@Bearcreek:
Where and when will the additional pages covering the newly adopted Collegiate 80 section be available for your CT Mapbook?
Hopefully they are available as a supplement so I don’t have to buy a second mapbook just to get the new pages.
Thanks.
Wandering Bob
A new, expanded mapbook containing the Collegiates will be published and available later this month or early February. We are discussing a supplement and might do one after that. A supplement would probably only be correct for the coming season. Some new trail under construction will likely be open in 2014 and all these books will have to be re-published again.
bearcreek
Please do the supplement and get it out by March 31 for this summer’s hikers. The map book itself is just too expensive to buy a second copy just for the added pages.
I am aware of the 2-3 year time frame projected for the relocation of a large portion of the Collegiate 80 and the effect it will have on the maps. However, no major rerouting can occur in 2013, as it will take up to 3 years to build the new trail section.
Thank you.
wandering bob
While it will be several years before all the planned changes are complete, crews have been building trail up there for several years already. At least 21 miles of new trail are expected to be completed this season and open in 2014.
bearcreek
The folks that construct the CDT have a bad habit of building new trail that connects to the old trail, then having it deadend in the middle of nowhere - to be continued at a time unknown. It would be much better if they didn’t connect the trail to the existing route until the whole thing is finished, but that isn’t the way they seem to do it. So unless you have good maps for the area, watch out if you see ribbons or blazes heading into the unknown. You may end up having to scramble to get back to some sort of existing trail. We ran into that in NM several times, as well as Wyoming, at which point we stopped following brand new blazes and stuck with the route we knew would get us there.
ginny
I am a section hiker in So California, and I have the good fortune to participate in trail building on the PCT with the Trail Gorillas. Us trail builders can take out thick brush maybe up to 1/8 mile each day (on a good day). And drilling out crumbling shale rock can take considerably longer. We might make progress in mere inches or a few feet in 1 day with an entire work party. So if the trail ends in “the middle of nowhere”, we ask for your patience with us. We have to hike up that 1 end connected trail (and possibly bring in a muletrain to carry heavy equipment and supplies) to build our trail.
Section hiker PCT Linda
My comments are some thoughts from a trail building crew member (see previous post) in general. I was not talking about the Collegiate 80 specifically.
Section hiker PCT Linda
It is possible that the new 21 mile piece in the Collegiates will be finished and open late in the summer. The CTF will mark it if that is the case but the maps won’t get updated until next winter. The CTF will put information on their website if and when the new parts open so you might want to keep an eye on that. The new (2013) Colorado Trail Mapbook will not show any trail that is unfinished.
As ginny pointed out, the CDT is a different story. If you are hiking the CDT and follow newly built trail that is not in the Mapbooks then you may end up having an unexpected adventure.
bearcreek