Hey everyone, it’s Sauce. And today I'm doing a Q&A based on questions that you all asked me
on Instagram and YouTube. As we approach a new hiking season
and a new class of thru hikers is ready to embark on America's
best long trails. I am acutely aware of the pre
hike jitters that come along with that. A million questions begin to run through
your head, or at least that you do mine. And sometimes hearing from someone
who's been through it can be the insight that you need to just take a step back
and relax and enjoy this exciting time. Because of that,
I decided to answer some questions on what you can expect on the Continental Divide
Trails, specifically. Like I said, I pulled my Instagram
and YouTube communities to see what their most pressing questions were about through
hiking the Continental Divide trail the questions cover a wide
range of topics. they range from the ever present dilemma
of whether you should hike north or south best and worst resupply spots on the CD. Where to send boxes on the CDT? You what CDs you alternates. You should take how to deal with the water
sources on the CDT. You. What did you about bears on the CDT? Comparing the CDT to the PC and more. These answers are based on my experience
hiking the CDT northbound in 2022, so keep that in mind
as we go through all the questions. obviously, the trail changes every year
and your experience and literal mileage may vary. So first up, nobo versus
so on the CDT you flip flopping and start date questions should you hike the CDT
northbound or southbound? Well,
I personally hiked the CDT northbound. Many agree that the CDT is inherently
more of a southbound trail. will work best for
you will depend on a lot of factors that are typically determined
in the winter before you hike, so not always in advance
enough for you to make a decision. Northbound
or southbound with that information. A lot of it depends on the Colorado in Montana snowpacks in knowing
what they're going to be like in any given summer is almost impossible
to determine until March of each year. you can kind of gauge trends, but you're not going to know exactly
where it's going to fall. of course, that time frame doesn't
leave a lot of time for people hoping to hike northbound,
typically starting in mid-April. My general answer to
this question is frustratingly just. It depends. year that I hiked up in to be a very
frustrating year to hike southbound, they dealt with a lot of snow,
a late season snowstorm in Montana, because of that, a lot of snow
melt in the bottom Marshall Wilderness, which means water crossings,
very challenging. And then when they got to the sand ones,
our monsoon season in Colorado was very late that year,
which meant they dealt with a lot more storms than you typically
would on a top down through hike. And then when they got to the HeLa,
it was flooded. So they had to take the high route
through that section, which I think is kind of just a bummer. Taking the Hilo
alternate is really just so gorgeous. It's worth going back for it
in my opinion. There is also a bear closure in Glacier when they went through
because a cow had gotten loose or out somehow they died over the winter froze
and then they were thawing out and basically create
an all you can eat grizzly bear buffet. So there were entire sections of glacier
that were closed. Some people had a roadblock in Glacier,
which absolute bummer. So obviously not the best year for South
bound, but that isn't always the case. typically hiking southbound requires
hiking a little bit faster but result in like a better weather window overall
because you leave from Montana ideally in mid-June
and because it's lower in elevation, you don't have to deal with
quite too much snow. You can typically make it through Colorado
in the sand ones, hopefully before super late in September when we start
to get our first snows of the year. And then you can kind of take your time
in New Mexico or speed through it now that you have true legs. And honestly, some of those roadblocks
would have been really nice to have your legs on
and just kind of run through them. On the other hand, hiking north on I think
mid April makes the most sense to start. You're going to be at least some of the desert heat that way
without getting to the sand ones and Colorado super early. So you've got about 800 miles of New Mexico to hike
before you hit the Colorado border, which is where the same ones begin. We ended up having 150 mile fire closure
at the end of New Mexico, which put us to the same ones
way too early. We were there in late May, and even though
snow was melting really fast, the year that we hiked,
it was still a lot to deal with. We made it through,
but it wasn't ideal conditions. Although in any six month thru hike,
I don't think you're going to get ideal conditions
in every single section. That's just not the way it's set up. that being sat in an above average snow year
or even like a typical snow year, we might not have been able
to make it through the season lines in late
May and we would have had to flip or wait. It out quite a while. So that's why Northland isn't really always the best way to go,
because it's really hard not to hit the sand ones too early. you do happen to go northbound
in a really high snow year and you hit the sea
and one's way too early, there are lower elevation
alternate options. However, personally
I would recommend avoiding those at all costs
if it's the only way you can keep hiking, of course keep hiking,
but going to miss out on so much. The same ones doing something
like the creek cut off. In my opinion. All that said, I do think southbound
is the more reasonable way to typically hike this trail. you can navigate through Montana
in typically reasonable snow conditions. You hit Colorado
after the worst of monsoon season. It typically peaks
the first week of August. And then slows down after that. you can use your well-earned
thru hiking legs to show those New Mexico roadblocks
whose boss the low snowpack in Montana this year, I do think south will be a logical approach because
you could start a little bit earlier and they might have some struggles
with fires later in the season. my argument for a northbound
hike would be in the event that Colorado has a lower than typical
snow year, while Montana has a higher one and you can still get through the season
ones in a reasonable amount of time and getting New Mexico
out of the way first, which I personally really liked
having that done and finishing at Glacier. So really it just depends on
what you're able to tolerate and what you're okay with dealing with. Another question I got was about the best
flip flop options on the Cty, and I can't speak to that from personal experience,
but I can say what I would potentially do if I had been in a different situation
I was starting northbound from the New Mexico
Mexico border in April. I think it could make sense to hike all the way to Colorado
and then flip from there. If you again are in a situation
where the San Juan has really high snow and it's not going to make a lot of sense
to go through, you could flip up to Montana
or if you got there as early as we did in 2022, in late May, you would might want to take a week
or two off and then flip South. Either way, you would hopefully end up
with less snow in Montana than are currently
in the same Y mountains, which would really be the only reason to
do this kind of flip flop, in my opinion. If you're hiking southbound,
I don't really see any logical reasons for a flip flop or really I can't think of
one that makes a lot of sense. Something else that happened a lot the year that we were hiking was
people hiked north to the New Mexico Colorado border and then they flipped up to the Great
Divide Basin and filled that entrance. Sometimes that will have less snow
than anywhere else on the trail. In that time frame, however,
I feel like flips like this kind of just introduce
