Who is going to be the 1st to thru hike the 4th N-S mountain chain trail? Alls you need to do is keep hiking N once you reach the Utah border… lots of dirt roads & continuous National forests almost all the way to Idaho! … good luck to anyone who shall accept this challenge~!
gingerbreadman
It’s called the Great Western Trail and parts of it are marked in AZ and Utah. We’ve seen signs. I don’t know about north of there. It is intended for ATVs, so I don’t know how water would be. You could make your own route by linking the AZT with the GWT with the ICT in Idaho.
Ginny
Dang…we’d already thought of Mex->Can using AZT, GWT and ICT and now the cat’s out of the bag! We’ve hiked the AZT and ICT and hiked the east-west loop of the GWT when we hiked the ADT. The high desert is easy walking but a water challenge. I think that route is even more “out there” than the early CDT.
GWT’s web site is out of date. The part that we hiked on seemed to be used as seasonal hunting trail.
GottaWalk
Ray and Jenny Jardine did a “IUA Hike and Bike” back in the late 90’s I believe.
I think there’s an adage to the effect that once you’ve earned your PhD it’s time to go back to being a know-nothing in another discipline and start from scratch. It’s one thing I admire about those two; they’re willing to embrace going way out of the comfort zone rather than treading comfortable, if comparatively exotic, waters for all their days.
blisterfree
I agree that the Jardines are extraordinary. I owned Ray’s PCT book for years dreaming about adventures. Imagine the numbers of hikers/backpackers they influenced or introduced to the backcountry. The paradox is that their comfort zone is where solitude is found. Whatever floats your (ahem) kayak.
Marcia
Well, I haven’t been on the ICT but reading the journals of folks who did made it sound like it might be better to make your own way closer to the Montana border & join the dividers to avoid all the hell ICTers go thru on the southern part of that thing… then join the ICT when it hits the bitterroot divide & do the easier N part that is not so insane!!!
gingerbreadman
Sorry, I meant that the nat’l forests are close to Hwy 89 with towns like Gunnison, Mt. Pleasant, & Provo nearby… even Salt Lake City would be accessible… then, staying between I-15 & Wyoming border, you could resupply at actual towns instead of just hunting lodges, the last one being Dubois, Idaho (not to be confused with Dubois, Wy)
b4 you join up with the divide you may be familiar with that is not so insanely overgrown like the ICT west of there.
gingerbreadman
Sounds like a plan: If it gets slow at work, I might jump on my scooter & head x-Texas/NM over to do some trailwork on the Azt; then see the Grand Cand; then scout out Utah/Idaho for possibilities; then head home down the CDT. Hope to help some hikers if I do!!!
gingerbreadman
I been checking out Utah & Idaho on my Nat’l Geo map cd’s:
You will be happy to know that it will be quite easy to make a trail out of existing 4wd tracks in Northern Utah & Southern Idaho… unfortunately, central Utah is a wonderful wilderness with few trails & 4wd tracks… looks like a huge bushwhack… maybe because it’s a watershed for Salt Lake City, Logan etc… they have tried to keep it pristine… if you are NB, once you get near Richmond, it’s extremely easy to cobble together pack trails & 4wd tracks & enter Idaho going arrow strait N over Double Top Mtn… then there are a spiderweb of trails, 4wd’s & dirt roads that you can hike straight thru Soda Springs on & keep trending NE on… you may have to jump across the border & hike N thru Grand Tetons Park & join the CDTers at some point following the Bitterroots until you join the
Idaho Centennial trail already in progress… perhaps southern Utah is better, i have not investigated that yet!
gingerbreadman
I have been wanting to do that for years. I was thinking instead of just hiking of incorporating maybe a kayak adventure on the salt lake or biking in the moab area, etc… I will be finishing my Masters degree next spring, maybe then.
Nicholas