There are times when Charles Daniels is working in his yard or around the house and suddenly, in his mind, he’s staring across an expansive field of lava rock badlands, navigating ancient Mogollon cliff dwellings, or peering out at a distant hail storm from a snow-capped mountain summit.

The flashbacks are welcome memories for the 70-year-old Columbia man, who recently dedicated five months to hiking the Continental Divide Trail spanning 2,800 miles from Mexico to Canada. The trail follows the Rocky Mountains as they cross Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.

The April-through-September trek capped off for Daniels what hikers refer to as the triple crown of North American trails. He hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2000 and the Pacific Crest Trail in 2007.

“Since I first hiked the Appalachian Trail, every day some point on one of those trails jumps into my head and I start reliving it,” said Daniels, who lives in the Beaverbrook community.

“When you stop and look back on what you’ve done ... it’s mind-blowing, to say you’ve walked from Mexico to Canada. It was quite an adventure.”

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For excerpts from Daniels' trail journal and a gallery of his photos, also see:

• On the trail again

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Daniels, a retired computer software programmer for lotto systems, said his interest in endurance sports was sparked by his wife, Andrea Almand. Over the past decade, Almand, a triathlete, has run more than a dozen marathons and two 50-mile ultra-marathons with her husband.

For Daniels, that interest in distance running eventually led to an interest in distance hiking. “It’s just one of those things I thought I’d like to do — because it’s there,” he said.

‘Upping the ante’

His wife chalks it up to “mental grit.”

“He just has this whole competitive streak in him,” said Almand, an English teacher at River Hill High School. “He doesn’t talk about it, but it’s there. He just keeps upping the ante.
“My thing is: No regrets. If you want to do it, go do it. It’s about testing your limits,” Almand added.

Daniels’ limits were indeed tested on his most recent hike, which he said was the most rugged and the hardest to navigate — although, he added, the Pacific Crest Trail was more physically demanding.

The Continental Divide Trail had 150 river crossings, including 121 crossings of the Middle Fork of the Gila River as it snaked through a canyon in New Mexico.

Daniels encountered new challenges every day, wading through waist-deep rivers, sloshing through persistent rain, waking in a tent covered in two inches of snow and ice, climbing 13,000-foot mountains, braving 200-mile, seven-day isolated stretches without supply stops and the near-constant threat of dehydration or excessive weight loss.

“I work harder at hiking than I ever did at a 40-hour-a-week job,” he said.

Daniels chose to hike northbound because weather conditions at the Mexico/New Mexico border allowed him to begin earlier in the spring than those at the northern trailhead in Montana. (He wanted to finish by the end of September because he begins assembling his annual Christmas light display in October, he said.)

He started the trail with four other hikers, although the group dissolved and reconnected throughout the journey, as hikers settled into their individual paces or dealt with injury or illness.

Daniels said he liked to cover roughly 20 miles each day, beginning between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m., depending on the sunrise, and finishing each day at about 6:30 p.m.

Next up: 100-mile race?

Almand joined Daniels for four days of hiking in Silverthorne, Colo., in late June and early July. She also helped edit and post his daily journal entries and photos that he sent to her whenever he could. Daniels’ daily accounts are posted at trailjournals.com/mrd2009.

"He's got this intuitive sense of how things work and how to get things done," Almand said of her husband. "He's a survivalist."

Daniels said he thinks he'll retire his hiking boots and move on to other endeavors, possibly biking across the country or running a 100-mile race, he said.

Although he'd hoped for more wildlife encounters along the Continental Divide Trail, Daniels said the highlight of his journey was the people he met on the trail, and at diners and mom-and-pop shops in the towns where he stopped.

"Being on the trail is such a simple way of life. Everything you own is on your back," he said. "You just can't believe the beauty that's in the backcountry. You've got to get out of the automobile to hike to some of these remote places to really see it."

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