CDT Resupply Towns

Elsewhere I have provided a list of the itinerary I followed and mailing labels for use in sending yourself packages. Here I briefly discuss my opinions about each of the resupply points I used along the trail. Obviously, each hiker experiences towns in a different way, so you could have a great time in a town I didn’t like and vice versa.

East Glacier
This town exists primarily for the tourist trade tied to Glacier National Park, so hikers are just considered a different variety of tourists. It had two commercial areas, the larger one along the highway and the other, which seemed to be a bit less expensive, was past the lodge nearer the trail. The Mexican restaurant in town seemed to be the most popular eating spot and there are several lodging options, from hostels to cabins to motels. I stayed in a cabin with my wife and did little in town besides eat and try to recover from the tough time I had hiking through the park.

Benchmark Ranch
It costs $25 to have a package waiting for you here, but I found it well worth the money. The nearest town (Augusta) is more than 30 miles away hitchhiking on a gravel road. No one was at the ranch when we stopped by, but if you pay your fee in advance (highly advised), the proprietor Beverly puts your box on the porch in the bear box. Don’t know what it would have cost to spend the night, but if you had the money and time (and someone was around), it seemed like a very pleasant place to stay.

Marysville
I think I was the only through-hiker that used this stop, which is only three miles off the trail via a very lightly traveled gravel road. The only vehicle I saw stopped and gave me a ride into town shortly after I started walking down to town (alas, no traffic heading back and I had to walk the whole way uphill). It is a tiny town of maybe 100 people with no businesses except a bar that opens at 5 PM Wednesday through Sunday. Ironically, in a place that small I could not locate the post office and had to knock on several doors before I finally found someone home who could point it out to me on the edge of town. The postmaster was very friendly (the post office is in her house) and offered me lunch. This was a great town for me, as I wanted a quick stop so I could get back on the trail to meet my wife and daughter in Butte. If you want a stop with more commercial alternatives, you are better off heading to Helena, a great trail town by all reports.

Butte
As my wife and daughter met me here, I know this town more by car than by foot as most other hikers saw it. While Butte has fallen on hard times with the closure of the mine, it is still a very large town with all the amenities you would need for typical resupply.

Salmon
This was the longest hitch of the hike and it took a long time to get a ride into town. It was hot in town, in the 90s, and having just left a cold rain behind in the Anaconda-Pintlars it was a bit of a shock. I got a motel room at the edge of town to make it easy to get back to Lost Trail Pass, but then I discovered the grocery store was about two miles away on the other edge of town. Not a pleasant walk in the heat and I didn’t care much for the town in general. My friends Tommy and Razzu hitched to Wisdom instead and found it to be smaller, more compact and generally a better place to resupply.

Leadore
The 13-mile hitch into town on a little-used gravel road is notorious, but I got a ride with the proprietor of the local motel who was bringing several hikers back to the trail. The café here is home to the free milkshake for through-hikers, a tradition started several years ago that hopefully will continue. Things are pretty casual in Leadore (I never got a key to my motel room) and despite of, or maybe because of, its small size I found it to be a great trail town.

Lima
This is another tiny town, but it was my favorite of the whole trip. That was largely due to the hospitality of Mike and Connie Strong, proprietors of the local motel who are very hiker and biker friendly. Mike picks up hikers who call from Monida (near the trail on I-15) and drives them back when their stay in town is over. You can also mail your package to the motel instead of the Post Office, which eliminates worrying about arriving when the PO is open. The eating establishments were not great, but there were so many hikers around that the shared meals were lots of fun.

Macks Inn
This is another small town that I just stopped in long enough to pick up my box. Being close to Yellowstone it seemed more touristy and expensive than other towns, but it had everything I needed and I was quickly on my way.

Old Faithful
I love the US Postal Service and as a rule find the postal staff to be very helpful and friendly. There is an exception to every rule, however, and that exception was the contract Post Office staff in Old Faithful who were extremely rude and unhelpful. I suppose it comes from serving thousands of tourists and the hundreds of temporary employees who rely on this post office. I found the Old Faithful area in general to be overwhelming, clearly focused on tourists. I was very glad to leave there, passing on an opportunity to spend the night in the lodge with my hiking partners, Tommy and Razzu.

Dubois
This is not a particularly large town, but it has several motels and various retail outlets. The hitch into and out of town is along a fairly busy highway and I found the rides came fairly quickly. The café in town had good food.

South Pass City
This is a state historical site, not a true functioning town. The post office is part of the historical set, but the proprietor brings the mail in from Lander. If you want varied commercial services, you are better off hitching into Lander. There is one store just outside the historic site that sells tourist knickknacks and a few food items. I wasn’t looking for a town stop, so was happy to pick up my box and head on.

Rawlins
I spent more time in Rawlins than any other trail town due to the fact that I came down with giardia after leaving South Pass City. The interstate and the highway bypass have driven most of the business out of the downtown area where I stayed, leaving convenience stores and others that prey on the poor. The library is still downtown and has good internet access. There is a nice Thai restaurant that all the hikers I talked to enjoyed as much as I did. The cheap motels are downtown, while the more expensive chains hover around the new highways.

