This entails lots of emails answering questions, videos, documenting the route, following up, being visible, doing the information sessions. It would also include having a finisher program.
Keep going with all the merchandise ideas, including the Printful store, and the weekly planner for 2026. And the workbook to plan a thru-hike. And the postcards/journals to document peoples’ experience on the thru-hike.
Open up opportunities for volunteers.
Hear from 10 people who did the full thru-hike this year. Document their experience, at least in part.

I think I’ll stop there. It’s only six months.

Nah.

Extra credit #1: Record enough footage to do the documentary over the winter.

Extra credit #2: Begin drafting the next book about the thru-hike.

Extra credit #3: Have a few breakthroughs with the logistics side of the thru-hike. Get the Blue Bus to go to Sipapu, Agua Piedra, or Tres Ritos. Get special 1-3 week parking passes for thru-hikers in Taos, Santa Fe and Agua Piedra.

Ridiculous dream: Find and fund a rental in Tres Ritos that would let people stay overnight, do laundry, bathe, eat a great meal.

Deserved dream: Find a way to earn at least Santa Fe minimum wage ($15/hr) for the hours I work on the thru-hike.

2025 Goals / Projects – first half of the year

1. The guidebook.

The Santa Fe to Taos Thru-Hike Pocket Guide, 2025 first edition is available for pre-order on Amazon. It will publish on May 12th. There will also be a paperback edition.

This will probably consume most of the time I have to work on the thru-hike for the first half of the year. The guidebook is drafted and being laid out, so I am currently on track for the deadlines for it, but I need to stay on track.

I do have a project plan page for the guidebook. It’s mostly accurate and explains a little bit more about what I’m doing. The last pages of that project plan are based on a grant I applied for, so they’re a little out of date.

The paperback of the guidebook is going to be printed print on demand because I am expecting the guidebook to go through some iterations very quickly after it’s published. For example, all the “alt routes” I talk about in the 2024 retrospective have to be walked. Just that means there will be a “second edition” coming out as soon as possible. Hopefully by late June.

I have much of the text of the guidebook drafted, but I have yet to start placing photographs and maps and doing layout for the book. There’s a lot to do. This is the current rough timeline:

January 24th: First ugly draft done. This includes text, photos, maps, and layout.
February 1: 15 people have said yes to being beta readers. Do a video/ad on social media if I have to.
February 3. Second draft done. Just clean up everything I can from the first messy draft.
February 10th: Third draft complete. Order print on demand copies printed at BookVault so beta readers have printed copies.
February 17th: Mail beta reader copies to at least 20 people. Assume they receive their copies by February 21st
March 7th, Friday: Beta readers have had two weeks to review the guidebook.
March 10th: Feedback from beta readers closes. Furious work to implement their feedback begins.
March 24th, Monday: Beta reader feedback is incorporated.
March 28th: Book goes into copyediting.
April 11th: Book has been in copyediting for 2 weeks. Proofing begins.
April 25th: Book has been in proofing for 2 weeks. Proofing completed. Furious work on getting the Kindle version laid out begins.
April 28th: Order paperback launch copies.
May 5th, Monday: Paperback launch copies in hand.
May 12th, Monday: Kindle book is released.

Getting this done is a big deal. It’s a huge project, and the deadline is tight. But it will also make the thru-hike irrefutably a real thing.

2. Do the full thru-hike, including all the alt routes.

I covered 90% of the route last year. This is just to put on “paper” the priority of doing it again. All of it. This is critical work because I need to know about trail conditions, but also so I can continue to take photos and document the route. It will also be essential due to the guidebook. Hopefully I’ll be able to take at least 300 more really good photos so the second and third editions of the guidebook start to look great.

3. Complete the guide applications.

There are two applications; one for the Pecos Wilderness and one for Carson. And actually, there may be another one for the Santa Fe National Forest. Each application is 30 pages long. I need to get the applications done before all the available guiding days are taken.

I’m not even going to put down “do a guided trip” because I don’t know if I’ll get approved.

4. Update my Wilderness First Responder Certification.

This is a four-day course. It will be the fourth time I’ve done this, so it’s no big deal. I just have to find the money to do it ($700), plus the time (four days off work and away from the house) and pay for the gas and lodging.

5. Stay on social media.

Not a big deal, this one. But it’s part of the work of being visible in 2025, so as much as I hate social media, the thru-hike needs to be visible. Posting even twice a week is good enough. This also includes making one video at least three minutes long every month… which is well outside my comfort zone, but important and effective. I might be able to cheat and record one of my talks, then have that diced up into soundbytes and use those as videos. And for newsletter content…

6. Newsletter.

I don’t have a New Year’s Resolution, but if I was going to have one, doing a newsletter for the thru-hike might be it. Here’s the problem: Doing the newsletter, even every two weeks, is at least three hours work. So that’s an hour, probably two hours a week. This is doable, but it’s going to require focus and effort to get this done. Fortunately, one of the reasons the guidebook is so key is that it will give me content for the newsletter and the website. So will social media. And newsletters can be done ahead of time. I might save some time doing 2-3 newsletters at once and then just scheduling them. I’ll check them before they go out, but having them done ahead of time would help enormously.

7. Speaking.

I commit to doing three more talks in 2025. This will involve getting a proper projector, securing the talks, and getting the presentation deck dialed in. Just getting the presentation deck and the presentation dialed in is *at least* four days full-time.

Extra credit if I do a few podcasts.

8. Grants.

I commit to applying for four more grants in 2025. One each quarter.

9. Thru-hike membership.

This might get me a little bit of financial support, and it builds the community for the thru-hike. It’s not a huge amount of work, either. I’m thinking of a tiered membership, maybe $30 a year base, then $100 a year for another level up that maybe involves some sort of additional service/merch/trail support. Then a $500 a year membership for those lucky, excellent people who are in a position to give an amount like that.

10. Partnerships.

This could be extremely important, so while I feel like this list is already bordering on the unrealistic, I’m putting it down. I can commit to 12 attempts at partnership/outreach. One per month. This month’s is already scheduled, so that’s a great start. And I know of two more that would be a snap to do, and I’d actually like to do.

That’s it. If I get all that done in 2025, it’s been a good year.

Huge extra credit if I can find a couple of volunteers and they log even 20 hours of volunteer time, total.

Even bigger extra credit: I find a rental in Tres Ritos so the thru-hike can offer a resupply point (maybe even lodging!) that’s on the route of the thru-hike. Getting a self-storage space at Tres Ritos also qualifies for major extra credit. Fingers crossed…