Continental Divide Alternative Routes and resupply points

 

The Trail

Pre-Hike

Chamber of Commerce

 leaves 6:15 a.m. behind the Lordsburg Chamber of Commerce.

Lordsburg can be reached by Amtrak from El Paso, Tucson or Albuquerque. Lordsburg has a KOA and an Econolodge with a CDT hiker rate.  Other hotels in town as well.

Each spot in the shuttle costs $175 and also includes:

  • Water cache service
  • Trail support between the Southern Terminus and Lordsburg
  • One-year membership to CDTC, which can be used to receive discounts from select outdoor retailers & some businesses in CDT Gateway Communities. 
  • CDTC swag?!?
  • The trip is three hours.
  • Was open November 2, 2023 for 2024.  By November 6,  much of it was booked up.  We could not get April 25 but got April 26.

TL:DR Simplified Resupply Plan

New Mexico

  • Mile 84: Lordsburg
  • Mile 158: Silver City
  • [Box] Mile 38 of Gila Alternate: Doc Campbell’s
  • [Box] Mile 415: Pie Town
  • Mile 525: Grants
  • Mile 629: Cuba
  • Mile 689: Chama via Cumbres Pass

Colorado

  • Mile 847: Pagosa Springs via Wolf Creek Pass
  • Mile 961: Lake City via Spring Creek Pass
  • Mile 1061: Salida via Monarch Pass
  • Mile 1144: Twin Lakes
  • Mile 1181: Leadville
  • Mile 1216: Frisco
  • Mile 1290: Winter Park
  • Mile 1343: Grand Lake
  • Mile 1436: Steamboat Springs via Rabbit Ears Pass

Wyoming

  • [Box] Mile 1520: Encampment via Battle Pass
  • Mile 1602: Rawlins
  • Mile 1722: Lander
  • Mile 1799: Pinedale
  • Mile 16.1 of Old CDT Alt: Dubois via Togwotee Pass
  • [Box] Mile 1988: Old Faithful Village in Yellowstone

Idaho/Montana

  • Mile 2039: West Yellowstone
  • [Box] Mile 2134: Lima
  • [Box] Mile 2236: Leadore via Bannock Pass
  • Mile 2358: Darby via Chief Joseph Pass
  • Mile 27 of Anaconda Cutoff: Anaconda
  • Mile 2618: Helena
  • Mile 2686: Lincoln
  • Mile 2744: Augusta
  • [Box] Mile 2877: East Glacier Village

Potential Boxes to Mail

Note this is different from the TL:DR list.

  • Doc Campbell // New Mexico
  • Pie Town or hike to Top of the World Store // New Mexico
  • Ghost Ranch // New Mexico
  • Lima // Idaho/Southern Montana
  • Leador // Idaho/Southern Montana
  • East Glacier (Northern Montana)
  • Encampment (Wyoming)
  • Southpass City (Wyoming)

New Mexico

Starting at: Crazy Creek (Standard, the CDTC now has an official shuttle, picks you up in Lordsburg, provides water caches and takes you to the terminus).

The locations of water cache boxes are as follows:

  • Cache 1: Sheridan Canyon cache box, Guthook mile 14.1, 31.6124 N, 108.31332 W
  • Cache 2: Highway 81 cache box, Guthook mile 25.5, 31.73388 N, 108.41075 W
  • Cache 3: Highway 9 cache box, Guthook mile 45, 31.96518 N, 108.43988 W
  • Cache 4: Highway 113 cache box, Guthook mile 57.9, 32.08053 N, 108.55637 W
  • Cache 5: Animas Rd. water cache box, Guthook mile 78.2, 32.26283 N, 108.74166 W

Mile 45.63 Hachita.  Good resupply.  8 mile hitch on highway 9 from the trail.  Resupply is the Mini-Mart, water, kitchen and camping at the community center.  List of locals currently hosting hikers. 40 miles to the next resupply. Most people skip and just hike straight to Lordsburg.

Lordsburg at Mile 85.6.  On the trail. Grocery and two Dollar Stores.  Shower and laundry at KOA. ~80 miles to the next resupply.

Silver City at Mile 161.8.  On the trail.  Grocery stores.  Dollar store.  Outfitters.  Restaurants.  RV Park with shower.  Regional medical center. Next Resupply is Doc Cambells.

