Plan for the CDT - start nobo april 2017

[Blommetje]

Hi all,

I just joined this forum but am a long time fan of the cdt.
Two years ago i read about this trail and been thinking about it non-stop.

However, currently I'm traveling from Mongolia through Russia and Europe making my way back home, by bike!
Having loads of fun and a sore bum!
Currently I'm in Ukraine about to cross to Slovakia. In about three months I should be home.

About me? 31 years old Dutch male. No job. No girl. No house. Just a backpack and an empty wallet right now.

So the plan is to fly to the States beginning of April 2016 and hike this thing thru.

So why posting now?
There is a lot things to figure out, starting with a visa that'll let me stay such a long period, getting hard copy maps.. and what is these permits for NP I keep reading about?!

I have so many questions I don't know where to start. Before I left for my current trip (9 months on the road now) I saw two dvds on this trail, ordered from the official website, don't know the titles right now). I wanted to hike this in 2016 but I won't make it time/money wise.

First things are:
- the government shakedown called visa; how and what and when to apply.
- permits for all the parks?
- hardcopy maps to plan my route, in nl for sale?
- find out how the mail drop system works. I have to make packs somewhere In the USA for shipping from Netherlands is ridiculous
- what city to fly in? Houston? Las Vegas? Of course cheap rules.


Right now I'm on my bike so I download most info and read in the evening in my tent. So replies here won't be very day the first 12 to 16 weeks. When I get 'home' this gets full focus!

Hopefully meet you out there !

Alex T.

Some pics: Ukraine and the last 2 Mongolia. (If anybody tells you it is fun to cycle Mongolia in April, punch them! It's REALLY cols and the wind is relentless):

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/27/0578d0a27982b0363f54f858c6b79f76.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/27/5730fe7d6e45c57123cc91bdac4e4cf4.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/27/a697a1c02d44305b54bc7d631e6b92bb.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/27/a6d3b5a6550fff0a5c40ae086fbf262e.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/27/53331501c7940537e0efb88ba9e90ba6.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/27/435e6d4a9c3ab9203ccc16b772bc55fe.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/27/4aa8420dd4ceda4cb3953c3cd0738b66.jpg

[Blommetje]

Awh, I forgot to post a really important one.. cist average?

I saw somewhere 1000 $ a month, but that sound quite high for sleeping in a tent and cooking on a stove...

Any guidelines regarding this? Aside from airline tickets and such of course.

Alex

[Venchka]

Have you thought about riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route? If the visa rules don't permit enough time for a hike, you can ride the G.D.M.B.R. in 1-2-3 months. maybe less than a month if you put your mind to it.
While I am envious of your Hilleberg tent, you'll want something much much lighter for the CDT or the GDMBR.
Airports:
NOBO. El Paso, Texas or Tucson, Arizona are frequently mentioned. Hitch/shuttle to the trailhead. Albuquerque, New Mexico could work, but is farther from the border.
SOBO: Kallispell, Montana. Very close to Glacier National Park and the northern end of the CDT.
National Park Permits: Pretty much a walk up to the backcountry ranger office and ask for a permit. Might mean a delay of a day or two, but nothing horrible. Yellowstone & Glacier are the only two parks to worry about. Unless the CDT also goes through Rocky Mountain N.P. in Colorado. Again, no trouble for a legitimate thru hiker. The permits are free.
Be prepared to have a gas/petrol stove with an on-off valve in case of burn bans which mean no open flame stoves without an on-off valve or campfires.
Personally, I would start SOBO from the Canadian border around July 1, + or - a few days. That way, if something unlanned cut your trip short you will have hiked through some of the best geography on the planet.
Mail drops are a whole other topic. It can be done. There are lists of post offices on/near the trail in the CDT forum stickies.
The first 6 topics have a ton of info on maps, water, resupply & mail drops.
http://whiteblaze.net/forum/forumdisplay.php/414-Continental-Divide-Trail
Good luck!

Wayne

[Venchka]

New Mexico is related to Mongolia! :D :eek: :cool:

Wayne

[Venchka]

New Mexico is related to Mongolia! :D :eek: :cool:

Wayne

I was too brief. Southern New Mexico may, at times & certain places, may be related to Mongolia. High altitude desert. Central and northern New Mexico are more closely related to Colorado, Wyoming & Montana. The Great Basin in southern Wyoming would be a distant cousin of Mongolia. There is water when needed. It only takes a few days to cross.
Starting NOBO: You have the Rocky Mountains ahead of you. The carrot to make the desert tolerable. Flip a coin. Either direction is fine.