a lot of logistical challenges and in my opinion, end up taking more time
than they save and kind of disrupt your footpath, which I think
can be a whole mental hurdle to overcome. So personally,
the only one I'd really consider probably is hiking north
to the New Mexico Colorado border and then flipping up to Montana
and hiking back south. If you're hoping to vote up
because you're worried you're not going to make it to Canada
in time, kind of depends how you actually are. But keep in mind
that there are definitely several alternate options up north
that can shorten your hike. So you could kind of take a short cut into flip flopping if that's going to be easier
from a logistical perspective. Next question is when to start the CBT. And I think
I kind of touched on this already, but just to summarize, if I was hiking
northbound, I would start in mid April. So it's not too hot in the desert
and I'm also not getting to the same ones too early. And if I was hiking southbound, I wouldn't want to start any later
than mid-June personally, because I get afraid of snow at high elevations
and I wouldn't want to be super worried about being able to get through Colorado
before October heads. And we definitely even get snowstorms
in late September. So for me, in mid-June
is kind of like the latest. I'd want to start southbound, although
people definitely start in early July. It just kind of depends on how fast
you're able or willing to go. Next up, alternates. Which alternate should I take on this EDT? I actually did a YouTube video
about my favorite alternates, so you can check that out
if you're interested. However,
I think the answer to this question in general ultimately depends on what
you're hoping to get out of the trail. Sometimes
I just really mentally needed a shortcut, so I took the shortest option
possible to get between point A to point B or just with resupply options
that made the most sense. So we weren't carrying an obscene
amount of food. sometimes I really needed scenery. So I would pick the most scenic route
from point A to point B, or I would take the long way
just to get my feet off of roadblocks. To summarize my favorite alternates,
they are the Gila River alternate. More people take this,
I think, than the actual CDT, and it's one of the most gorgeous places
I have ever backpacked Narrows Rim Trail. This one gets you off
the especially long road walk on the way into Grant's New Mexico,
and it's also beautiful and rugged and requires
some light route finding. So if that's your thing, definitely want
to check that out. Circling the towers. This is the most badass introduction
to the Wind River range. You could hope for, in my opinion. Don't let the rumors of the blowdown
scare you away. they're still there, it's worth
navigating through them to do this. Look at the towers. That's calls also in the main river range
in this deadline requires extra time, extra effort and extra route
finding actually quite a bit of route finding,
but it's 1,000% worth it. Every ounce of extra effort that you
put into it, you will get back out of it. In my opinion. mix is in a kind of cut off. This one will save you
time towards the end of the trail and take you through the amazing
town of Anaconda, Montana. I think it cuts about 80 miles, but it also contains wonderful sections
of the Anaconda Panther Wilderness. And Anaconda has one of the best hostels
I've ever been to. So definitely recommend another bonus alternate if you have time
and are interested in going. The Colorado 14 years are really fun
side trips. There's lots of opportunities for bonus
miles and peaks along the CBD in Colorado. Another question I got was how do you
figure out all of this alternate? I think the figuring out said alternates looks a little bit different for every hiker,
kind of depending on their preference. But personally
I use a combination of far out. Jonathan Lane maps and then sort of my own
DIY route finding for the alternates. It's very straightforward. They're already programed into the app
and they're just a different color line. There's usually a lot of comments about
what you can expect on that alternate and you just follow it the same way
you would a typical far out route. often use these
when they were a bit shorter or they were more scenic or they offered
more opportunities for water. That is a huge one on this 80. There are also a lot of alternates
that sort of spring up from far out comments like as more and more hikers
hike the city every year, people will discover their own alternates and they will leave comments
on different waypoints saying, hey, I took this towards this direction
and found X, Y, and Z. And if you have another map
that has to oppose and you feel confident following the directions in that comment,
that's another option for alternates that you can definitely take
if you're wanting to just spice up your day, which I definitely did
sometimes, especially if they promise, again, more water, less miles
or more scenery, as I mentioned. You can also follow the Jonathan Lee maps. He spent years hiking the seeds and refining his maps and has taken input
from other hikers and created a very extensive network of alternates
and waypoints on the seeds here. They these maps have existed for long
before any of the other three hiking maps that I'm aware of and have been created for the sole purpose of thru
hiking the city over the years. He's annotated many really amazing
alternates that a lot of thru hikers commend as one of their favorite parts
of the trail. You can also find the start
of a lot of the Johnathan Lee Alt in far out comments
but it's best to have the map obviously so you know where you're going once
you leave the far outlying. I'll put some instructions
on how to get those maps in the description of this video. are also, like I said, my DIY alternates,
and I think that spirit of the CDC is a bit different from other long trails in that it sort of encourages adaptations and often it's
just because of the nature of the way the trail is in its early stages
right now. And you see something up ahead
that looks interesting and you think you can reasonably reconnect back to trail
when you're examining your toes, give it a shot. Go visit the things you want to visit
and go see. The things you want to see. Have fun with the seeds and get lost
as long as you can find your way back. Next up, we are talking food
and resupply on the Sidoti. One question that I got a few times
is what is the average resupply? think the average resupply on the CDT is
right around five days in between towns. I do feel like this is a little bit longer
than the 80 and the PCT on average. I think on the BCT,
I could go like four days pretty commonly. And from what I hear about the 80,
you can easily do like two or three days. Like both trails, you occasionally
do have options to shorten your resupply or skip towns completely, so lengthen it. But I do think that the CVT more often
pushes the limit in between towns and has less options
than the other trails. There were very few times
that we only went 2 to 3 days between towns,
which I hear is very common on the 80. This is mostly in like central Colorado,
there were several times where we went 8 to 9 days between towns, which
I feel like really only happens like once maybe on the PCT. You. while the PCT does have a few longer
carries like in the Sierra, I found that they were
just a lot more frequent on the S.D. Going 100 plus miles in between towns
definitely was not uncommon on the sea here and was almost kind of the norm. So that leads me to the longest food
carry that I did on the CDC, and that was about nine days
between Lander in Dubois, Wyoming. was 160 miles
through the Wind River range. And we did choose to skip a town. There is a resupply option
in the middle of the winds if you go out to Pinedale, Wyoming. But this requires like a 20 plus mile
side trip and a semi unreliable hitch. So we looked 160 miles. We were like, we're in pretty good shape.
