Finisher program

If you’ve completed the route of the thru-hike, even if it took you several years, you are now eligible for the SF2T finisher program. There’s a full page about this on the website. Here’s the summary:

Send me:
- Minimal proof you’ve done the route.
- Your name, mailing address, t-shirt size.
- When you started and finished the route, photos of your trek, and (if you want) a few sentences to 1,500 words about your experience.
- A donation. Even a tiny donation helps.

I will:
- Send you a t-shirt and a small framed certificate.
- Post a simple image of your accomplishment on Instagram and Facebook.
- Set up a finisher page for you on the SF2T website.

First 30 people to finish the thru-hike this year are eligible for this. Here’s what the t-shirts and certificates look like.

You wanted an online group. So come try out the SF2T online community

It’s on Discord. Here’s the invite link. That link expires in seven days.

A lot of you want an online community. I am just not willing to do a Facebook group, for reasons I’ll skip. I am willing to try a Discord server. I realize Facebook is more familiar than Discord, but if I can learn it, so can you, and it’s better for a slew of reasons.

I am limiting the Discord invite to email subscribers for right now. So… do you feel special. Well, ✨ you are. ✨

I will put a reasonable effort into answering questions in the community but I am not going to put in more than a few hours a week. I would appreciate it if everyone made a minimal effort to find their answer on the website, in the guidebook, or in the community answers before they asked a question.

If you are interested in being a moderator, please let me know by replying to this email.

4-6 people a week are doing the thru-hike

I know because I hear from them, whether they are members or people who don’t need the resupply.

The thru-hike has a new address - at a UPS store where you can drop you box off

Pam Neely c/o The Santa Fe to Taos Thru-Hike
223 N. Guadalupe Street, PMB #412
Santa Fe, NM 87501-1850

The UPS Store's Google listing and business hours are documented here.

So SF2T members now have three options to get their box to the Tres Ritos resupply:

1. Drop it there yourself.

2. Mail it to the address (UPS store) below.

3. Drop it off at the UPS store below during business hours.

The resupply now has a micro pharmacy worth of medicines and painkillers and whatnot

There was an interesting trend among the first people to use the resupply: Everybody wanted painkillers. So I went to a local oversized grocery store and bought… maybe more than I should have. But the resupply now has several varieties of:

• painkillers (in pill and gel form, for full body or specific concerns like headaches)

• skin treatments (rashes, burns, sunscreen, etc)

• stomach medicines (anti-acids, anti-diarrhea, nausea, etc)

• cold and flu and sinus medicines, wound care…

• and a bunch more things.

• I even got Hibiclens, which is an over-the-counter wound treatment for dogs (and humans).

Most of what I bought was purchased in the smallest packages available (and thus more expensive…sigh), with about half being travel-sized. So you won’t have to take pills from an open container.

You have to be a member to access the resupply.

Overnight parking in Taos

The two spaces mentioned in the guidebook are still there, and one was empty when I was there this Monday. However, they are about 50 feet behind a sign at the entrance to the parking lot behind Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (near Taos Plaza) that says there is no overnight parking in the lot. I think you can ignore the first sign, but… to use those overnight spaces you’ll need a permit. And to get a permit, per this page on the Taos website, you have to be a resident of Taos.

Do not despair. (I have done that for you. 🙂)

You can also park overnight at the Taos Town Hall (400 Camino de La Placita). You will have to email the Assistant Town Manager, Mark Flores, at [email protected] to super-respectfully ask permission to park overnight. Include a description of your vehicle and license plate number. Again, be really, really nice. So nice. Please.

I am trying to coordinate with the town of Taos to get something permanent set up, and something that doesn’t require us bothering the Assistant Town Manager. It’s in progress. If you run into resistance, I suggest either parking at the Taos Airport, which does have overnight parking, or asking super-nicely at one of the larger chain hotels near the plaza if you could park for a few days.

This is issue is clearly in need of some work. I’m on it. If you have suggestions or a known solution, please let me know. I would be willing to pay for one or two designated overnight parking spaces - ie, to buy a permit that thru-hikers could use. More about this asap.

Seeking a VA (virtual assistant) and a resupply box courier

Reply to learn more.

Look at you - you read all the way to the bottom! You’re amazing. Thank you.

Cheers,

Pam Neely
Founder & Creator of the Route
The Santa Fe to Taos Thru-Hike

P.S.: The guidebook still needs a lot more reviews. You don’t even have to write - a star review is fine, and that would take barely a minute. A written review doesn’t have to be more than two sentences. Just sayin’. If you bought the guidebook, and appreciate the work that has been done and is being done for the thru-hike, leaving a review is a great way to say thank you. (And if you do leave a review, thank you.)