Darrow Kirkpatrick (“Two Sticks”), Santa Fe

Darrow had done the south half of the thru-hike in earlier years. He did the north half, from Santa Barbara Campground to Taos Plaza, in August. He’s the author of a memoir, Two Sticks, One Path.

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As a shakedown trip to finish my section hike, I backpacked from Santa Barbara Campground to Agua Piedra Campground on August 8, camped in the campground and hitched back to my start the next day. I then backpacked from Agua Piedra Campground to Taos on August 14-17. Weather was moderate with highs mostly in the 70s and lows probably in the low 50s. I had light rain two out of three evenings. Water sources were all flowing well as described in the Guidebook with one obscure exception: the lower source on the Connector was too dry for practical use, but the upper source, a short distance before, was flowing well enough. I had no great routefinding difficulties but I WOULD NOT try this route, especially around the start of the Connector, without a GPS app and the SF2T GPX file. Some other areas, like La Cueva Canyon, the unnamed connection to FR 442, and Bernardin Lake have the potential for confusion, but are casual with a GPS. The trail: though the climbs are relatively short (usually around 1,000 feet) they are steep! I was worried that the forest road walking would get old but, except for a few miles here and there, I enjoyed it. Most of the forest roads are lightly used and scenic. The finish up Drake Canyon and down into Taos is epic and beautiful trail walking.

I used ShuttleTaos.com to get back to my truck at my starting point and they were very responsive and professional. I’ll always treasure this hike because it provided world-class, Rocky Mountain adventure in my backyard! As I approached the completion and sensed the connection between Santa Fe and Taos I also began to appreciate the unique character of the route. Is there another long-distance hike in the U.S. that knits together two culturally-significant communities with a high-mountain traverse like this? The two endpoint towns make for memorable hiking as the trail transforms in and out of the mountain experience.