The Continental Divide Trail Coalition Publication Connecting the community that supports the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail Volume 3, November 2013 Letter from the President CDTC Board We created this organization because more pro-actively with our federal of Directors we believed it was necessary for the land management partners to craft a Bryan Martin CDT to have a national advocate and more consistent vision for the CDT’s President steward. We believed there needed management. We will reach out to to be a coordinator across all five new funders to educate them about CDT states to support trail projects, our work and earn their support. And Josh Shusko Vice President signage, planning, and mapping. we will put more resources out for the And we believed there needed to be public to access, use, and enjoy the an organization to promote the trail, trail. Kerry Shakarjian keep people informed of the trail’s Secretary condition, and activate the people who With your support we have been able care about the trail to see it protected to take off. But we don’t want to stop Teresa Martinez in the manner a National Scenic Trail there. We want to continue to build Treasurer/Managing Director warrants. We believed in all of these on the momentum in 2013 and take things but did anybody else? the organization to another level. Don Owen We will continue to count on your CDTC Board Member As I look back on our first official enthusiasm for the trail – share our year in operation I am staggered and story, encourage your friends to join us The CDTC is a 501 (c) (3) not amazed at our accomplishments and by on the trail for a project, or come out for profit organization the outpouring of support for the CDT. to an event. And we hope that we can Thank you to everyone who follows continue to earn your financial support Dana Foulks us on Facebook and Twitter, who has by advancing projects and initiatives Passages design and layout volunteered on a project this year, that benefit the trail and the trail who has shared our story wit h friends experience. Cover image: Wind River Range by Eric Herbst and family, and who has supported us financially! The enthusiasm for the CDT and for our work has been awe inspiring. It has affirmed our faith in what we believed when we sketched out our plans for a new nonprofit a little over 18 months ago – that the CDT needed a champion. As we move from a start-up phase to a growth phase in our organizational life cycle our mission remains the same – to create a community Inside Passages: committed to construct, promote, and protect in perpetuity the CDT. “I Hike” Excerpt In 2014, we will be reaching out to more communities, involving them in Trailwork Satisfaction planning processes, volunteer projects, and trail celebrations. We will engage Letters from the Trail CDTC Accomplishments An Interview with Jester Bryan enjoying his favorite winter past time along the divide in Colorado! 2 Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, a.k.a. The CDT The basics: What the Trail includes: History: Location: United States • 25 National Forests Founded by: Benton MacKaye and • 21 Wilderness Areas members of the Rocky Mountain Length: About 3,100 miles Trail Association and the Colorado • 8 Bureau of Land Management Northern Terminus: Canadian Mountain Club originally developed the Border, Glacier National Park resource areas concept of the CDT. Jim Wolf and the • 3 National Parks Continental Divide Trail Society built Southern Terminus: Mexican Border, • 1 National Monument upon their work and helped ensure the Big Hatchets Wilderness Conservation CDT was included in the 1978 National Area • Best place/time to start: Trails System Act. – Northbound: March or April Highest Point: Gray’s Peak, Colorado The first thru hike: David Maceyka at 14,270 feet from Mexico/New Mexico and a small group documented the first Border Lowest Point: Waterton Lake, in hike of the CDT in the 1930’s. – Southbound: June from the Glacier National Park at 4,200 feet Original Name: The Blue Can Trail. Montana/Canada border States it Travels through: Montana, Named for the founders who first Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New • Both directions have challenges walked the Trail, marking their path Mexico related to weather and terrain. with blue cans nailed to trees. What’s the Trail for: Hiking, • Most people who travel Northbound Year Proposed to Congress: 1966 end up “flip flopping” along the way horseback riding, cross country Year it was designated: 1978 skiing, hunting, sight seeing, wildlife to find best travel conditions, while watching, contemplation, solitude and most South bounders have the best Sources: Continental Divide Trail community. chance of a continuous thru hike. Coalition, United States Forest Service. Permits: There isn’t a broad permit for Fun