Waiting to start your thru-hike can be a lot like sitting on the toilet waiting for a bowel movement. You don't want to rush it, you're excited for it to happen, and you need something to keep you entertained during the wait. Thankfully, we have movies to solve this problem. But before we get
Continental Divide Trail In Photos: San Juan Mountains
The San Juan Mountains of Southern Colorado are the first real challenge of the Continental Divide Trail (that is, if you're hiking northbound and you don't consider the nearly 800 mi / 1,300 km of New Mexico to be much of a big deal). New Mexico has some climbing, but it does nothing to prepare
Continental Divide Trail Week 11: Farewell Moisture
DAY 71: Dog Attack (Arrive Grand Lake/Denver, CO) I wake up early, 5:30, since today I'm trying to reach Grand Lake with enough sunlight left to hitchhike the 100 mi / 160 km to Denver - where I have a chest x-ray scheduled for tomorrow (and where I have a friend who I am hopefully staying
Guthook Guides (Atlas Guides) CDT App Review
There exist two distinct epochs on the Continental Divide Trail - pre and post-Guthook. What is Guthook? Guthook, by Atlas Guides, is an app made specifically for the Continental Divide Trail. It's not a mapping or GPS tracking app that also happens to have the ability to help you out with your CDT
Continental Divide Trail Thru-hiker Advice For 2019
As part of the Continental Divide Trail Survey I ask CDT hikers what they would do differently, given the chance to do it all again, and what advice they have for future CDT hikers. I share this information in the hopes of giving an idea of what mistakes people typically make pre, during, or
Continental Divide Trail Week 10: Shortcuts to Town
DAY 64: Mount Elbert (Arrive Leadville, CO) When we wake up, the wedding party has yet to arrive. I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing. What is a bad thing? All of the frozen condensation on my sleeping bag. I can't wait for all of this to melt while my sleeping bag is stuffed away in my
Horror & Heartbreak On The Continental Divide Trail (2018 Edition)
The Continental Divide Trail is frequently thought of as the most difficult of thru-hiking's "Triple Crown". As part of this year's Continental Divide Trail Hiker Survey, I asked hikers about their lowest moments on trail and the moments on trail that made them legitimately fearful (whether this was
Continental Divide Trail Week 9: Moist Is Dead?
DAY 57: All Alone The smart thing to do would be to start when the sun comes up (then again, the smart thing to do might have been to never begin the CDT in the first place). Instead, I let the sun wake me up (sunrise is around 6:00), and the leisurely pack up my things before starting to hike
The CDT Resupply Guide: Class of 2018 Survey
Contrary to popular belief, Continental Divide Trail thru-hikers do not carry all of their food for the entire hike with them from the beginning (and if you're hiking the CDT then I would expect you to know this since chances are you've already done a long-distance thru-hike). If you're