"Viajar a pie" is Spanish for "Travelling on foot"

Category: Rockies

Continental Divide Trail

WhereRocky Mountains
WhenJune to October
Distance4900 km / 3044 miles
Length141 days

Wind River Range, Wyoming

A very empty place. Plenty hard work. A great idea about following a watershed, the spine of a continent. A certain sense of accomplishment and the great feeling about being where I had to be, doing what I love.

Gear for the CDT

The Black Range of New Mexico

The Black Range of New Mexico is a North-South alignment of mountains along the Divide in the southern half of the State. The official CDT track, as sanctioned by the CDT Coalition, takes in this range, closely following the actual Divide. As many other mountain groups in the region, the Black Range is an island of woods in the middle of the New Mexican high desert, with peaks around 10K’, heavily forested with pine, aspen and oak trees. It is a remote area in an already far-off, sparsely populated region. For a typical CDT section breakdown reference, the Black Range would lie between commonly used milestones Pie Town to the north and Silver City to the south.

CDT Gear Review, part 5: What didn’t work

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series CDT Gear Review

Maybe it’s that I planned for this trip in a bit of a rush, maybe it was just bad luck, maybe a sign of the times but I had several cases of gear/strategy failure, something I’m not used to and makes for some worthy comment. These below are the main offenders:

Waterproof top

ZPacks CloudCover

This is an old item, no longer available, built with plain DCF. It is not breathable and it doesn’t mean to be. I find this an interesting idea, currently unfashionable, if it ever was, with some potential to work well in some circumstances. It is a jacket with full front zip, pit zips and a hood with cord-lock and visor, i.e. a full jacket. No other extras though. One key feature is it weights 83 gr. I’ve had this jacket since around 2011 and I had only taken it with me on one multi-week trip where it didn’t rain much.

British Columbia, 2012

CDT Gear Review, part 4: Planning & Navigation

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series CDT Gear Review

I brought navigation and planning together as the relevant resources often overlap. In a bit of a stretch, let me consider the soft ware as gear.

As of 2019, there was 3 CDT-specific map sets and 2 smartphone apps. Then there’s the generic map sets and generic apps that you could adapt. I carried one map set on paper, the others on electronic form, plus the two specific Apps and two other generic ones. Most of my navigation was on the Guthook App, allegedly the most popular.

CDT Gear Review, part 3: Everything is important

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series CDT Gear Review

Shoes, poles, stove or a kitchen wipe. Everything is important.

Shoes

Merrell All Out Blaze Aero Sport

These shoes worked well for me. They’re soft and ventilated with moderate drop. My feet don’t seem to have very specific needs anyway.

1400 miles vs. 0

The most remarkable fact is probably not that much about the shoes themselves but about my use of them on the CDT as I completed the trail in just 2 pairs where the average seems to be more than twice that. That’s 1500 miles per pair. This is probably not that much about the durability of the shoes but about my using them to the very last bit, something discouraged by many users that doesn’t seem to have any negative effect on me.

When the first pair was about done, I ordered another one online and shipped ahead.

CDT Gear Review, part 2: Layering System

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series CDT Gear Review

Clothing is where function meets fashion more than anywhere else. Bring on the colors.

CDT Gear Review, part 1: The Big Three

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series CDT Gear Review

Shelter, Pack and Sleep systems say a lot about a hiker. Here’s my CDT Big Three manifesto.

Shelter

Trailstar + Shaped Groundsheet + Bivy

The whole point of this combo was to meet successfully the diverse conditions inherent to such a long trip while providing all the usual: protection, comfort and light weight. The short answer is it did.

Highest camp of the trip at 12300′

CDT Trail towns

I enjoy the town stops in my trips and particularly so when the trip is wilderness oriented, it is then that coming down to town has a most distinct added value. During a long distance trip, hiking becomes your job and the town stops are the weekend break. To me, they become a very important part of the story.

CDT Route breakdown, southbound

This text below is a match between a satellite view over the Continental Divide and my own memories of the outstanding geographical units along the way on the grand scheme of CDT things.

Thoughtfully yours on the CDT

Some random thoughts beneath the surface of a Continental Divide Trail thru-hike.

Southbound is the way to go

Snow being the potential show stopper, I’m aware it really depends on the year but after having hiked the trail I find it odd that Northbound is so much more popular than SoBo. The window is tight either way but my impression is that going SoBo it opens nicely in front of you as go. NoBo, you get a good slam when you reach Southern Colorado.