facts: the entire CDT, but there are separate Protection: The CDT was designated ones for Glacier National Park, as a National Scenic Trail in 1978 by Yellowstone National Park and Rocky the Congressional oversight Committee Mountain National Park. of the National Trails System. Here kitty, kitty: Mountain lions, Thru Hikers: In 2013 we estimate grizzly bears, elk, rattlesnakes, Moose, 250 people will attempt an end to end wolves, javelinas - name it and you will continuous thru hike of the CDT each probably see it along the CDT. year. The average time to complete it is Challenges and Risks: Lightning, six months, averaging 17 miles per day. moving water, avalanche, hypothermia, Stand Alone: The CDT is the highest heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and most remote of the National Giardiasis, altitude, snow and sun Scenic Trails. It is also the longest of blindness, wildlife and human error can the Triple Crown Trails that include the all play into the chances of a successful Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails. “thru-hike” along the Trail. Longest Roadless Section: Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado Trail marker. Photo by Paul “Mags” Magnanti 3 Excerpt from “I Hike” by Lawton Grinter 4 mosquitoes, wildfires, bears, mountain the buff hoping for any type of breeze Of Mice and Men lions, porcupines, skunks (yes skunks), to waft through and cool me down, tarantulas, scorpions, a surplus of I could hear the sound of fireworks There comes a point on every long hike poisonous snakes, deer flies, horseflies, going off in the distance. For hours where the will to continue no longer black flies, yellow jackets, hornets, the bang and pop of great Fourth of exists. Sometimes these moments are giardia, cryptosporidia, Montezuma’s July celebrations rang in my ears. I fleeting. Sometimes they last weeks revenge, Lyme disease, Rocky had visions of cheery people standing and are enough to send you looking Mountain spotted fever, babesiosis, around barbecues, stuffing their faces for the nearest Greyhound station. Colorado tick fever, ehrliciosis, West with smoked pork, coleslaw and potato When things get bad, and typically it’s Nile virus, eastern equine encephalitis, chips while drinking from kegs of ice- a mental bad in addition to a physical plague, hantavirus, staph infections, cold beer. They were high fiving their bad, you can convince yourself that any chafing, blisters, boils, poison ivy, buddies and oohing and aahing over other possible endeavor in the world poison oak, poison sumac, allergies, the roman candles and bottle rockets would be better than continuing your loneliness, home sickness and a broken making their way skyward. And they hike. Things like going back to a job heart to name a few. Any one of these would retire in a few hours to cool and you hated, going back to a significant misfortunes usually is surmountable. comfortable air-conditioned homes, other you left, taking that underwater The problem comes when you get completely oblivious to the heat and basket weaving course you had multiple hardships occurring at the bugs that had taken over the great previously considered pointless or any same time for weeks on end. They outdoors where I resided. host of other aspirations that weren’t slowly chip away at you until you break. even on your radar a week ago now I could do nothing but lay there and seem urgent. On the Appalachian Trail in listen to the high pitched whine of 1999, I had hiked from Georgia to half a million mosquitoes that would Connecticut... some 1,500 miles do anything to grow fingers with and almost 3/4 of the trail’s length opposable thumbs to unzip my tent and mentally I was done. It had been door and come in to dine. Why incredibly hot for multiple weeks - was I out here? What was I doing? mid-90’s everyday and humidity so Any remnant of the excitement and thick you could swim through it, like anticipation that I had that fateful hiking through molasses. Thick, sticky, day back in March when I set off syrupy molasses. The mosquitoes were from Springer Mountain to walk the relentless and attempted to drain my Appalachian Trail to Maine was gone. blood whenever I stopped moving and I was well behind my self-imposed stood still for more than a half second. schedule by some two weeks and had This went on for weeks. I was lonely been skipping town stops to try and too. I missed my girlfriend more than catch up. I was trampled and beaten I can tell you and was wondering why both physically and mentally. I was anyone in their right minds would ready to quit. voluntarily choose to be out here right now trudging up and down hillsides, The next morning I gathered my gear, swatting mosquitoes and deer flies in packed as quickly as possible while 96 degree heat? swatting mosquitoes, and literally ran out of Pine Swamp.