            Walnut Creek Alternative Silver City 157.8 to 169.3  Very pretty but no shoulder.  Goldberg did it.  He reports it as Not Safe.  Take Main Trail instead.

Gila River Alt 169.1 (FarOut milepost) to Mile 344.4 (FarOut milepost)  The Alternative is 106 miles long.  Alternative route is 75 miles shorter, has water. 

Mile 173.1 to 374.8 is the Gila bypass via Doc Campbells.

            Gila (the standard).  15 miles a day in the canyon.

            Gila High Route (has only one water crossing)

Doc Campbells is the resupply.  Mile 39.6 on the Alt. Maybe a box, maybe not. About 94 miles to the next resupply.

Mile 194 – Doc Campbells.  On trail. Takes USPS, UPS, FedEx.  Must have an ETA.

Steve & Win Marsh

CDT Hiker.  ETA:

c/o Doc Campbell’s Post

3796 Highway 15

Mimbres, NM  88049

Multiple sites with hot springs and/or camping (cash only).  Store has laundry & shower, deadline is one hour before sunset.  Small store.

Then pass the Gila Cliff Dwellings.  On trail.  Camping is free.

Mile 198.6 Lake Roberts General Store

Mile 266.3 Winston.  Tough hitch.  Very little.

Mile 343.9 Gila River Alt North rejoins trail

Mile 374.8 Reserve  Great little town, solid resupply.  You go from Doc Campbells to Reserve for supply. About 94 miles.  Hitch where the trail crosses Highway 12—28 mile hitch going west.  No cell reception. At mile 367. Forty miles to Pie Town.

Frisco Lodging offers shuttles. Full resupply with CDT discount.  Showers and laundry at Frisco Lodging. 

Right at 12 Hitch to Reserve for resupply.  Alternative to Pie Town starts about there.  It is about a little more than 22 miles after Gila rejoins the red line trail.

Mile 367.1 (FarOut milepost)  Pie Town Dirt Road Walk. To Mile 414.5 (FarOut Milepost) Pie Town.  Reserve to Pie Town is the resupply gap. Mail Box to Pie Town  Toaster House is closed.  Owner died, caretaker fell through. Post office open 9-12. `

Mile 411.2 Quemodo

Mile 420.9 Top of the World Store  On trail.  Resupply available. On by-pass trail as well.  Closed Tuesdays. Laundry at store. Pie Town RV Park Camping and laundry.  Free primitive campground with picnic tables.

Mile 414.5 Pie Town.  Restaurants, post office, hostel that takes mail drops. No Resupply.  Call Grants visitor center for an update on the windmills – 505-876-2783 .  Nina’s Toaster House Hostel takes mail drops. ~a hundred miles to Grants via alternatives. 88% of the people send a box here.

UPS Only

Win & Steve Marsh

Six & d20

c/o The Toaster House

Highway 60 South at Mile Marker 56

Pie Town, NM  87827

Mile 442.3 (FarOut milepost) Junction with Cebolla Alternative some dirt road, beautiful hiking.  To Highway 117 at Mile 503.2 Note 14 to 25 is highway rather than dirt.  But main trail also is on 117 for 15 miles. Also has a ranger station and a museum.  Can go up the escarpment on trail and avoid road unless a lightning storm (Goldberg hit lightning and stayed on the road).

From Pie Town to Grants it is all alternatives, multiple alternatives available.  ~130 miles.  Six days.  Bear Creek Alternative Route is 84.9 miles or 4+ days of food.  The route diverges from Pie Town to Highway 117.

Mile 553.5 (523.8 FarOut milepost) Grants Resupply.  Has everything.  KOA with showers and laundry as you enter town from the south, food, hotels, and resupply going north into town.  Laundromat, chain hotels also have laundry.  Dollar stores, Super Wal-Mart­­.  RV Park with showers. Most people resupply here.

Then about 110 miles to Cuba.

Mile 660.2 (FarOut milepost 627.9) Cuba – has a great store.  Dollar Store and a Giant, lots of restaurants.  Main road and the CDT are the same thing. ~70 to 80 miles to Ghost Ranch. Most people resupply here.