We could probably do it. We love the winds. We kind of don't want to like leave
in the middle of it anyway. So we decided to give it a shot. We're hoping to make it through in seven days,
and that's how much food we brought in. That was an average of about 23 miles a day, which is fairly reasonable
for a through hike. But the winds can slow you down in several different ways,
which is what ended up happening to us. We had some really rough storms
that ended up cutting days short. There was one day when we were planning
and feeling good and felt like
we were going to hit our mileage, but we ended up only making it 40 miles
because we hiked through like 3 hours of a storm
and it just wasn't letting up. And then we also decided
to take some more scenic alternate, which took a little bit longer. They were scrambling,
they were route finding and we didn't really want to pass
those opportunities up, even though we knew
we might not have enough food. So our backup plan
was to leave out of a trailhead. But again, we knew as a semi unreliable hitch, but we knew
we were going to hit it on a weekend and we had been there before and knew
that it could actually get fairly crowded. So we were like, We'll just figure it out
when we get there if we need to. Luckily, we ended up
being able to get food from some people who were bailing off of the hydro. Unfortunately, they were dealing with
altitude sickness and they had to leave. But that meant that they had a bunch of extra backpacking food,
which they very generously shared with us. So everything ended up working out
perfectly and ended up taking us nine days and we had plenty of food
for those nine days. It was honestly a lot of fun, but I did feel pretty rank
by the end of those nine days, and that was my biggest complaint
about being out for that long. that brings us to the next question,
which is what is the hardest resupply on the CVT
and where should you send boxes? so we did prep for the towns
where we felt like we would need boxes. And so I felt like
all of our resupply is we're fine because the places where we needed
boxes to supplement, we did have them but there are definitely a few tart on the side that leave a lot to be desired
by way of grocery stores. So here's a list of where we sent boxes
and why and how I felt about the fact that we sent boxes there. So in New Mexico,
we sent a box of pie town. You really honestly don't have
another option in Pie Town besides maybe heading out of town. And there's not a lot of traffic
that goes through there. It's literally dirt roads
through the entire town. I don't know anyone who left to go
get food. I'm sure that there is a way to do it. However,
there's really nothing there besides pie. Maybe you could do like a pie resupply
challenge. However, I wouldn't recommend the Miles
after Pie Town are pretty miserable. You'd want real food. and if the toaster house
is still accepting packages, I would definitely recommend
sending them there over the post office because I remember the post office
there had kind of funky hours. We sent a box to Doug Kimball's, which is
in the middle of the HeLa section. We heard that
they had a general store there, but it was kind of mixed reviews
on what the resupply would be like. I was glad we had a box there. There was a decent resupply there. However, I heard from other hikers that it was fairly pricey
to get everything you wanted. And also, you know, you're
kind of just stuck with whatever there. Also, if you happen to get there after
a lot of hikers go through, it's possible that they could be a little bit depleted
because that is the only option. So I was happy with sending a boxer. However, I think you could get away
without it, didn't send any resupply boxes in the entire state of Colorado,
and I was fine with that decision. I don't think that there was
any food carries where I wish that I had. Some people will send a box to the Twin
Lakes General store. However,
you really don't even need to resupply there just because of the distances
between towns. If anything, you could supplement
a little bit there. There's definitely a little bit of food. It's not a ton of options,
but if you wanted to carry like, you know, a half resupply from the town
before the town after, that would be a good option. in Wyoming.
We did not send a box. However, I wish that we had to riverside
slash encampment. There were a lot of far out comments
that were saying that, like there's a grocery store slash
general store that was fine
and we did resupply from there. It was fine.