It seems common that northbounders end up short-cutting or flip-flopping sections. If you value a continuous trip over the actual divide trail, definitely go Southbound.

CDT Highlights

Places, facts and feelings that stand out as I look back on my trip on the Continental Divide Trail, in no particular order other than a geographical north to south, where applicable.

Glacier National Park

If you start southbound on the CDT, you begin with a shock: the most impressive and postal-worthy scenery of the whole trip, right away, straight from the trailhead. It’s vertical walls, pointy peaks, deep valleys, endless woods, lakes and waterfalls. Glaciers too.

Songs for the Continental Divide Trail

Hiking is inherently rhythmic. If there’s rhythm, there’s music.

Music goes wonderfully well with the hiking. I let them both blend in and develop, free of external stimulae other than the environment I’m in, a world away from the constant over-stimulation of modern urban life. This I find a very interesting exercise: let my mind wander and let it choose the music so I become my own algorithm.

Final push, CDT Southern Terminus

This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Continental Divide Trail live

It’s interesting how the mind works and how body and mind go together. Southern New Mexico had been very hard on both after my decision of sticking to the main CDT trail, avoiding all the easier/shorter alternates. My mind then focused on making it to Silver City, NM as a reasonable, meaningful mid-term goal. When I got there, I was relieved and happy. When I tried to keep going after a short break, it was like I couldn’t make it anymore.

The high desert of Southern New Mexico

Dare to do

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Continental Divide Trail live

The CDT is certainly hard work and some technical know-how about being out there for extended periods of time. At the same time, it’s all become quite predictable after the wealth of information we have at our hands, including on line updates about important aspects like trail conditions or water availability. You typically leave town knowing how long it will take to get to the next.

Water in the dry grasslands

New Mexico, New Trip

This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Continental Divide Trail live

Shortly after I crossed the Colorado-New Mexico border, I climbed somewhere over 11 K feet for the last time on the trip. One would say it was all downhill from there and, in a way, it was.

All downhill now

Winter is Coming

This entry is part 3 of 6 in the series Continental Divide Trail live

Southern Colorado is probably the main key to a successful southbound CDT hike. The mountains are high, the trail goes through exposed terrain and hikers are forced to be in the area late in the season. Indeed, as the saying goes, Winter Is Coming and it comes early when you are consistently between 11 and 13 K feet high.

Light, dark and alpine profiles in the San Juan Range

CDT three months in

This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Continental Divide Trail live

Three months and nearly two thousand miles after I started hiking on the Continental Divide Trail northern terminus in Waterton Park, I’m in Salida, Colorado. This trail is real hard work and it’s been only a few weeks since I feel like I’m finding my comfort zone within the hard work. Days are getting shorter and the Dawn-to-Dusk scheme is more necessary than ever before while all camp chores are by headlamp light and mornings get real chilly.

CDT first month

This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Continental Divide Trail live

As I write this at the public library in Darby, MT it’s exactly one month since I started hiking from Waterton, AB but it feels like a year. Hiking is a slow thing for today’s standards but there’s a lot going on with every step. Here are a few things that stand out.

Glacier

Glacier National Park was a tough start for a long trip. The trails are excellent, the campsites are set, the environment feels under control and the mileage was set to be easy but the mountains are high, the passes are snowbound, the pack feels heavy and the stormy weather of mid June didn’t help. The end result: after 7 days I was exhausted, mosquito-bitten, happy and ready to take my first break day. In the Pacific Crest Trail, it took me one month to have my first break.

Glacier National Park

Bob Marshall Wilderness

Then it came The Bob, a huge chunk of wild land with no roads across it and my longer stage so far with 8 days worth of food in my pack. It felt even heavier than before and fact is it was. The weather was cold and stormy, it didn’t feel like summer and it was a wonderful struggle through rough trails, blow-downs and endless woods, either green or burnt. Bear prints on top of moose prints on top of human prints and the iconic Chinese Wall escarpment making for a perfect reminder that we’re hiking along the Continental Divide. We just need some summer weather for a perfect time.

Bob Marshall Wilderness

Helena & Butte

As the peaks lower in height, the trail jumps up to the divide with the treeline getting higher, way beyond 8 K feet or 2400 m. Woods, woods and more woods, very welcome for sun protection and storm shelter. Water goes from being a problem for being too much to being a problem for being scarce. It’s warmer but still stormy. I love long stages (7 days in this case) for the opportunity to be in the wilderness for an extended period so the following time I’ll have a coffee it’ll taste as good as it can get but once again my shoulders would hardly approve, tough initial days until my food weight comes down. Very stormy in the divide, still waiting for summer.