Mile (FarOut milepost 674.8) 685.9 to 701.8 (FarOut milepost 702.0) Ghost Ranch Cut Off.  2.5 miles shorter.  More scenic.  On trail resupply.  Beautiful climb out of Ghost Ranch.  Mail Box to Ghost Ranch

Mile 716.8 Ghost Ranch. (Treat as mile 685 FarOut).  On trail (taking Ghost Ranch Route).  Presbyterian retreat.  Need a mail drop. Camping, cabins, showers, laundry multiple locations for showers.

Steve & Win Marsh

CDT Hiker ETA: ________

c/o Ghost Ranch Conference Center

280 Private Drive 1708

Abiquio, NM  87510

$5.00 fee for USPS – pick up is at the welcome center before 5:00 p.m.

They prefer UPS or FedEx.

From here there is a 44 mile road walk to Chama from the Ghost Ranch Road to the Lowe’s Supermarket or take the trail, depending on weather.

Mile CDT/Yogi 811.3  Chama or FarOut 780. Get there by a 12 mile hitch on Highway 17. They have multiple hotels, stores (a Lowe’s supermarket and a Dollar store) and restaurants.  Trail angel at 576-756-1000 to coordinate rides. Train from Chama to Cumbres Pass, discount with CDTC membership card.

Just about everyone resupplies at Chama via Cubres Pass.

Colorado

            In Colorado you have several alternatives.  The Elwood Pass route looks like the best, hitting a resupply and then merging with the Creede Cutoff for another resupply. 

Most common resupply points are:

  • Pagosa Springs via Wolf Creek
  • Lake City via Spring Creek Pass
  • Salida via Monarch Pass
  • Twin Lakes
  • Leadville
  • Grand Lake
  • Steamboat Springs via Rabbit Ears Pass.

The four alternatives are:

  • take the Great Divide Alternative at FarOut 780 and resupply in Platoro and then Del Norte or switch to

Elwood Pass at the mid-point and resupply in Creede.

  • Take the Elwood Pass route (the blue line at FarOut 839) and resupply in South Fork and then Creede
  • wait and take the Creede Cutoff at FarOut 860 and resupply in Creede. 
  • Take the redline.  Resupply at South Fork and then Silverton or Lake City.

On the red line the next resupply is Mile 880.9 (FarOut milepost 846.9), South Fork or Pagosa Springs.  Pagosa is 25 mile hitch West, South Fork is 20 Mile hitch East.  Both have everything.

Superior Alternative is Creede on the Creede Cutoff or Elwood Pass. 

Mile 895 (FarOut milepost 860.8) to 1013.5 (FarOut Milepost 975.5) Creede Cut Off.  Shorter.  Lower altitude.  Less snow.  Much less sketchy.

Creede is at 27.5 miles into the cut-off, on trail (using the Crede Cut-off).  Treat it as FarOut milepost 888.   Full service, grocery, laundry, showers including the parks and recreation, outfitter.  Lodging, restaurants.  If you stop in Creede, you get from 888 to 975 in about ten more miles down the Creede Cutoff rejoining the CDT. So Salida at 1060.5 is about 95 miles from Creede or five days of food.

From Creede to the trail is another 10-12 miles to trail mile 975.5

Mile 959.2 or 965.5 Silverton.  Tourist style stop, but Hostel with shuttle from Molas Lake Trailhead and from Stony Pass at 965.5 ($20 per person) and in town camping available.  970-387-5599 for the shuttle.

FarOut Milepost 975.5 End Creede Cutoff.

FarOut 1060.5 is Salida.  Monarch Pass.  20 mile Hitch to Salida, 2 mile hitch to Monarch Lodge, another .2 to the hostel. Monarch Lodge has luxury accommodations or a ten dollar pass for showers, etc.  Salida has full town services.  (FarOut Milepost 1071.2) Monarch Crest Store/Monarch Mountain Lodge if you want to skip a hitch to Salida.

1143.9 is Twin Lakes. Has a general store and a bistro.  Must filter all town water.  2 miles in and 2 miles back if taking the shortcut.  Splits from the Redline at 1134.5.  Joins back up at 1145.6.

About forty miles later at 1181.1 Hitch to Leadville from Tennessee Pass, south on Highway 24.  Full service, a Safeway, outfitter, laundromat.  Leadville Hostel offers a shuttle 719-486-9334.

