The Continental Divide Trail Hiker Survey (2020)

In the second installment of the 2020 Continental Divide Trail Hiker Survey, we’ll take a look at the hikers who were actually on the trail this year. Normally, this information is covered in the initial survey publication, but because of many hikers choosing to cancel their hikes due to COVID-19, I first published this year’s NOGO data.

The CDT Survey is now in its fourth and I would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to participate – even if especially if you canceled your hike.

The CDT Survey is meant to be a useful resource to (actually) help those of you interested in hiking the Continental Divide Trail figure out how the hell to approach such a monstrous journey. Every year, I try to improve the data collected and fine-tune the presentation to best help hikers. I would love to hear what you think in the comments below.

NOTE: The data is not going to be 100% guaranteed accurate – especially in a year like 2020. Despite my best efforts, there’s nothing scientific about the data collection or presentation. Remember, I’m just a random guy on the internet trying to help CDT hikers; take it easy.

Congratulations on arriving at a spot in the CDT Survey that most readers have probably skipped. Here are the results of Halfway Anywhere’s 2020 Continental Divide Trail Hiker Survey!

Notes on the data

• This year we had 83 completed surveys – fewer than last year, but still only two short of our first Continental Divide Trail survey.
• Some responses have been sorted and colored to present the data in a friendlier manner (e.g. northbound vs. southbound responses).
• Not all CDT hikers meticulously document the stats of their thru-hike. The data is not going to be 100% accurate.
• I refer to survey respondents collectively as this year’s “class“. Remember, this is a sample and not a comprehensive survey of every CDT hiker who intended to hike or who did hike this year.
• If they recall only math-exam anxiety, it’s suggested you familiarize yourself with the words average, median (M), and standard deviation (σ).
• For stats requiring the length of the CDT for a calculation (e.g. average mileage per day over the course of the trail), I use 3,100 mi / 4,989 km (that said, almost nobody actually hikes this distance on the CDT).
• I will be releasing more detailed survey posts focused on CDT Gear, CDT Resupply, CDT Horror Stories, and CDT Advice in the coming weeks. If you would like to be notified of new surveys, click here.

LABELS differentiating hiker segments:

• NOGO: Hikers who intended on hiking the CDT in 2020 but who canceled their hikes
• THRU: Thru-hikers (all)
• THRU-0: Thru-hikers who did NOT complete the CDT
• THRU-1: Thru-hikers who completed the entire CDT
• NOBO: Northbound thru-hikers (all)
• NOBO-0: Northbound thru-hikers who did NOT complete the CDT
• NOBO-1: Northbound thru-hikers who completed the CDT
• SOBO: Southbound thru-hikers (all)
• SOBO-0: Southbound thru-hikers who did NOT complete the CDT
• SOBO-1: Southbound thru-hikers who completed the CDT

If NO LABEL has been appended to a data point, then I used all data collected.

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Hiker Jobs & Working Conditions

How are you able to take so much time off to hike for five months across the United States? Probably a question that anyone planning a Continental Divide Trail hike has been asked at some point or another.

This year, I asked hikers what they do for work (when they’re not being incredible hiking machines) and how they were able to take time off to hike the CDT.

Hiker Experience

Many of the survey respondents this year didn’t hike the CDT, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t planning their hikes for some time before COVID-19 shut the world down.

Here’s a look at what the 2020 class looked like during their “Planning a CDT Hike” phase. This section examines first-time hikers, hiker experience level, and other trails hiked.

Hiking Partners & Alone Time

Beginning a thru-hike on your own can sound scary and intimidating, but it turns out the majority of thru-hikers (and hikers in general) began their hikes alone. Here, we’ll look at who hikers began with, how much time they spent hiking and camping alone, whether they stayed with their hiking partner(s), hiker relationships,

Unfortunately, I did not receive enough responses from southbound hikers to provide similar data for SOBO hikes.

Flip-flopping, Completion Rates, & Footpaths

If you’re new to thru-hiking, here’s a quick explanation of what flip-flopping means in the context of a thru-hike. Flip-flopping, or flipping, is when a hiker skips a section of trail with the intention of coming back to hike it later in the hike (the flop). This usually takes one of two forms.

One is a hiker skipping ahead, continuing to hike the same direction, and then returning to the point they originally departed the trail to hike the skipped section later (e.g. northbound jumps from NM/CO border to CO/WY border, then hikes north to Canada before returning to NM/CO border to hike north to CO/WY border).

It can also be when a hiker skips ahead and then hikes the skipped section in the opposite direction of their original hike before jumping back up to the point where they originally skipped to and continuing their hike in the original direction (e.g. northbound hiker jumps from NM/CO border to CO/WY border and then hikes south to NM/CO border before returning to CO/WY border to continue hiking north).

Why did hikers flip-flop?

Where did hikers flip from/to?

Thru-hiker Resupply Strategy

I’ll be following up this post with a more detailed breakdown of this year’s resupply. If you would like to be notified of new posts, click here.

Find all CDT Resupply posts here.

