https://www.halfwayanywhere.com/trails/continental-divide-trail/2024-cdt-hiker-survey-open/
I was looking at the survey, friends finishing the CDT, TBD finishes, and thinking about getting another section in before November 1.
First, we weren’t sure if we would thru-hike or lash. The real problem is hiking exhaustion. Skeeter, Skip and others we hiked with all kind of ran out of “embrace the brutality” while Swiss Cake has bounced back and forth and Free Will and Packrunner finished.
We were happy with our start date, though the snow and the flipping took energy.
We usually started just before sunrise and stopped in the late afternoon. Unlike the PCT we never did night hike.
I am happy with our resupply strategy. The one real change is that granola took too long to eat.
We got lucky with mosquitoes and water crossings. Elevation gave us some problems.
Rain and hail not so much of a problem. Wind was a problem once or twice (looking at you, passes in Glacier). Mice were not a problem.
We got lucky with cold and heat.
Smoke and fires were problems we got lucky with avoiding (but would have been huge a couple times).
We never ended up with a trail family though we overlapped some people.
Used a Durston Kakwa 55 pack, (“kawa” in the survey) which I was very happy with. We used a non-freestanding tent (Zpacks Off-set Treo) that we were happy with. The zippers did need repaired.
Our Feathered Friends bags have worked out well as did our Thermarest pads. Always used the pump sacks.
We both used puffies for warmth in the evening and we’ve been happy with them. The Visp rain jacket I used wasn’t in the survey (it was out of stock a few years) but I was happy with it.
Our alphadirect Senchi brand fleeces were great. An improvement over prior fleeces.
We both ended up in Topo shoes. I’ve used Costco house brand hiking socks. I liked that they were more cushioned than what Happy uses. I’m transitioning to the REI socks which are more padded than Darn Toughs (which I have in my gear collection at home). They also have less compression.
We used our GasOne canister stove all of this year. Our stove that finally wore out is in the gear box along with a Jetboil and an MSR Windburner.
We never cooked breakfast or lunch.
Never cold soaked. Usually filtered or treated our water.
I started with Black Diamond carbon cork poles, which broke (I fell on them) and currently hike with Costco carbon cork poles I bought on a lark for $27.98 but started using when my poles broke. Happy bought a new pair of the same brand poles —Foxlli Carbon—she started with “just because”. She is happy with them.
Our Black Diamond ice axes were fine to carry but never used. The same for our micro spikes. The Garmin InReach MiniII worked well enough I also have one now.
The umbrella ended up in a hiker box this time. Never got used. No watches or fitness trackers (a big change from the Appalachian Trail).
Of his options list:
- Base layer top and bottom
- Trowel
- Gaiters
- Buff
- Pain pants
- Wind Shirts (not the heavier jackets
- Battery pack
- “Crocs”
- Kindle on phone
- Shorts and pants (the pants got worn on trail, shorts on town/laundry).
- Microfiber washcloth (instead of a towel).
We ended up using a number of apps. On other trails we never did. On the CDT we had the Ley Maps and other services as well.
We saw a lot of animals. Built no fires. Surprisingly we both flossed a fair amount and we both brushed our teeth.
Anyway. My reflections on the survey.
My thoughts (with some quotes):
- Training enough to be able to twenty mile days to start is about right.
- Take enough zeros.
It’s a National Scenic Trail, and you may have certain expectations regarding trail quality. You should lower those expectations. No, lower them a bit more. Lower still. Yup, that’s about right.
- Be willing to flip or alter your route for snow and fire.
Take the Big Sky Cutoff. Hiking Idaho is not worth it, spend more time in the Yellowstone backcountry. The Big Sky Cutoff still gives a few miles of Idaho hiking just to say you hiked it.
- Expect a lot of burned areas is advice you will hear. It is accurate.
- The weather has a large window of variability.
- The Colorado Trail is one of two places with a number of hikers (the other is Glacier). The CDT has only about 300 hikers a year.
- Trail families are much less common. Instead you often find 2-3 people hiking in the same cluster where they overlap each other.
- There seemed to be a higher percentage of female hikers and couples than other trails on the CDT.
- We got lucky with our water crossings.
That is 300 thru-hikers each direction. So it looks like about 600 total.