So I guess you could get away with it. However, I do wish I had more variety and more options
at that resupply point in Idaho. In Montana, we send a box to Lima,
and I was very, very glad that we did the only resupply option
there is like a big gas station and it's definitely catered
to people on road trips like it is stocked as a gas station,
not as like a through hiker gas station. You could certainly make it work again,
Like you could throw some resupplies together. However, it's going to be like a lot of chips
and snacks and beef jerky and for me, I just want a little bit more variety
and some more real dinners and stuff than what you could get there. I would recommend at least getting like
a supplemental box sent to Lima, maybe one with like your dinners and lunches, and then you could do the rest
at the gas station later. Idaho is another place that we send
a supplemental box. And usually these were ones where we would just tell our family like,
hey, can you send us dinners and lunches? And I was glad that we did that. There was a reasonable resupply
at the general store there. But again,
it was more pricey and less options than what
I would want to do as a full resupply. Finally we sent a box to East Glacier. There are definitely grocery stores there. There are a bit of a walk
from where most hikers stay, so it's kind of nice
to have your resupply in a box already. Plus, you're probably be setting yourself
some like logistical things for the end of the trail
if you're hiking northbound. So that's one place
that I probably would still send a box, even though there is kind
of a decent amount of resupply options. There of all of these locations. To more directly answer this question, I think the worst and hardest resupply
would either be Peyton Town or Lima. And by town, you truly have no options
besides hitchhiking out of town. in Lima, you're stuck
with like a giant gas station that is not currently catering towards
thru hikers. Herbivore Hiker asked How easy would a vegan be able to resupply
without mailing boxes? And I think the consensus stays the same. There are a lot of small towns
and there are a lot of low selection resupply points, so I would definitely send boxes
to all the places that I mentioned and maybe consider supplemental boxes
to some of the smaller towns along the way as well. Just because there are smaller grocery
stores, smaller gas stations that you're going to be resupplying from
and you want to make sure that you're still getting the food
that you need. Moving on to water questions. Did you ever run out of water on a CD? I'd actually did run out of water
a few times on the CD due to no other reason than my own stupidity
and lack of foresight. I ran out of water
on the way out of Grand New Mexico. I got distracted because we were hiking
straight out of town with like a big group of friends,
and I think I just kind of, like, forgot that I needed to look at
where our first water source was and sort of just assumed there would be
one within, you know, 5 to 10 miles. So I only packed out
like a liter and a half it turns out that our first water source
was not for 16 miles. And it was a hot afternoon,
and I definitely paid the price. I was very thirsty. By the time
I finally got to the cow trough. So it was like a huge climb
really high afternoon. And I went through that liter and a half
very quickly to the point where like most of us actually made that mistake that day,
we just kind of didn't think about it. We were having too much fun
and that was almost really bad. But we did make it to a cow trough
and we all ended up kind of deciding to stay there
instead of hiking up to Mount Taylor, which had originally been the plan. And I think that was ended up
being the right move. But yeah, being out of water was not fun. I also ran out of water
one day in Colorado when I forgot to check again
where our next water source was. We've started that morning at a lake, but I just kind of got
lulled into a false sense of security. Being in Colorado, you kind of just assume
there's going to be water. But the thing about hiking in the city is
you are atop the divide a lot of the time, especially in Colorado. This is also true in Idaho. And what happens when you're atop the
divide is all the water is running down. So you don't really cross any water
sources because they're all below you. And so I only had like a liter for maybe like 10 to 12 miles that day. It was in the morning. It was okay. But again, it wasn't fun. Most of the time I did carry a generous amount of water because I was too afraid
of becoming dehydrated. But another area that they can
really sneak up on you is in Idaho. So be sure to start checking those water
sources, especially in New Mexico, especially in the Great Divide Basin
and especially on the border with Idaho. There's also a sneaky dry stretch
right after San Luis Peak in Colorado. this is my related question. Someone asked,
How bad are the water sources on the cty and how to survive
the city as a water snob? And I will say that the water on the CDT
is certainly not as nice as the city where I imagine the 80 again
can't really speak from experience. There. You can afford to be a little bit
more picky. I feel like on the pig in the water
sources are certainly much more frequent, although there are dry stretches
on that trail as well. However, as long as you pay
attention and plan and have adequate carrying capacity, that's huge. Because even if you know that there's
not a water source for 25 miles, if you only have three liters of capacity,
that's probably not going to be enough. think it's survivable. I would personally recommend at least five liters of carrying capacity
in New Mexico in the basin. I used five liters worth several times. again, don't get lulled into a false sense
of security in Yellowstone, because as soon as you had
that Idaho border, it dries out and you're going to need carrying capacity
again. As far as being a water snob, though,
you're either going to have to take a lot of extra
time to filter, carry a lot more in between sources
so that you can skip sources. Or, to be frank, get over it. There will be nasty sources
that you have to drink from that are like the only source
in, you know, a 60 mile stretch. And in my opinion,
that's kind of the fun of the city. It wouldn't be the CDT
if it wasn't a little bit miserable. so as masochistic as it sounds,
I kind of came to enjoy how nasty the water sources would look sometimes
because I knew I could handle that. Like I had the right set up. I could make sure that I could make
that water safe to drink. And it kind of became a fun laugh
between your fellow through hikers. another day of the kitty, another pond filled with cow shit
that we have to drink from. But overall,
I do think that the water sources on the CVT and how terrible they are
is a little bit overblown. Like there's ways to drink water,
perfectly accessible, perfectly fine. I don't think it's quite as bad
as the reputation makes it seem. Next up, we are talking trail towns. People ask
what is the best trail town on the city and what trail town
can we simply not miss? I personally love trail towns. They are, in my opinion, one of the best
parts of through hiking the trail. when I was in my entire life would I have ever visited Lima, Montana,
and had the best day of my life. Or Rawlins, Wyoming. And gotten the worst hangover of my life
These are places you would typically go, and there's a lot
to be seen in trail towns. CTT Trail Town
specifically are kind of a special breed because a lot of them don't yet