Thru-hiking Gear

Maybe the thing Continental Divide Trail hikers spend the most time obsessing over before (and on…and after) the trail is their gear. Gear choices play an essential role in a thru-hike, but there is no magical gear combination that will guarantee you a successful thru-hike (if you know otherwise, please let me know). That said, there is certainly gear that can help (and hurt) thru-hikers.

Each year I do a deep dive into the gear used by CDT hikers in my CDT Gear Guide, but I like to offer a preview of what’s to come in this CDT Survey post.

Let’s take a look at what this year’s CDT Class had with them out on the trail.

There are more detailed and more interesting breakdowns of this information on the way in this year’s CDT Gear Guide. For now, let’s take a peek at some of the gear thru-hikers were using on the trail this year. Here are the most common “Big 4” items: packs, shelters, sleeping bags, and sleeping pads (I know it’s the “Big 3”, but I include sleeping pads, get over it) along with the most common insulated jackets and shells.

Again, there will be extensive breakdowns in the CDT Gear Guide.

This is just the tip of the proverbial thru-hiking iceberg in the gear department. As mentioned above, I will soon be publishing a detailed breakdown of this year’s CDT gear. This will include snow gear, luxury items, what gear decisions (might have) helped hikers to a successful thru-hike, how hikers would change/adapt their gear for a future hike, and more.

Technology on Trail

Long gone are the days of CDT old when it was a trail sought out by only the most experienced backcountry orienteers; thanks to the magic of technology a phone is all you need to greatly increase your chances of not killing yourself on the trail.

Phones are a fact of life on the trail, and if the sight of them in the wilderness distresses you, then you had best prepare yourself. Phones are hikers’ cameras, GPS devices, televisions, music players, town-researching devices, and (sometimes) SOS devices. There are a number of apps commonly used by Continental Divide Trail hikers – and even one designed specifically for the CDT (that you should most certainly invest in).

Here are the apps and phones hikers were using out on the trail this year.

Hiker Health & Filtering

Water treatment and hygiene is a big consideration for hikers (at least it should be). That said, it’s typically something thru-hikers worry less about as the trail goes on (for extreme athletes, thru-hikers can be incredibly lazy). If you want a look at what water sources on the CDT can look like, I encourage you to check out this post.

Some hikers religiously filter all water that passes through their face hole – it doesn’t matter if it comes out of a hotel sink or a puddle with a cow pooping in it. Other hikers will “not filter above 10,000 ft / 3,048 m”, or “not filter running water” (this last one is not a good idea – running water can still get you sick).

Everyone wants to look cool in front of their friends by not filtering water (remind me why people think this is cool again?), but there are risks to the badass thru-hiker lifestyle (and to drinking dirty, giardia-infested water).

To find out how good a job everyone is doing filtering their water and sanitizing their hands after pooping (another way to get yourself sick), I ask hikers how often they treated water sources and whether they got get sick (defined as three or more days of digestive issues or diagnosed giardia).

Looking at this another way, we can see:

• 59.5% of hikers always treated their water and 9% of these hikers got sick
• 18.9% of hikers usually treated their water and 14.3% of these hikers got sick
• 21.6% of hikers sometimes treated their water and 12.5% of these hikers got sick
• 0% of hikers never treated their water

In total, a reported 10.8% of hikers came down with something akin to giardia, and 0% never filtered.

Favorite/Least Favorite Sections

This may come as a shock, but the Continental Divide Trail is a long hike with a lot to see (mostly bears). Here is a look at the favorite and least favorite sections of the trail.

Fear, Regrets, and Advice

When asked if hikers ever felt legitimately afraid on the trail, this is what they had to report (more of this will be included in a future post, but for now, here are some that stood out):

• Really hot and windy conditions in the Great Divide Basin. The wind broke my tent poles and I was constantly worried about water.
• During a lightning storm where a bolt of lightning struck the trail 200 yards (183 m) behind us while we were cowered under clumps of sagebrush.
• I definitely had some bearanoia in grizzly bear territory.
• Snow-covered ledges in 60 mph (97 km/h) wind in Colorado

Now for CDT thru-hiker wisdom. I asked hikers what they would have done differently before their hikes if they were to do it all over again.

In addition to asking hikers what they would have done differently before their thru-hikes, I asked them what they wish they had done differently during their hikes. Here are the top responses (regrets):

I also ask hikers what advice for future CDT hikers they have. This will be thoroughly documented in the upcoming post CDT: Advice For The Future, but for now, here is a sampling.

• If you think something is injured get it checked out before pushing on.
• Rodent hang your food when not in grizzly country.
• Don’t just take the shortest route. It’s not worth skipping beautiful sections for roadwalks or shortcuts.
• Don’t tempt the lightning.
• Don’t pack for your fears.
• While I started in good physical shape, I wish I had trained to be more superhuman.

Animal Sightings

Lastly, we have some data that I don’t really feel fits anywhere else and so I’ve just decided to tack it on at the end. What kind of wildlife did CDT hikers see on the trail?

The most common animals? Deer and elk. Deer – the worst. Elk – awesome. The rarest of the animal kingdom? Tortoise and mountain lions.

Finally, another HUGE THANK YOU to all the hikers who completed this year’s survey. If you have any feedback, comments, suggestions to improve the survey, or data you would like to see in future posts or surveys, leave a comment below and let me know!

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