Continental Divide Trail – 2010
Deb, (the Walking Carrot) and I are about to take off on another long hike, our third summer on the Continental Divide Trail (CDT). Our intention is to walk an unbroken path which will cover roughly the “middle third” of the CDT. This summer we will start hiking on July 17th at Spring Creek Pass in Colorado (in the San Juan Mountains south of Gunnison) where we left off last summer and head north. We intend to hike to Togwotee Pass (in Wyoming south of Yellowstone at the north end of the Wind River Mountains) where we left off in 2008. This summer’s walk of the “middle section” of the CDT will thus connect our two previous hikes.
But wait, there’s more! After arriving at Togwotee Pass we will head up to Glacier National Park. We saved the last 38 miles from Many Glacier to Waterton for a final grand finish. If all goes well, after 9 weeks and about 850 miles, we will arrive in Waterton on (or about) Sept 18th to complete our three year project of hiking the entire length of the CDT!
You can see a detailed itinerary on our website: www.walkingcarrot.com
In Colorado the trail only occasionally dips below 10,000’ elevation. By starting in July we will avoid most of the potential snowpack issues and hopefully enjoy abundant wildflowers. We will experience contrasts in Wyoming. We will enter the Great Divide Basin (a dry, barren, hot desert landscape) at the end of August when it’s sure to be sweltering. We will exit the Wind Rivers around Mid September, with winter on our heels.
Our website www.walkingcarrot.com will chronicle our trip. Since Pocketmail has gone out of business we will limit our updates to “Trip Reports” when we are in town about once every week or two. To continue to receive periodic e-mail updates about our journey, go to the website and click on the “subscribe” button to “opt in” to our Trip Report email list. You can opt out at any time. Or, if you prefer, you can just check back to the website periodically for information. If you subscribed last year, there is no need for you to do anything further.
On our website you will also find a copy of our detailed itinerary for those who like to crunch numbers. There is always a degree of uncertainty about the schedule. We are almost certain to be a day (or more) ahead, or behind, at any given moment. The itinerary will be a roadmap, but don’t expect that we will be following it all the time and it is subject to change. We hope you will come along and follow our progress by periodically checking back in on this website, or better yet by signing up for out email list or the RSS feed so you can receive all of our updates in a timely manner. If you feel so inclined please leave us comments, or to contact us while we are on the trail. We will be able to check email from most town stops, but time may be limited, so if we don’t respond right away, please be patient. We will NOT have pocketmail this summer, so use our hotmail addresses for email. If there is something urgent, leave a message on our cell phone and we will call you when we are in town and able to check message:
nowhere_man97@hotmail.com
walkingcarrot@hotmail.com
Cell phone: 208-946-9127
See the page on “How to Contact Us” for further details on sending mail (think brownies)! More information on the CDT can be found by following the links on our website to the Continental Divide Trail Society as well as the Continental Divide Trail Alliance.
We hope your summer is a filled with adventure and spirit as will be ours!
Phil Hough, aka Nowhere Man, July 2010
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