fully know about the trail. Some locals will know, some don't. It's kind of hit or miss, and each state,
I think, has distinctly different vibes along the CDT. You and it's honestly pretty hard for me
to narrow it down to just one trail town. So I'm going to go over like each state
and which ones I really liked. In New Mexico,
despite Peyton being like one of the worst resupplies,
I think it's a can't miss town on the. There's something really unique
and quirky about it that just makes it part of this experience. And I think a lot of that
has to do with the your house. Unfortunately,
Anita passed away this past year and she was a lot of what made the Toast
her house really special. So I do hope that it has that same spirit
moving forward and I would definitely recommend
a visit as long as it's still running. And again, hopefully the new caretakers
carry on Anita's spirit because that was definitely what made that
town very special as well as obviously all of the pie reserve. New Mexico is an optional stop. lot of people did not stop there
and hiked straight through it. However, it's
in the middle of a really long stretch and I really couldn't
fathom not having a break at that point. And it was right after
we walked through an active forest fire. It was just very much needed
and the locals there ended up being incredible. Like we had so much fun in that town. The place that we stayed was awesome and I'm really just very happy
that we ended up hanging out on reserve. New Mexico. I think we took a00 there, actually,
and it was a lot of fun in Colorado. I definitely loved Lake City, Colorado. It's not really an optional stop, like you're going to want to stop there
after hiking all the way from Chama. it's charming and it's remote and it's
one of the last little mountain towns in Colorado that hasn't been overtaken
by a commercialization. Another must stop in Colorado,
in my opinion, is Leadville. With the way that towns start popping up
like left and right in central Colorado, I think some people might opt to skip
Leadville just because it's around a lot of other towns. But I would definitely recommend making that one of the ones you start
that it's the home to Valens Ana, which is that place that has like a cult
following and the Through Hager world. And it also has a great hostel
and a lot of different food options. And I just I don't know, there's something about
Leadville that's just cute and quirky. It's also like one of the highest towns or maybe the highest town
in the United States. of honorable mentions in Colorado, just because I really do
love a lot of the towns here. I'm a little bit biased, obviously,
since I live here, but just to make it a little bit
more brief, I would definitely also submit Pagosa Springs, fly to Twin Lakes in Grand
Lake Wyoming. Lander, Wyoming was definitely
my favorite town in that state. Landers The gateway to the Wind River
range in it is an awesome visit. has everything you could need
as a through hiker. There's some really great outfitters
there just because it is so close to the Wind River range
and it has great food and a lot of different options
for where to stay. Overall, I just linders a cool town
and I would go back even not on a through hike. Pinedale is also really cool and I have visited Pinedale before,
but I skipped it on this. But if you're doing
like the Wind River Hydro or something like that,
definitely recommend Pinedale as well. Idaho and Montana. little. Idaho was one of the most fun towns
that we stopped in, honestly, on the trail, and I had to give Idaho
at least one mention. I think we just didn't really stop. In many Idaho towns,
when you're on the border, you end up stopping in Montana,
even if you're hiking in Idaho. but the Mustang Inn
definitely made our day. And later, it's a family
starting like a little bed and breakfast. And it was perfect for hikers. Everything is so close together. I really love trail towns
where everything is walkable because it's so small and let our
definitely fits that bill Lima, Montana, again, a town that is scarce
as far as resupply options, definitely still made my list of favorite trail towns
because it's so small and I had the best steak of my life
the Pete Saloon and Steak House. there's only one place to stay. And there's not one gas station. the town kind of gives you
the vibes of like, this is why it through hiking is about these tiny little Western towns
you would literally never visit otherwise. mixes in a lot of Montana pillars. Portal Hostel is honestly one of the best
hostels that I've ever seen. An anaconda is worth a stop just for that. Next is Agusta, Montana. Again, this is one of those towns that just like embodies
what three hiking is to me. It's so small that everything is right
next door to each other. The locals are great. There's a little bit of town drama
if you happen to get lucky like we did, we stayed in this weird, quirky,
but big Airbnb that was super cheap. So we each paid like $20 and all stayed
for two nights, which was a lot of fun. Honorable mention to Darby. If you watch Yellowstone,
that's where the Yellowstone Ranch is, which is kind of cool to see
when you're driving into town. it also the Montana Cafe
definitely lived up to the hype for me. You'll see it in the far out comments. Giant pancakes, slushies breakfast, worth
at least two stops. Next up is questions about preparation. Specifically,
the first one is about how to prepare for the Colorado
snowpack this year on the city. according to polls to lower the Colorado
snowpack on the CD is currently below average,
which makes sense compared to what I've been seeing up here
in Summit County. We definitely haven't been getting
as much snow this year. And it's also, according to Post Heller,
currently lower snowpack than it was this time in 2022,
which is the year that I hiked. And I think if you're hiking northbound
and you hit the sand ones in early June, it'll definitely be doable. You'll probably want an ice action
spikes. But considering we went through in late May on a year with a higher snowpack,
I think you'll be totally fine. That being said, it wasn't melting
really fast The year that we went through. Like you can see on the graph, it's like just a steep drop off,
which doesn't always happen. There are a lot of like windstorms that blew dirt onto the snow
and then made it melt faster. So definitely keep an eye on it still. But I think if you make it to the same ones in early June,
you should be good to go. will say, though, that the same ones
are sneakier than a trail like the city because the city tries to stay atop
the divide as much as possible, whereas the PCT follows a more of a path
and valley route through this year. So you could kind of prepare like we have
a path that's going to be a lot of snow. We'll deal with it, you know, as we get higher and elevation,
the CDC kind of stays high in elevation and it's really like the north
and northeasterly facing slopes that are going to start
to pose problems for you. And so those are a little harder
to plan and monitor throughout the day besides bringing the right tools
like an ice ax and micro spikes and knowing how and when to use them. I would say the other thing you can do to
prepare is by having good topo maps so that you can actually
just avoid some of the steeper snow slopes if they seem to sketch you to cross. I did that several times
where there were reports of really steep and kind of precarious snow situations, and I just looked at my tollbooths
and figured out how to navigate around it. So I just didn't have to deal with it,
although that was a lot of work and extra time.
