What is the current CDT speed record?
ADAM BRADLEY
Re cdt speed record
system
#2
There is none. 
Seriously. I am not trying to be flip.
The trail is not done, the designated trail often avoids some areas that many hikers take due to scenery (such as the Winds) or horse accessibility issues (again the Winds), etc. etc.
Squeaky did the trail in 75 days for his route.
In order for an “official” record to be truly recorded, every hiker would have to do the same route…and it would help if the trail would be completed, too. Otherwise you can be like a hiker I won’t name who claimed a “speed record” and did mainly road walks to get his fast time. (It was NOT Squeaky).
IMO (and it is just my opinion), a truly valid CDT “record” is well…not really valid at this time.
Just my opinion, YMMV, Just my .02 worth, HYOH, BINGO, etc. etc. etc.
Paul Mags
system
#3
What was the route squeaky did? Any more detail than 75 days? As in hours or minutes? What was the other speed record claimed?
thanks monstro
ADAM BRADLEY
system
#4
…but he has a trail journal!
His contact info is there, too.
Squeaky is usually great about answering any questions.
He also had a podcast about his 3crown in one year as well:
http://www.trailcast.org/programs/36
Good luck!
Paul Mags
system
#5
There is also Will Tarantino’s hike in 2005 that is documented here on this website. He hiked northbound through some really nasty conditions and had something like an 80 day through hike.
As Mags said, there isn’t a record because there isn’t one, single, established route. For example the Anaconda cutoff is taken by most (though not all hikers), yet it is in the Wolfe guides. Which route do you take through the Divide Basin? Do you follow the ID-MT border or go up the Bitterroot Valley?
S
system
#6
Adam,
You aren’t capable of beating that record…maybe you should try some lesser known trail like the Arizona Trail.
tom
system
#7
Already set the AZT speed record tom. I however was unable again to connect with the brit to get a idea of what his route was. Anyone know what made his route unique. If I would like to attempt regardless of toms vote of confidence I wouldn’t want someone to say after the fact that it wasn’t the route the brit took. So if anyone out there knows what makes the brits route unique please let me know. As well if there is a more exact time (days hours and minutes that it was done in would be handy).
Ill keep your comment in mind tom while im running my half marathon tonight after work in the foothills of the sierra. and this weekend while im out testing gear in the mt rose wilderness.
ADAM BRADLEY
system
#8
I’ll be testing out gear this weekend as well (pints of beer) as I attempt the record for the COUCH TO FRIDGE. Some former CDTers plan on doing the first ever COUCH TO FRIDGE yo-yo. (CTF).
Hard…but I can do it.
Paul Mags
system
#9
I dont know how you will accomplish that as there is no “official” route for the c2f yet!
It is funny how every time I inquire about a record someone says there isn’t one, but then there ends up being someone claiming a record regardless. Pays to do your research before setting out to break a record. As well to take others info with a grain of salt.
No speed records for me this weekend, but I will be sucking down tetra packs of wine on my outing.
ADAM BRADLEY
system
#10
There really is no record. You can believe some guy named “tom”, or you can take my word for it.
I really don’t care.
Those who have done the CDT will smile at the thought of a “record” on this unfinished corridor.
Those who care about records, and the gear companies that sponsor such attempts, will loudly proclaim it to all the media.
And 99.9% of the people won’t care.
In the end, I’ll avoid “the angels on the heads of a pin” type arguments.
I’m an outdoors person, not an athlete.
I’ll leave the “records” on unfinished trails with no defined corridor and multiple ways of doing to the more athletic among you. 
And I still say the idea of a CDT record is pretty funny.
But that is just my opinion. And you know what they say about opinions and a particular part of the human anatomy: We all have one…and they all stink.
Paul Mags
system
#11
O man, what a finely crafted post you just left there Mags. It hit me in all the right places- laughed, cried, etc. Plus, it sums up an attitude to these speed records that it seems most record-setters never seem to understand. Sure they proclaim that they’re doing it just for themselves, and that they are respecting the HYOH mantra, but it just always seems that these record setters also want to dangle their achievement in front of everyone too. Completely oblivious to your above line of thinking, and in direct opposition to their supposed “I’m doing it for myself,” attitude.
Rocham
system
#12
Adam,
Have fun setting your “records,” and informing the populace of your great success. I’ll say it again, just because you self post all to hell that you are some grand professional athlete doesn’t make it so. Get a grip and stop spamming the forums with your Walter Mitty complex. No you haven’t read that, ask your Mom.
Tom
system
#13
While Im out on Tofurky Day and over the weekend anything else I should accomplish for you Tom?
ADAM BRADLEY
system
#14
I am not against speed records or the act of doing them.
Indifference is probably the best way to describe how I feel.
I’ve met some record holders and most are pretty chill, cool people.
But, as I’ve stated (like a broken record. ), I think the idea of a CDT “record” is pretty amusing if not silly. But those who care about such things will swap stats I guess and compare goo shoot types.
May everyone’s journey go well. Have a wonderful holiday of your choice. I’m going to the Sand Dunes…
Paul Mags
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#16
Even though I think I was on every route every day… Wolf, Ley, CDTA, my own shortcut to a shortcut, I think I have an idea about how there may be a way to beat everyone else that goes AFTER you, but that would be sort of a long drawn out process. The problem would be documenting every single inch you walked, including when you were misplaced and didn’t know where exactly you were. I can’t even remember the names of all the passes let alone all the barbed wire fences I hopped or FS roads I took instead of other FS roads. I do remember a few times all of us standing around for about 20 minutes trying to decide left or right or straight or if we should just sit and eat instead and then try to make a decision. Or I also remember following blazes near Mt. Taylor in NM and just ending up walking around in circles after the trailwork for last season just up and ended. Fires would get in your way and snow and lightening too. That would be really hard to deal with if you had somewhere to get to really quickly. Maybe you could make up your own route, call it the Bradley route, have a GPS on all day long taking waypoints every 30 seconds or so, then post your route and see how many people try to beat you. That would be the only way to do it, probably.
Nemo
system
#17
Does that make every current Triple Crowner a non official triple crowner?
Sounds like Nemo sort of hiked the CDT eh?
MONSTRO
system
#18
Yes and yup. What I said sounded trite and smug. It came out wrong like most of my words. I am sorry. But I still think the only way to beat someone would be to track your own footprints and let someone else try to beat you if you’d like. I don’t think the triple crown is official really for anyone. I tried, but in the end only sort of hiked on the Continental Divide. So much of it was covered in snow, jagged and too steep to climb without ropes, far away from a water source, smattered with barbed wire or on fire, it was a shame. I loved it though and just don’t want it to turn too tame too quickly.
Nemo
system
#19
Nemo, you summed up my feelings for the CDT exactly in your last sentence. I felt honored to have hiked it before it’s “done”.
I respect anyone who can finish the CDT, no matter what route and how fast. I think those who do finish are pretty humbled by the experience.
Garlic
system
#20
The only thing “official” about any of the trails is the sheer joy spent outside for weeks or months at a time. Everything else is just gravy.
If you go on these journeys for yourself, who gives a rat’s tootie what others think.
Enjoy the trail. Enjoy the journey. Enjoy all that it entails.
Now…to get back out there again. Sigh.
Paul Mags