Southbound - Continental Divide Trail

imported
#1

I am researching and preparing for a southbound CDT hike. Planning to start in mid-June, weather permitting. I have not completed a thru hike before, but I have hiking experience and am comfortable with my gear. I spent 5.5 consecutive months in the backcountry in northern CA on a trail crew. I have also hiked and camped on shorter stints in snow, rain and sand as well.

I am particularly interested in a CDT adventure because it is farther off the grid than the AT or even the PCT. I still need more information before I commit fully.

In preparation, I’ve been reading thru hiker journals, gotten a stack of books about all or part of the triple crown, ordered CDTA official guidebooks, requested maps to study from former hiker Jonathan Ley. I’ve also scoured and critiqued my gear, made lists for replacements, spent hours combing all the outfitters in SF, etc. blah blah… I’m getting excited.

I am totally unfamiliar with message forums, but I understand this is a good way to make connections with the rare class of people who dare to tramp for fun. I am nearly convinced I have the guts and the faith to get started in Canada. What are the best things for me to do to get ready?

hopeful tramp

#2

I think your mentality sounds like it’s in the right place to get yourself out there.That’s the 1st step. I hiked the PCT and I’m in the planning stage for the CDT hopefully 2012. I think you should consider a few other “key” pieces of info on the trail that you might actually want to have with you.
One, check out “Yogis” CDT handbook, highly organized for all town stops and the overview book answers those questions and concerns.
2nd alot of hikers consider the official CDTA books to be inadequate for on trail use. I own them as well and have served as a good overview at home. Plus they are out date 2000-02. The CDTA has most recently issued high quality official topo map guides for NM & CO only. With waypoints and h20 markers. There is no text for description of trail. These would serve like Ley’s maps so you wouldn’t need both, I guess the advantage of them is the resolution of printing and time savings of printing Ley’s. Yes, Ley’s are designed to be printed and carried with you on the trail, not just for studying. I think Ley’s are more “authentic” keeping in mind the multiple options of route choices he gives.
3rd however, being that your hiking South consider the WOLFE CDTS society trail guide books written in “southbound description”. This is if you want text guidance through the passages which some find helpful in those tuff places. If one is carrying a GPS one might bypass text descriptions. You can find GPS way point files for the entire trail on line. I’m going north so the Society guides in south form are to confusing to decipher. I’ll exclude them.

Obviously there are different combinations of data to take with you. What seems to make the most sense is- Yogis, CDTS,LEYS, some forest maps for certain areas- WHICH ARE??, Delorme’s atlas pages given overview of the states, COMPASS/GPS.
I know this seems like alot of **** to carry but the strategy is to dissect each section and match each corresponding info together, saving weight of the whole sum.

Vulture death

#3

I second the recommendation to carry the Wolf guidebooks rather than the CDTA books. Everyone who has carried the “official” guides has had very rude things to say about them. I liked the Colorado book, but would rather carry Jim Wolf’s as the CDTA book was much heavier. The Ley maps are useful because they have multiple route options, as do the Wolf guides, plus the comments were very helpful (i.e. things like “watch out for the turn here, it’s very obscure”. It is really part of the fun of the trail to determine your own route. I haven’t seen the CDTA maps yet, but they should be helpful if you are hoping to follow only the official route. (For NOBO hikers, this is not a good year for attempting that, as parts of the official trail in NM are very dry normally in the spring and this is a very dry year.)

The www.spiriteaglehome.com website may be helpful if you haven’t found it yet. My sobo journal from 1999 is there, as well as the NOBO one from 2006, and there is a lot of CDT planning info as well.

Ginny

#4

Also, at least based on my experience in New Mexico, the Wolf (CDT Society) guidebooks are written for the southbound hiker, while the CDT Alliance (CDTA) guides are written for the northbounder. Trying to mentally reverse guidebook descriptions can be an exercise in frustration and an extra impediment to navigating the CDT.

That said, I would still carry the Wolf guides on a nobo hike, rather than the CDTA guides, as the latter are arguably more difficult to use even when heading in the “right” direction. With their full-color photography and wide-ranging, scholarly discourse, the CDTA guides do make great coffee table editions, however.


www.cdtrail.org (CDTA)

blisterfree

#5

All the advice is appreciated! I am working through a stack of library books trying to determine what are the best resources to put into sections for myself. I will look for the Wolf guides- I hadn’t discovered them on my own.(I’m glad I had only borrowed the CDTA guides to check them out before buying- after reviewing, I can’t imagine using them for sobo.)

Vulture Death- thanks for Yogi… I hadn’t found him yet and resupply has been my weakest part of the strategy thus far.

Ginny- thanks for Spirit Eagle- I’m trying to mix it up with the narrative stories too… to get in the right frame of mind. If Ryback could do it in jeans, halfway by himself, 40 years ago… with NO books… I’ve got a good shot too.

blisterfree- thanks for corroborating. I see that some of you folks are very active on here… It helps give me encouragement. I’m crazy, but I’m not the only one!

hopeful tramp

#6

All excellent advice above. I’ll add this: Consider carrying the appropriate pages from the DeLorme state atlases. That will give you a small scale look at the big picture, in case of major reroute due to fire, etc. They also have a GPS grid, which Ley’s maps and the guidebooks do not. And get to know how to use the compass rose on Ley’s maps, if you carry a GPS.

(Yogi is a she, not a he, by the way! Her book is a good resource. Also look at Pmags.com for some good background.)

Garlic

#7

My delorme of wyoming came in handy as I wanted to follow the Mormon trail over to ice slough (no more ice due to global warming)… had some beers at the sweetwater store, some more at another cafe-town, then rejoined the cdt for a bit before more at Baroil bar & grill; then I bushwhacked south using those maps, compass, gps, dead reckoning, along dry lakes, found windmill water, saw lots wild horses & antelopes on the way to the Rawlins hwy… we made road art out of trash we found along the highway & put up on fences… such as the Texas flag rug I used to claim wyoming for TX!

A recreation map of Southern Montana can be used if a shortcut is necessary (Bitterroot bypass) which shows some good options from W. Yellowstone/Earthquake Lake up on a high ridge trail & spill out at a “river runs thru it” town called Ennis? mt… this is on the Bikecentennial trail so camping is expensive, but close to the supermarket. From a tiny town at the N end of the lake, dirt roads run up back into the national forest to a hot springs near a ridiculously expensive resort & then over to whitehall (bus to butte or better to bozeman for resupply) then rejoin CDt near Pipestone camping at x-ing of the interstate & singing rocks railroad tracks.

gingerbreadman