So just be prepared for that. Another question I got was how long should a first time
thru hiker prepare and train for the CTA? And honestly,
this is going to vary a ton by person. I do think this is more physically
challenging than any other trail that I've done so far. So I would definitely put a lot of time
and effort as much as you can into training for it,
especially as a first time thru hiker. However, I knew many first time
thru hikers that I met on the CDT. It was their first trail
and they rocked it. They crushed it. So it's absolutely possible. I would say just get in as good of shape
as you can, especially try and get miles in with your backpack on
and you're going to be fine. Next is what is the hardest
part of the city to you logistically? I personally think that the hardest part
of it, logistically speaking, is following the trail in certain sections because it's so new and things are changing and you know,
there's not as much awareness about it. I think there's a high need
for trail maintenance in certain sections, sometimes the trail does just disappear
altogether. I never truly felt like I was lost. It's just like more annoying
than anything. Like it gets a little bit bushwhacking
or you kind of have to keep an eye on your map
to make sure you're continuing in the right direction rather than relying on
like a trail being there. so it certainly can cause a lot of frustration,
even if you're not getting truly lost. I do think that over time
this is improving every single year. And like I said, it's
more of an annoyance than anything. Getting to the southern terminus of the CDT
is also certainly a logistical challenge. It's a long drive done
a very rough dirt road, like two plus hours down dirt roads,
and the closest town is Lordsburg. And the directions are a little bit
confusing and your GPS can definitely send you
the wrong way. personally would definitely recommend
using the CDC is shuttle over having like a family member friend to take you
just because they know what they're doing. They know the way there
and they have capable vehicles. If you have a friend who's like fairly
confident in their vehicle and really wants to take you where
you really want to be taken by someone, I would just say have maps downloaded,
have several different directions downloaded,
and make sure you are really like paying attention
because it's kind of easy to get lost. up is gear questions. What backpacking gear
would you have changed on a CD? Specifically,
someone asks one thing that you wish you had brought
or one thing you wish you had left behind. This one's kind of easy for me. I wish I had left behind
one of the sleeping paths that I carried. I carried a foam pad, Any blow, a pad
which was redundant and unnecessary. One thing that I wish I had brought up
was an urge sack. I was resistant to the idea first because
of the added cost and added weight. But honestly it got really annoying
and sometimes really difficult to hang your food
every night in grizzly country. When you're hiking 30 miles a day. It's just another chore added on to go
and have to hang your food properly in a tree. There's caveats here which I'll get to,
but especially in the West, a lot of times it's these pine trees
that don't have the best branches. You wind up having to do like a tree
hanging or walking around a lot to find a tree with a reasonable branch
to do it adequate hang. And so if you have like no other option, it can be sometimes dangerous,
especially in grizzly country. I wish I would have made several
of my nights a lot easier, although I would still hang in
or sack in a lot of scenarios. Like if I saw a bear activity that day,
I would definitely still want to hang my horse act because even if you tie in
or sack properly to a tree, if a bear smells it
and they start like piling on it and getting at it, your food is
probably still going to be ruined. Even if they don't get the reward
of actually eating it, which is good. It saves the bear. But on the CDT,
you could be several days away from a town in another resupply and you might have
a bag full of inedible food. So if I was nervous,
I would probably still hanging up a sack, but it would have been nice to have it still on nights where one there were
no trees or two there are no good branches
to still have some way to protect my food. then just to add on to this question, and one thing I was really happy
that I brought was the Sun umbrella, especially in New Mexico,
in the Great Divide Basin. So me asked what my pack weight was
on the seeds and basically it was around £13 that I think was higher
because of the camera gear that I brought. Without that camera gear,
it would probably been closer to £10. next section is questions
about motivation. So when you ask
what are the most common reasons that people quit the CDC
and how do you overcome them? This is purely speculation
because I don't really know the most common reason
that people quit the CDC. I feel like a lot of people come out. They're pretty prepared because their experienced
and they've probably through hiked before. But if I had to guess, my guess would be
that the most common reason is injury. and how you're going to prevent injuries. Honestly on the it is proper training
having the right shoes, whitening your pack and listening to your body
when things start to get kind of tough. also think
that people will probably quit the CDC because it can be pretty miserable
at times. The CDC, in my opinion,
just takes the brutality of their hiking up another level
in basically every single regard. So if you're out there for like a big,
happy, fun adventure, I don't know that the CDC
is going to be the right trail. It certainly provides that. But there is a lot of challenge
along the way. Combine
that with the fact that there are a lot less hikers on the CDC, I think morale is just something
that is tougher on that trail. the moments
where I was especially miserable, I tried to remember why I came out there
in the first place, and that was to prove to myself that I
could do something really hard like this. And quitting would have obviously been
proving to myself that I couldn't do it. So in a nutshell, I'm
very competitive and stubborn, and that helped me through the misery
of this easy. next question is how did you stay
motivated? is kind of related
to my answer of the previous one. really, when I was having a bad day, I reminded myself
that everything is temporary. I heard this on a podcast
that Klebsiella did with backpacker radio, and it really, really helped me, matter
what the miserable thing was that day, it would eventually end
and I would just remind myself of that. I would also remind myself in
like smaller bouts of misery that I can do like basically anything
for whatever that distance was usually like shorter than a mile. So like, if it was a climb for another