Typical camp in the woods

The Pintlers

The Continental Divide does funny loops and the trail follows. After the Butte orbital, we’re back to big mountains and patchy snow on the passes. This is another 7 day section for me and the good news is that midway through it the storms calm down eventually and we can have some relax in the hiking.

Tamarack larch in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness

I say “we” all the time. There’s a whole bunch of us aspiring thru-hikers going southbound, many of them fleeing from the Colorado snow after having hiked New Mexico in the early spring. Now that summer has finally arrived we’ll need to earn each step with sweat. It’s gonna be great.

Gear for the CDT

What do you need for a 5 month trip? The short answer is pretty much the same as for any other shorter one with one additional, important factor in that it may be a trip through the seasons and different climate areas.

A fine-tuned 3 season kit should do, the same as for a shorter journey but greatest attention must go into maximizing versatility so the gear can cope with a wide range of conditions. A 5 month trip will be a great test to the validity of the kit described below.

Continental Divide Trail Preview

I was at this point in life where life itself told me it was time for a break. Come such time, I have it clear what I need to do is hike.

Along the Continental Divide

Colorado Trail

The Rockies are the most famed north-american mountains, a huge range of a size and extension owing to the local scale of things: everything is big in America and so is its mountainous spine.

WhereColorado Rockies
WhenAugust/September
Distance800 km / 500 miles
Length25 days

Cataract Ridge in the San Juan Mountains

I had barely visited a lesser section of the Rockies so this was pretty much my real introduction to the range. By hiking a significant section of their length, I’d hope to experience the same attraction that led my story in the ranges farther west.

The Rockies may be known for their rocks but it took several days until the trees allowed any significant rocky view. I spent many hours and days walking in the woods to the point that I started calling them “The Woodies”. Not sure I’m allowed to play with the words in a language I don’t know.

The Colorado Trail was the perfect length for my 4 week holiday window and it had been in the planning stages before. 2008 was the year I’d travel the Rockies.

Slide Show

Let the images do the talking

Colorado Trail Thru: how the west was hiked and where it got us from Viajarapie on Vimeo.

Gear

As this is no fashion show, there’s not new gear every season and many items are the same as those for previous trips. Most key items are. I won’t be commenting again on those that already were in 2007 or 06 and I’ll focus on the new items or the new life from old ones. As usual, there’ll be a few lessons learned.

Logistics

The Colorado Trail Foundation is the obvious and basic starting point for any prospect CT traveler. They take care of anything trail related and their website is full of all that information one needs one one knows nothing. Plus the e-shop gives access to the paperwork, plain or e-

Information

This is the west and the Rockies are the great barrier that defines what’s beyond as the Far West: the Colorado Trail traverses the Front Ranges of the Rockies and then travels along the main divide of North America.

The big mountain ranges usually make a difference as to the climate that can be found on either side. Not so much with the Colorado Rockies: big mountains but too far from the oceans, the Rockies don’t trap the weather; rather, they create their own weather.

Afterthoughts

Weminuche Wilderness, CDT & CT share the trail

Expectations vs. Reality

I’m used (with a reason) to think of America as the place of the big, open spaces where one can be well away from the human things. I appreciate that as much as I miss it in over-stuffed Europe and that’s basically why I keep coming back.

First Impressions

The Sawatch Range

Ever since I started doing multi-week hiking trips, a few years back, I felt I was going one step forward every time. Maybe several steps forward: longer, more difficult, more remote… in 2008, though, the Colorado Trail left me with this Deja Vu impression and the feeling that I had already done this before. But maybe I shouldn’t be starting here with a seemingly negative comment on an otherwise wonderful trip that basically reaffirmed my faith on backpacking as my best battery charger and necessary break from the modern. And the Colorado Rockies are a great place to feel the noise.

Plan

The north american wilderness has this certain attractive: it may be easy, smooth going but also remote and solitary. Miles and miles of uninhabitted land not because conditions were consistently too tough but because there were better places and yet huge chunks of terrain were spared from human occupation. Now they may be visited by hikers and I enfasise the fact that we are visitors in some other’s home. We’ll try to be respectful and enjoy.

Pic from the Colorado Trail Foundation

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