PTO Adventure and Thru-Hiking Your City
Dec 29, 2024
In pursuit of an adventurous lifestyle, time is the crucial variable. I have a quote at the top of my personal finances word doc, “Money comes and goes, but time only goes”. Probably not the words you’ll hear from a financial advisor. Money is important, but there are plenty of ways to get creative about funding adventure. Time is the most challenging to navigate—the one thing you can’t create more of. I’m grateful Eva and I have prioritized two long-term adventures. First when I was 27, and then at 34, both with the goal to be on the road for a year. I turned 36 this year, and we still have plenty of long-term adventure aspirations. But realistically we see them as something to pursue every five to ten years when the pull of the road becomes unbearable. And as Mediumcore Adventurers, we want to live a life filled with adventure, not just every five to ten years. In advance of the next long-term travel to be determined, wisely using a combination of paid time off, sabbatical, and weekends to craft PTO Adventures has become our hobby. I have a notebook for these ideas, organized by amount of time, training, and logistics required. Here are a few of the PTO Adventures we’ve previously pursued.
In the summer of 2018, friends of ours were getting married in Alaska. We took ten days off work, and after the wedding, rented a beige Volkswagen Westfalia. One with the pop-up tent on top, and as I found out a bed not designed for someone who is 6’4”. What it lacked in size it made up for in charm. We camped along the river, drove to Kenai Fjords, our 48th National Park, and then up to Denali for our 49th. We took a train on the Alaskan Railroad into the wilderness, hopped off at the whistle stop, kayaked a lake to the base of Spencer Glacier, and explored an ice cave. It was a dense-packed adventure, comfortably fit into ten days.
We regularly make our way back to Big Bend, the closest National Park in Texas for a backcountry camp, a dip in the hot spring, a hike in the Chisos and a visit to the Santa Elena Canyon. We typically do this in a long weekend.
More recently, our PTO Adventure sights have been set on a newfound passion for fly fishing. We have driven to the San Juan River in northern New Mexico, hung on the Texas Coast to sight cast for Redfish. We’ve fished the Snake River on a revisit to Grand Teton National Park, and the Yellowstone River in and outside of the park for cutthroat, rainbows and brown trout. In September of this year we fished the Arkansas River in Southwest Colorado, backpacked in the Maroon Bells and camped out along the riverbank for a week of PTO.
The list of outstanding PTO Adventures continues to grow: hiking the 211-mile John Muir Trail from Yosemite to Sequoia National Park would take 20-25 days. Canoeing from Austin to the Gulf Coast along 288 river miles of the Lower Colorado would take 10-14 days. Hiking the 93 miles of Wonderland Trail circumnavigating Mt. Rainier in Washington would take 10-12 days. Canoeing the Devils River would take 3-4 days. Again, these are all theoretically manageable with a combination of PTO, sabbatical, and caffeine. But while we pursue other life goals, and only have a finite amount of PTO, we also look to more consistent weekend and single-day adventures.
I first thought of the idea to “thru-hike” Austin about six months ago. The idea was straightforward enough. To cover as much ground as possible in Austin on connecting hiking trails from point A to point B. I didn’t want it to be solely urban trails so I looked to the Barton Creek Greenbelt. The Greenbelt approaches Austin from the west and eventually flows into the Colorado River downtown. It is a popular hiking spot, and when flowing, a popular swimming destination as the limestone bottom creates natural pools. I chose my launching point as the westernmost access to the Greenbelt, then plotted out a route on AllTrails hiking Southeast until connecting with the Violet Crown Trail, heading northeast towards downtown, connecting with the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail, crossing the pedestrian bridge over the river, and jumping on the Shoal Creek Trail, an urban trail that runs north through the western border of downtown. My end goal was the end of what I thought was the trail, at 38th street. Thru-hiking the city was one of the more accessible short-term ideas continuing to come back to me. I had written it in my notebooks many times as it resurfaced. It was more than just the average day hike, it felt bolder and more whimsical, but not time consuming, and didn’t require any training or serious logistics.
The term thru-hiking is used to describe large-scale hikes from Point A to B, usually over a significant amount of distance and time. It is most associated with the major thru-hikes in America, the Pacific Crest Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Appalachian Trail. These are serious commitments that typically require months to accomplish continuously. Those that have completed a serious thru-hike may scoff at using the term to talk about a single-day adventure. But I think it helps capture the idea of hiking the longest, continuous stretch of trails in/around a city. With an upcoming day off, I decided to thru-hike Austin.
Eva, who was working that day, dropped me off at the trailhead, the top of the Hill of Life, at 9:30am and I began. It took four and a half hours to hike the 14.75 mile route. I only saw a few other hikers. The creek was mostly dry. I spotted a U.S. Geological Survey marker. I enjoyed a few wayfinding opportunities, and was excited by the first glimpse of skyscraper downtown at 8.3 miles. I walked by the wooden troll sculpture in Pease Park and observed the orange and yellow leaves of a delayed fall. I noticed how the city has developed around its natural environment, and how significant water, trees and rock are to its feel. At 38th street I was surprised to find the urban trail now continues all the way to 183. But I was tapped and my original goal accomplished. Beyond some much-needed time outdoors, I was excited to stumble into a new mini adventure and cross thru-hiking the city off the list. Sometimes the excitement of dreaming up a new PTO Adventure idea is as exciting as the adventure itself, and as we approach a new year it is the perfect time for dreaming. So it’s back to the adventure board. No matter the duration, bold and whimsical are good starting places. Wishing you a happy new year, full of adventure. #offandout
Jordan