half a mile and I was like, really, really struggling, I was like,
Well, I can do anything for half a mile. It's just half a mile. So kind of like breaking it down into smaller chunks,
made it a little more digestible. And then finally,
I constantly tried to remember how much tougher I was actively getting by doing
these miserable things. There were so many days that I honestly did just flat out
suck And I kept saying to myself, Just think how much tougher you'll be
when this is done. Related to those questions as well. What was your worst day on the CBT
and how did you learn from it? To be honest, there are a lot of
really hard days on the CBT. As I sort of touched on, it definitely
was a really tough trail for me, and there were more than a few days
where I did contemplate quitting one day. That really sticks out to me
was in the Great Divide building, where I'm pretty sure I was dealing
with some sort of heat illness. I was getting rashes on my legs
every single day. I was very nauseous. I was having diarrhea every afternoon
at like 11, like clockwork. And if you have ever been to the basin
or seen it, you know that there's nowhere to do that
privately. So that's a little bit of a morale issue
when you're like, I need to go do business, and somebody might walk up on me
because there is no trees for 80 miles. And so I guess I'm just going to like walk up to the side of the trail
as far as I can and hope for the best so I was nauseous,
super hot, really low on energy. And simultaneously
we were trying to push really big days because we didn't
want to be in the basement any longer. We got to a water source on this day. It was like one of the few, like open
water sources is like a big reservoir inner. Remember saying to myself, if someone drives by,
I'm going to ask for a ride and I'm going to get in
and I'm going to get out of this hellhole There aren't a lot of cars
that come by in the basin. It's really
just like big, vast, open nothingness. But there are ranchers who come through
so it was a possibility. And funnily enough, a car did come by
and I could not bring myself to put my thumb out in that moment. And it was in that moment that I realized
I am way too stubborn to quit this trail. And after that I kind of stopped
entertaining the idea as much. I realized I'm I'm not going to do it. Like there's no reason spending
all this mental energy contemplating bailing when I know
that I'm too stubborn to do so. So I really let my stubbornness
take me pretty far. And it reinforced that everything
is temporary mindset because we ended up getting through the baseline and actually
look back on it pretty fondly. Surprisingly,
You are also rewarded with the Win River range right after the season. And I kind of have this theory
that for every ounce of beauty you get on the CDT,
you pay for it in brutality. So every view you get, you earn. And it's a really accomplished feeling. At the end of the day. A related question
someone asked Was your favorite salty nicknames for the trail
during midday meltdowns? And I don't think I ever really called it
anything specific, although now I'm inspired to develop some things I know we just like would laugh a lot
and be like, It's the seeds for you. Like, things would get really bad
and then something else would happen to just like,
escalate it to be even worse. And we were like, Well,
that's the fucking seed for you. Someone asked,
How do you get the most out of the city? They want to know how to enjoy their
hike to the fullest and I would say to put it simply. My advice would be to take the alternate
stop at trail towns, make sure you're in shape beforehand. And other than that, it's
largely out of your control. think embracing the fact
that you can do nothing about how much certain days will suck
and try and laugh about how bad it gets, like how I kind of talked about earlier
because it will get bad. Some of my favorite moments on this ADT
were literally where we were having the crappiest day possible,
just like slogging through some miserable sections of trail, looking at each other
like, Man, we're tired. Like, when's that's going to end? And then it would just start hailing. and then at that point
you just have to laugh because of course, of course, it started hailing
during this miserable section of trail. And honestly,
I got a lot of enjoyment out of that. are questions comparing the CDT to the PC. first person asked
What is the sun and desert intensity like on the CD versus the PC? And in general, I found the sun and desert both
to be a lot more intense on the CD. The CVT follows more desert floor,
especially for the first 100 miles
than the PCT on the PCC. You're kind of like, go up in. There are some shrubs and trees
and it feels a little bit more like high desert country, whereas this easy
feels like low sandy desert. Think more sand, less trees and less water
and a lot more cows. I did find the desert or the CDT
to be a lot hotter, even though I hiked through it in April versus
I to the desert in May on the city. is worth noting
that I had a very wet year on the PCT, so that could have contributed
to cooler temperatures. But overall
I felt like the CDT was just like the desert turned up a couple notches. You also do have a lot more sun
exposure on the CDs. Just objectively, the average elevation
on the trail in Colorado is above 10,000 feet, which means you're
way more exposed to the sun. You're above treeline more often,
and you definitely want to make sure that you're prioritizing sun production. And then just to cover,
like the main differences between the city and the city, I could probably do
an entire video just on this, so I'm going to make it quick. High level summary kind of bullet points. I think the city is harder
logistically, physically and mentally. I think the city has more remote sections
more often than the city. The CDC definitely still has less people. The city permits are easier
to get from a competitive standpoint, but logistically you're going
to need to do more work. It's not just one permit, it's several
that you need to like string together. And for like Yellowstone in Glacier,
you really probably can't do it until you get there. So that's another factor
logistically that you have to worry about. Whereas the PCC, you just get the one
in, you're good for the whole trail. The people in Cedar Trail towns are definitely less likely
to know what you're doing. Although awareness is spreading. city has harsher weather. I experience a lot more storms,
a lot more hail and a lot more intense
sun on the CVT than the city. The ZT is a lot higher in elevation
for longer just by the nature of the way that trail is constructed. You're up there for a long time,
so altitude is definitely a bigger factor. tread is a lot tougher. experiencing
