What is The Bigfoot Trail?

What is the Bigfoot Trail?

First thing is first, a massive thank you must be given to the Bigfoot Trail Alliance (the overseeing organization that created this trail and manages it), although there may be some colorful language used in this episode to describe portions of the trail, we want the Bigfoot Trail Alliance to know that we greatly appreciate and respect the massive amounts of work needed to maintain a trail like this and truly are grateful for the route creation and continued growth.

Today we sit down and have a nice, long, "unbiased", slightly informational, mostly emotional, chat.

Host Constantine is joined by Horsepower (first recurring guest on our show, so... commence "medal ceremony") as they are fresh off completing their thru-hike of the Bigfoot Trail. Completed on July 2nd, we catch up with them on July 3rd, so please forgive them if the emotions are still running high, well maybe not forgive.. but at least have context before the show begins.

The Bigfoot Trail is a 358~ mile trail that spans from Ides Cove in Northern California to Crescent City a coastal town in Northern California. Along the way you traverse through multiple wilderness areas, touch the PCT or Pacific Crest Trail for a few miles, quickly dip a toe into Oregon and then just as quickly come back to Northern California. It traverses through 32 different type of conifer trees per their website, and in general is a beautiful trail, brutal, but beautiful.

Horsepower and Constantine sit down and give a synopsis of the 14 days it took to hike this trail. They begin at day 1, with sleeping in the fetal position, bushwhacking through thick thorns, the difference between THICC and THIQQ, and continue from there revealing stories shared, pain experienced, and beauty seen.

We chat about Hayfork and its wonderful Mexican cuisine (seriously), we chat about good wounds vs. bad wounds and we chat the mysterious "RV Camp in the middle of the Trinity Wilderness. We talk about Horsepower's "Tent Juke" technique for mosquitoes, carrying 6 sets of clothes, a fun game we played called Rattlesnake Roulette, and how Constantine is an old man in... well an old man's body.

We chat about 1700 miles vs. 200 miles and the "worth" of a mile, we chat peanut butter and soda fueling techniques, we chat oozing and blistering legs, and we chat about Playing Basketball in Pelican Bay! (Training Day reference)

All jokes aside, this episode is meant to be informational as the Bigfoot Trail is still growing with its map data, trail conditions, and awareness, so we hoped to shine more light on a trail system that really is beautiful, and yes brutally difficult.

We chat about the difference between the Big 3 trails and these smaller trails regarding their support, infrastructure, and trail maintenance. We chat about the "flavor" of the Bigfoot Trail and how everyday there will be some form of bushwhack and intense climbs, we talk about trail conditions and alternates, and we go over in detail the essence of what it means to hike the Bigfoot Trail.

FAVORITE QUOTES:

"You usually always go up, its more punishing"

"I wasn't going to use that same F word..."

"Tone for trail: bushwhack, bears, a lot of climbing"

"Disclaimer for whole BFT: check your maps often."

"If your legs are oozing any type of liquid... go to a doctor."

To learn more about Horsepower check out the link below:

Instagram: @naturalhorsepower

To learn more about who we are click the link below:

ElevenSkys.com

ONE MORE TIME: THANK YOU BIGFOOT TRAIL!