1216 is Frisco with a Safeway and a Walmart.

FarOut 1087.6 is the Collegiate West Low Route.  Reunites at 1110.2 FarOut.

Mile 1098 Buena Vista

Mile 1139 Twin Lakes

Mile 1119 Breckenridge

Mile 1172.1  (FarOut 1181.1) Leadville

Mile 1209 Breckenridge

Mile 1195.2 to 1272.1 Silverthorne Cutoff Route – Better resupply.  Better trail.  Less exposure.

FarOut Milepost 1200.7 for the Silverthorne cutoff route start.

Silverthorne is on the Silverthorne cutoff trail. Full Service.  So is Dillon, with a Target, outfitter/REI, etc.

~24 miles in for the equivalent of Milepost 1225.

Mile 1283 Winter Park

Mile 1283.8 Frazier

Mile 1342.9 Grand Lake

FarOut 1342.9 full service, on trail.  Everything.   Sagebrush BBQ is recommended.

RNP Shortcut starts at 1342.8 and ends at 1365.1  Takes about four miles to cut off the rest.

Mile 1435.9 Steamboat Springs  Has a free bus system.  Hitch in 20 miles on Highway 40 from near Rabbit Ears Pass.  But not at either Rabbit Ears Pass locations.  Warnings are to pay attention to where you are hitching from.  Visitor Center has some freebies for hikers. Hot springs.

Idaho/Montana

Typical Resupply (if the Super Butte Cut-off isn’t taken).

The main route and the cut-off — cut-off saves 300 miles.
  • West Yellowstone
  • Lima
  • Leadore via Bannock Pass
  • Darby vs. Chief Joseph Pass
  • Anaconda
  • Helena
  • Lincoln
  • East Glacier Village

Wyoming

Typical resupply stops are:

  • Encampment
  • Rawlins
  • Lander
  • Pinedale
  • Dubois via Togwotee Pass
  • Old Faithful Villiage, Yellowstone.

Mile 1519.4 Riverside Encampment  Hitch from Mile 1519.7, Battle Pass.  General Store with sign “Groceries” and decent prices.  Otherwise,  Snacks, Laundry, Showers at KOA.  13 miles East of the Trail. Visitor’s Center has recharge. Saratoga is a further hitch, has an IGA and hot springs for soaking.

Road walk begins at junction at 1585.3 with Sage Creek Road or earlier at 1544.8.  Mile 1571.6 to Rawlins: Rawlins Roadwalk (Wyoming).  Has water.  Long, boring, have to camp right off or under the road.  Can mail resupply to c/o La Bella Motel, 1819 W Spruce, Rawlins, WY 82301 Mary 307-324-2583.  Laundry within one block.  Wifi.

Mile 1601.1 Rawlins full city for resupply.(trail goes through town)  Has grocery, diners, travel center, showers, laundry, motels. Super Walmart near the two motels (Day’s Inn and Baymont Inn).  Has a bus and a shuttle.  Only recommended restaurant is Buck’s Sports Grill.  Laundromat and Showers at hotels and at campground.

Mile 1713.9 Atlantic City  Wild Bill’s is hiker/biker only place to stay with laundry & showers.  Resupply if you aren’t too picky.  1.3 miles or less from the trail down three forks road which crosses the trail.  Wild Bill has a shuttle.  307-332-3684. 

Mile 1716 South Pass City  Takes boxes but no resupply

Mile 1718 Lander 35 mile hitch via Highway 28

Mile 1762.8  Big Sandy Lodge  TIME TO FIGURE OUT YELLOWSTONE PERMITS.  Accepts resupply packages if you stay there.

Mile 1797.7 Pinedale  Showers, laundry, supermarket, outfitter, four hotels.  Aquatic Center with sauna.  Getting there is hard. 10 mile walk then 15 mile hitch.

Crossing at Mile roughly the 1883 point — Dubois  On the old CDT. Take the old CDT Blue line near 1867 and then 16.1 miles in on the Old CDT hitch US 287 (16 miles vs. 20 miles to hitch location).Family Dollar, all services. MUST HITCH OUTSIDE OF CITY LIMITS OR POLICE WILL ARREST YOU.

