Hike Summary

Following are a few random thoughts about hiking the Continental Divide Trail that I composed after finishing the hike. Most appear in some form or another in my journal, but I wanted to gather them together in one spot.

Weather
Having hiked, camped and visited in the Rockies during the summer in years past, I was surprised somewhat by the weather I encountered on the CDT. In Colorado the trail passes through the Never Summer Wilderness, but long before I arrived there I started thinking of my trip as the Never Summer Hike. I was expecting the classic Rocky Mountain thunderstorm, but never really encountered one like I remembered: the skies let loose amid flashes and booms and then it all blows away and the sun comes out again. Instead, the rains would usually arrive without a thunderstorm, and when one would accompany it, it would be a wimpy display that quickly dissipated. Light rain and clouds would tend to last all day. Despite all the warnings before I started about lightning safety, I never once had to alter my route because of the risk of lightning strikes, something I did a few times on the PCT.

In general I found the weather to be more like what one encounters in Oregon—cool and rainy. I never once was hot on the entire hike and could only call it warm (i.e., over 60 degrees for several hours) a few times. The really cold weather was in Colorado, but I only got snowed on three times, never ever laying down even an inch. It seems like everywhere I visited the locals would comment that it was hot last week, but the weather had cooled down recently. I had clouds and/or fog 3 of the 4 mornings I spent crossing the Divide Basin in Wyoming. In fact I was colder in this desert environment in mid-August than I was anywhere since northern Montana. I thought my sister-in-law summed it up best: “You’re a walking low pressure system, Mark.”

Maps
I relied mostly on the maps I got from Jonathon Ley (www.phlumpf.com). They had alternative routes marked and were full of amusing comments. The biggest drawback was their size—printed on 8 ½ x 11 high-quality paper they were still hard for my aged eyes to read easily. Brian and Lisa had printed them out on 11 x 17 paper that made them much easier to view. I didn’t use the Ley maps much in Colorado because I had a nearly full set of Trails Illustrated maps that were much easier to read. My original purpose in carrying them was to have detailed maps in case I had to bail out of the high route due to bad weather (the Ley maps only cover a narrow corridor), but I ended up using them almost exclusively. In the other states I also carried Forest Service or BLM maps, but most of them were of such poor quality as to be almost useless (they didn’t have all the roads, let alone the trails). I also carried AAA state maps that I only used in town to discuss overall routes. I spent hundreds of dollars on maps. It made me feel better while preparing for the hike, but on the trail it was easy to see that it was not a particularly wise investment.

Route
There are three main routes that have been designated to hike the Continental Divide Trail: 1) the official route, hundreds of miles of which has not been completed, so this is more theoretical than practical, 2) the Continental Divide Trail Alliance (CDTA) route, which sticks to the official route where it exists and tends to follow the roads where it doesn’t, and 3) the Continental Divide Trail Society (CDTS) route pioneered by Jim Wolf that provides a continuous walking route that largely avoids roads, while emphasizing the scenic and historic highlights in each state. These three routes often converged but not always.

Part of the fun of pre-hike planning is sitting at home with the maps and guidebooks and considering the alternative routes you might take. Once you are out on the trail you have to deal with the realities of weather, time, health, and the opinions of fellow hikers, so everything you figured out at home gets changed. Still I managed to stick to the basic plan I generated before I started: a continuous through-hike from the Canadian border to the Mexican border, generally following the CDTS route as outlined in the Wolf guidebooks. Timing and weather permitted me to avoid both the Anaconda and Creede cutoffs, but in following the CDTS route to Macks Inn and again by Rocky Mountain National Park I avoided circuitous forays the official route takes in these areas. In some areas the Ley maps would suggest additional alternatives and if you carried extra maps, you could make up your own route as I did a couple of times along the way.

Most hikers consider this plethora of choices one of advantages of hiking the CDT, making it seem wilder and more untamed than the PCT or the AT. While I generally agreed with that opinion, when hiking on the official route I was often frustrated by a lack of signage. I don’t expect signs when I head off cross-country, but when the government has spent tens of thousands of dollars to create a trail, it makes no sense to me to not be willing to spend a few hundred dollars to help potential users to find that trail.

Getting Lost
Regardless of the route you follow, you are going to get “lost” a few times. There are a couple of variations on “lost.” One is where you know exactly where you are on the map but you can no longer find the trail you have been following (tread, blazes or cairn). I would typically cast about a bit trying to find the trail and if unsuccessful would consult the map and compass to start off in the direction I needed to go. The other more serious case of “lost” would be when I was no longer sure where I was on the map, sometimes having followed what I thought was the trail only to have it lead to an obviously incorrect location. Usually I could figure out my general location and would use the compass to head back on track, though in a few cases I would pull out my small GPS to locate myself on the map. While I was never happy to lose my way, after a few weeks I became pretty blasé about cutting cross-country both to get back on route and to save time or distance even when I was on route.

Daily Mileage
The question of how far you should hike each day seemed to generate a lot of controversy this summer online on the CDT-list. There is no question that with the poor trails and route-finding difficulties you cannot make the same mileage on the CDT as you would on the PCT with the same physical effort. (In talking with Squeaky, the hiker who completed the PCT, CDT and AT in less than 8 months, he was often frustrated in making the mileage he expected due to the challenges of the CDT.) I planned on making about 20 miles a day and managed that most of the time, though given the often contradictory mileages listed on maps, guidebooks and signs, I could never be sure how far I had walked on any day.

Because I was counting on the Post Office for resupply in most cases, my mileage was driven by the need to avoid arriving in towns on the weekends when the Post Office was generally closed except for a couple of hours sometimes on Saturday morning. I found 20 to 25 miles pretty easy to do on a steady basis. Pushing beyond that was only possible with good trails or boring road walks, which I tried to avoid wherever possible. I took zero days (i.e., no trail mileage accomplished) several times and when I decided to spend the night in town, I would try to arrive mid-day to give me more time to rest.

The goal that really drove my hiking speed for the first three months was the possibility of early snow in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. I find hiking through significant snow to be too challenging, having neither the gear nor the inclination to do it. The trail through the San Juans runs between 11,000 and 13,000 feet, subject to snow at any time and significant sticking snow any time after the middle of September. My goal was to be out of Colorado as soon as practical, but no later than October 1. So, while I was generally happy with the mileage I was making, any thought of slowing down or spending an extra day in town was quickly vetoed by my practical desire to get through Colorado before the snow arrived. (Yes, I could have taken the Creede cutoff to avoid the San Juans, but I considered them one of the highlights of the trail and did not want to miss them.)

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