the CDC is why I finally understood why people harped so much about the PCT
being graded for horses. You will get why that's a big deal
once you hate the city and the CDC has more sections
where trail is harder to follow. So just in general, it's
kind of taking everything up a level. Next people
asked about community on the CDC. What is their community? What is the culture like? And there certainly
is community on the CDC. And thanks to the efforts of the trail towns and the CDC,
it is growing every single year. It's certainly less than the other trails,
but again, it's growing. And people
definitely recognize what the CDC is and are starting to create more
and more community and trail towns. I also happen to be in the 2022
through hiking bubble, which anecdotally, according to a lot of the locals, was twice
the size of any bubble they'd seen before. Just for reference to me,
that bubble felt similar to being in the last group of three hikers
on the PCT in 2019. So for comparison, a big bubble felt like a group of stragglers
on a more popular trail. We were definitely able to find community
on the CDC because we were in that bubble and we really enjoyed it without ever
feeling like campsites were overcrowded or towns were filled to the brim
with through hikers. If you're specifically looking
for a social trail, I probably wouldn't recommend this to you just because
your experience could vary a lot. We talked to hikers who were a few days,
a few weeks ahead of us, who had a totally different, very solitary experience
compared to what we did in the bubble. However, if you are hiking the CDC anyway
and you're hoping for a social experience, I think it's
certainly possible that you will get it. will say trail
magic was almost non-existent on the city. We got it once in the desert,
but in general, don't expect trail magic out there. Next, addressing navigation. What navigation apps did you use? I sort of mentioned this in the alternate
section, but I used a far out. I would say most hikers did use far out
and that is definitely still it for the CDT. You However there is
and I think should be more use of supplemental maps
than there is on other trails. In addition to Jonathan Lane's maps,
which I mentioned already and use on a vendor,
I liked having another navigation app like Guide to download and use topo maps
for whenever I needed it. Next up is questions about bears. How do you deal with bears on the course? I use a lot of different strategies
for dealing with bears, especially in grizzly country. One, I always carry a bear
spray in grizzly country and kept it completely accessible
on the hip out of my fanny pack. So it's no good to you. If it's in your best, you're not going
be able to reach it in time. added a dinner break to our day
and usually ate dinner about a mile before camp compared to inaugurals country,
where we would typically eat at camp if we didn't have time. Jesus or we kind of like ended up
camping earlier than we expected. We would walk really far away
from where we were sleeping to eat. We hung our food and smell bulls
every single night. This is kind of like a non-negotiable
for me in grizzly country. try not to night hike alone. I would periodically make noise
Yellow bay. My driving pulls together
if I was alone during the day, and especially
if I saw signs of bear activity. And as I mentioned before, I wish I had written Herzog just so I had that extra layer
of protection for my food. I will say that eventually
you get used to all the bear precautions, and it's not as overwhelming
as it might seem to begin with. And you really are very rarely probably
going to see bears. And that leads me to the next question
of how many bears did I see on the CDC and how did they act
as a forebears that I can remember on the CD of which were just like Bear,
But that I saw running away. So I'm really not sure
if they were grizzlies or black bears, but I think at least one of them
was definitely a black bear. The other one harder to tell,
but both of those just like ran away as soon as they heard me. One of them, though, was a huge, huge,
huge black bear that I saw in Colorado. I was looking down at my mapping app
at a junction, and when I looked up, I noticed there was just this giant bear
like 75 yards away from me. I instinctively sort of took a step back
and then burgeoned on spot spew that. So then I tried to make myself really big, like put my arms up in the air and yelled,
and then the bear immediately ran away so that one behaved how you would expect
and how would you would want a bear to behave
when you encounter it in the backcountry. There was another bear, however,
another black bear that I encountered in Montana,
also on a gravel road. It was like probably 100 yards
ahead of me. And that one, it looks really young or small ish, but it was without a mom. It was maybe old enough to be so loved. So I wasn't sure
if there was a mom around or not, but I would yell at it and it would just kind of turn around
and look at me and like, Stop walking. We were walking the same direction,
so I didn't really want it to stop or turn around and kind of want to do it,
like pulled off in the other direction. But instead of doing that, it was just
like turning around and looking at me. So eventually I just stopped yelling at it
and kind of slowed my pace. So I kept my distance from it and I just waited for it to eventually
meander off into the woods, which it did. And it was fine. Josh also saw a grizzly cub
in Mom in Glacier, which was pretty scary. He was walking on the trail
and they were like, right on the trail. Luckily, some Rangers got his attention
and told him to give them a very wide berth yet as bears carry out. did that and they were literally like right in front of our camp
and I think if we'd been alone, we probably would've
kept walking that night. But luckily
there are a lot of people that campsite, there are rangers there with horses
and the end team nervous about it. So we stayed. They had been like digging up ground
squirrels, so that was kind of cool, but a little bit nerve
wracking for a very last night on trail. But yeah, those were the bear encounters
that I had on CDT. Yeah, nothing really scary. In conclusion, I hope this is helpful
for any prospective hikers. If you have a question
about any given topic, please feel free to leave it in the comments
and I'll do my best to answer. Of course, like I said, any given year on
any given trail is going to be different and your experience may vary
greatly from mine, but I hope that sharing what I experience
helps you prepare even just a little bit for what I believe
is the adventure of a lifetime. CDT is as magical as it is brutal. and if you get to spend even a fraction
of time on a fraction of that trail, you should consider yourself
a very lucky human being. Thanks for watching. Bye.