Mile 287 at mile 1915.2 hitch to Togwotee Lodge  can mail a resupply here.  Cheap laundry.

Mile 1963.7 YELLOWSTONE Grant Village.  Doable resupply

Mile 1988.1 Old Faithful Village  Showers.  Buffet.

Border is 2003.8

2010 is Mack’s Inn Alternative route. 32 miles to mile 2079.7.  Island Park is 15 miles in.  Can do a resupply here.  RV park with hot tub. Laundry.  Electric bikes for town travel.  Robin’s Roost Grocery Store.

2133.8 Lima  Camp & shower for $10.  Free public pool.  Shuttle.  Make do resupply or mail to motel.  Motel has shuttle.  Gas station resupply also has fuel cans. Alternative is Dillon with everything, including a Patagonia outlet.

Mile 2236.4 Leadore – just another trail town.  Over 93% of hikers resupply here.

Mile 2358.4 Darby  hitch 31 miles from Chief Joseph Trailhead/Highway 43 to 93. 93 goes to Sula, then Darby.  Sula is not hiker friendly.  Darby is full service.

2431 Anaconda Cut-off

Then 27 more miles to Family Dollar.  So about a hundred miles from the Darby hitch.  Rejoin at Mile 2568.9 about 52 miles from 2421.  About 25 miles from the Family Dollar.

Mile 2518.2  Butte –where the Super Butte/Big Sky ends.  Full Service. Alternative to Anaconda.

72% of hikers go to Anaconda to resupply.

Mile 2618 Helena  The capital.  Full service.  Shuttle from the trail at MacDonald Pass/Highway 12 16 miles away.

Mile 2687.6 Lincoln.  Full service.

2743.8 Augusta Full service, hitch 30 miles down Benchmark road. 81% of hikers resupply here.

Mile 2743.8 Benchmark Wilderness Ranch 

Mail Resupply Send $30.00 handling fee separately from box.

Benchmark Wilderness Ranch

Darwin and Shelly Heckman

422 County Lane Road

Fairfield, Montana  59436

Trail head is 1.5 miles from Trail to Ranch.

Mile 2876.6 East Glacier Tourist town with resupply, Amtrak station, car rental.  On trail. 94% resupply here.  GET PERMIT BLACKFEET.NAGFA.NET/ Hostel in town. Blackfeet Reservation

Otherwise, for Glacier, get a walk-up permit. Call  (406) 888-7801 or walk up to Two Medicine Campground.

Mile 2888.4 Two Medicine Campground

Mile 2941.1 Many Glacier Campground – National Park Service, full service. Hike/Bike campground.  $5.00. Shuttles. 

2975.3  The Redline Border, Terminus.

You call into Canada to report and then can hike through to Waterton.

Alternative is Chief Mountain Trailhead on  Highway 17.

Then it is a hundred miles hitching back to East Glacier and the Amtrak Station.

The other terminus is Waterton Lake.  Both are officially recognized. Cross over into Canada after Waterton Lake to Waterton Park in Canada.

CDT: training /personal/planning

I’ve started modest training. In the last three weeks I’ve lost around six pounds and started walking 4-5 miles a day.

I know that isn’t much but my commitment is to get serious by March 1 which will give me six weeks of real preparation.

Logo some friends did for me for my writing project

My core training has me up to 76 kneeling ab rollers and I continue to make progress on my weight training.

A family emergency had me not able to train in karate since I’ve been gone for circa twenty days.

Walking

My current plan is to train with karate until April and then focus on hiking over everything.

I want to move up to ten miles a day with a backpack for March 1 to March 15 and then move up more. I’d like to lose at least fifteen more pounds before I hit the trail.

My pack is twenty-five pounds with five days of food and two liters of water so losing the fifteen pounds will make it like carrying only ten.

I want to be able to do 15-20 miles a day when we start in New Mexico. Ten miles by 10:00 and then the rest by dinner. Mid day siesta.

In my tent and sleeping by dark. Up when it gets light.

Anyway. This is aspirational. I will see how things actually go.

But general training is:

  • Start walking more.
  • Walk more with weight (that trains my feet).
  • Walk longer distance.
  • Some weight/core training for general health.
  • Some stretching/swimming to loosen up (I’m naturally very tight).
  • Work up to longer distances with weight (pack weight). This improves stamina and leads towards weight loss. Which is like reduced pack weight.