Steamboat Springs
After visiting so many poverty-stricken towns in Montana and Idaho, my first Colorado stop was a bit of culture shock. While its prosperity depends on the winter ski season, Steamboat Springs is still busy in the summer and I found much higher motel prices here. On the plus side I was able to find a well-stocked natural food store. The town is large enough to have free bus service, and I used one to get to the edge of town to hitch back to the trail.

Grand Lake
I walked into town and stayed at the Shadowcliff Hostel that is only a couple hundreds yards from the trail as it runs through town. The town itself is definitely another upscale tourist spot, but the folks at the hostel were very friendly and accommodating to hikers.

Silverthorne
This was the only town I visited where I could not find the “old” part of town, which is where I typically looked to stay because it was cheaper and more interesting than the sterile businesses typically found in the newer sections of town. Silverthorne appeared to have all been built within the past twenty years along the freeway by the reservoir. Despite that I rather liked the town as the people were generally friendly and I found a great produce stand along the road through town.

Twin Lakes
Since you walk through Twin Lakes if you follow the correct route, this is an easy town to resupply in if you mail yourself a box. The store has limited supplies, the restaurant was not open after Labor Day when I passed through, and the only lodging opportunity is a few cabins. There is a hiker-friendly hostel at Leadville if you want to hitch, but I found Twin Lakes a great in-and-out resupply town.

Salida
Salida was a fairly lengthy hitch from the trail at Monarch Pass. It took me three rides to make it back, but each wait was very short. The motels were all on the outskirts of town along the highway, but the post office was a ways off downtown. Downtown was much more pleasant and interesting than motel row but not really convenient for people on foot. The Monarch Pass snack bar holds packages for hikers. I went in there for ice cream and found the folks very hiker-friendly. If you can make do without a full town stop, it would be better to mail a package there to pick up and head right back to the trail.

Lake City
I only stopped briefly in Lake City to hitch another ride to Montrose where my brother lived. It seemed like a nice town, fairly compact with the necessary businesses for a hiker stop. Getting a ride down off Spring Creek Pass was a bigger problem, as I had to wait an hour in snow flurries before a hunter finally took pity and stopped for me.

Pagosa Springs
There was construction on the highway to town (which has been going on for years according to the locals) that made getting a ride take a while. The town itself seemed fairly compact and easy to find stuff in. Trail angels (who have since moved on) fed us dinner and drove us back up to the pass, so I have a nice memory of the place.

Chama
We got a ride into town with one of Tommy’s cousins who met us at Cumbres Pass. We stayed in a rundown hotel in town; the newer motels were more than a mile away in the newer part of town, where we also had to walk for the laundromat and grocery store. There is a nice café and the post office in the old part of town where we stayed. The town has a touristy feel to it, the main theme being the railroad. The old steam-fired coal engine takes tourists up and over the pass into Colorado. The train is very expensive to ride, but we paid for the interesting ride back up to the pass where we got off to resume the hike.

Ghost Ranch Abiquiu
Ghost Ranch is a Presbyterian conference center located in the spectacular canyons near the home of painter Georgia O’Keefe. They hold boxes for hikers without a fee and for a nominal rate allow you to spend the night in a cabin and eat at the cafeteria. Despite it being a weekend celebration of the 50 th anniversary of Ghost Ranch’s founding, the staff were gracious and accommodating. We felt right at home among the hundreds of celebrants. Of all the places I stayed at in New Mexico this is the one I would be inclined to come back and spend more time at.

Cuba
This town was large enough to be a decent trail stop, but was so poverty-stricken that it was not a particularly pleasant place to stay. No fancy motels or fancy anything, but the people were nice and the library glad to have hikers stop by and use the internet.

Grants
Grants was much bigger than Cuba, so we had hopes for finding more here that were quickly crushed. Arriving on Sunday afternoon we could find no restaurants open in the old part of town we stayed in and had to have pizza delivered. Virtually everything had moved out to the Interstate, leaving the main road through town, the famous Route 66, to pass through a long series of closed or soon-to-be closed businesses. Nothing was close to or convenient to the location of the trail as it passes through town.

Pietown
This small town has a wonderful antique Post Office and a great café that serves (what else) excellent pies. There is very little in the way of other businesses that cater to hikers (i.e., no motels or grocery stores). I passed through in a hurry so I could meet my wife near the Gila Cliff Dwellings, so did not take advantage of the hospitality of the famed local trail angel, Nita.

Gila Hot Springs
I did not use Doc Campbell’s to resupply as my wife met me here with my food box. I did go into Doc Campbell’s for ice cream and laundry and it seemed to be a good spot for hikers to visit, being on the trail (well, the road that passes for the trail around there) and willing to hold boxes. The folks at Gila Cliff Dwellings were also quite friendly and I have heard they also hold boxes.

Deming
This was probably the largest and most prosperous town I visited in New Mexico while on the trail. Being large, things were a bit spread out but you had various options in motels, stores and restaurants. Nothing particularly stood out in my mind, as all I was really thinking about was heading on to the border to finish the hike.

Columbus
Columbus would be a pleasant place if not for the fact that the whole border area has been turned into a police state. Border Patrol agents in SUVs drive by regularly and the skies are patrolled by helicopters and blimps. The B&B we stayed at was nice, but count on only one of the two B’s—you’ll have to fix your own breakfast. The owners do provide transportation, so that is a real plus.

© 2006 Mark C. Davis • Page Last Updated January 8, 2006