2025 Goals / Projects
See my 2024 goals / projects page for reference. This page (2025) was published on 1/6/2025.
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 The last pages of that project plan are based on a grant I applied for, so they’re a little out of date.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…