Still too early to know how the snow will be.

Snow looks average or slightly less but there are two months to go.

But the current plan is do New Mexico to Chama which should be around June 1 and then do a flip to avoid snow and do the Great Basin before the heat picks up or head straight through depending on the snow conditions.

Time will tell.

Otherwise, I finally bought a reservoir system that works with a water bottle. That is basically a mouthpiece, hose, cap and straw system that lets you hook up a water bottle and drink from it while hiking just like you would from an hydration bladder.

I’ve looked at a number of them and have finally found one another hiker used and that was reasonably priced.

CDT: useful links

These are currently the best links, even though one of them is from 2013. That says a lot about the trail.

Similarly the Appalachian Trail has three solid guidebooks. The CDT has https://continentaldividetrail.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/continentaldividetrail/giftstore.jsp

The only guide went out of print in 2019 and does not look likely to ever come back.

General: how to afford a thru-hike

I meet a lot of people who wonder how to afford a thru-hike.

I’ve met a lot of hikers.

Some have jobs they can leave and return. Think of nurses who work traveling contracts or construction workers, or wait staff at restaurants or resorts. They save money during the October to March time period. In April to September they hike. Repeat the process, sometimes for a very long time.

Some are retired (me).

Some take a gap year or hike after a job transition (think guys who have left the military or college kids between their bachelor’s and grad school).

Some have wealthy parents (often these are found hiking between high school and college or over summer vacation).

Some go into debt to afford a hike — a mixed choice with a lot of downsides.

But many have an extremely minimalist lifestyle which gives them a great deal of freedom.

Sponsored hikes are incredibly rare. Usually those are available only if you are a famous hiker or you have a parent on the board of the sponsorship company.

The thing is, that except for a small number of hikers who are lucky, it is a matter of hard work, saving, and maintaining a very low cost lifestyle with very few, or very inexpensive, possessions or waiting until you are retired.

That is how people afford a thru-hike.

A note on Affiliate Marketing

I was served up the same suggested post on backpacking several times by Facebook. In theory it was “must have” equipment improvements “recommended by experts.”

From a similar site.

In reality it was gear like this set of tableware and plates.

Really?!? For backpacking?!?

The “essay” was nothing but affiliate marketing links trying to sell me things like these plates, “just the right” cast iron and Yeti coolers.

These are things backpackers make jokes about but no one who knows what they are doing would really buy. After all, who is carrying a ten pound cast iron Dutch oven on a thru hike?

The essay was really nothing but a naked ploy to sell people useless gear the source thought someone who didn’t know better might buy and served up as “reviews” and “expert advice” in order to be more persuasive in an attempt to make a commission on sales.

Portrayed as “new” and “improved.” “Must have.”

For contrast, there is new gear you can use —it is a GAN charger. They are a real plus and a real improvement. They are good for charging batteries and phones four times faster or better and they are lighter than many chargers are.

Not a link, just a picture of what I use.

That picture is of the GAN charger I use. You can find it by searching for Mokin as I don’t have an affiliate link for you to click on. This model is available in three different colors so you can pick yours out in a crowd.

It is also 40 watts. Not too long ago 12 watts was state of the art. Five watt chargers are still sold. 40 is a lot more.

My charger from the Appalachian Trail.

I used the Mokin last year. Mokin has an eighteen month warranty. Mine died but I’d abused it enough I just bought another one to replace it instead of making a claim.

Tangential but related is the topic of charger cables. With a charger you need cables.

On the AT I used short, 6” cables as they weigh less and take less space. On the PCT I realized I needed 3’ cables because charger strips are crowded and it just makes life easier. I picked one up from the hiker box at Shelter Cove. That cable was pretty frayed, but worked better than the short ones I had.

Then I upgraded and needed USB C. When I got USB C cables to go with the Mokin I got 3’ ones and hiked all last year with them on the PCT. For this year, I am not sure about what is best for the CDT but I don’t feel like buying new cables. I’ll hike with the 3’ ones I already have.

Finally, I had someone suggest I should switch my trail name to “Lucky.”

More updates as Win and I get closer to April 26. But beware of affiliate marketing links and reviews that are more like catalog descriptions.