Wayne

[handlebar]

I believe there are some Europeans currently hiking the CDT and I finished up in Glacier National Park with a Frenchman.

You can usually get a 6 month visa, which is just enough time to hike the CDT. I would guess you can apply anytime and it will be good for a range of start dates with the 6 months running from your entry into the USA. I hiked northbound starting at the end of April, but many hike southbound and have to wait until as late as mid June or early July for the trails in Glacier NP to be free of snow.

Hardcopy maps: You can print your own (Google Jonathan Ley who offers a CD containing maps and notes) or you can purchase map books through the Bear Creek Survey Web site. Bear Creek now covers some of the popular alternates as well as the "official" trail. Almost no one hikes the "official trail" the entire way. Rather, folks pick and choose alternates according to their desires or due to weather issues in the mountains. I found a GPS to be an essential piece of gear, but plenty of people have navigated via map and compass.

Mail Drops: I found it best to try to avoid mail drops when possible. When I use them it's best to send them to a commercial establishment (like a motel), rather than the Post Office since all post offices are closed on Sundays and Holidays (for your purposes, the last Monday in May (Memorial Day), July 4, and Labor Day (the first Monday in September. One packs a box with food and supplies and sends it ahead using a class of mail called "Priority Mail" to commercial establishments (addressed to oneself, C/O motel name and address or oneself, C/O General Delivery, City, State Postal Code. (C/O stands for In Care Of). One must show photo id to pick up the package at the post office. The post office provides free packing boxes when one uses Priority Mail. I would buy at groceries in larger towns then pack and mail packages ahead.

Flights: If there are direct flights from Netherlands to Phoenix that might be another option. You could take an intercity bus from there to Grants NM if I recall correctly. The CDTC (Continental Divide Trail Coalition) provides rides to the Crazy Cook trail head at the Mexico border for a small charge.

I highly recommend you get Yogi's CDT planning guide. It will set you on the right track. http://www.yogisbooks.com/continental-divide-trail/yogis-continental-divide-trail-handbook

[Blommetje]

Hi Handlebar and Venchka,

Thanks for the info so far!

I have seen the atb trip and even thought about it for a while.... My best friend has a messed hip so can't walk but we bike a lot together. So.. that is cool but I really want to hike! So... cool, but no.

Don't be envious of the tent. She is quite good but. . Not perfect! With storm I trust her and she is easy to put up but the entrance is too small and she is heavy.
I think I will but something in usa that is lightweight. No need to fly with it then.

Why would I worry about the permits for Glacier and Y'Stone?

I have an Edelrid Petrol stove with the valve. But! My sis flew to the States last weekend for 6 weeks of NP backpacking and she texted me that age did not bring the stove because you are not allowed to fly with one! I know you cannot fly with a gas canister or filled petrol bottle but the actual burner... that's new! Anyone know this?

6 month visa should be enough! I think fi
Flying to Phoenix is good but I'm not sure if I want to fly home from there. Maybe from SFO or Seattle?

About gps. I have and love my Garmin gpsmap 62s and will never go anywhere without it. But I can't carry AA battery's with me for 6 months. How do you guys do this? Because battery are so heavy! (Same goes for the camera battery!)

I will order the book from Yogi, looks good. Can't do it now because I have no house;) Priorities i guess..


And what about costs? Aside from flight and tent and such, there I not much to spend it on while on trail right? Love to have a ballpark on this.

THANKS!

Alex

[handlebar]

Flight back to Netherlands from northern terminus (Glacier NP): Amtrak, the US train service stops in East Glacier, MT. You will probably finish at Chief Mt. where you can catch a shuttle for $$$ back to East Glacier. From East Glacier you can take a train West to Seattle or East toward Chicago. The alternate terminus is in Canada in Waterton NP. I'm guessing dealing with one visa will be enough for you, but if you can enter Canada, another option will be to fly out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

GPS Batteries: Many folks use a bounce bucket, literally a plastic 5 gallon (19L) plastic bucket and pack spares in it. I bounced mine from town stop to town stop about one month apart along the trail. You can buy AA and AAA batteries in trail towns. In the larger trail towns you can find lithium batteries which are much lighter, longer lasting and work better in the cold.

When I hiked the CDT there were no fire bans in place. I used an alcohol stove to cook dinner, my only hot meal. Where there was a fire ban on the Colorado trail a few years later, I carried an MSR Pocket Rocket. It is possible to send gas cannisters for these through the mail, but they have to travel by surface mail so there must be an advance plan.

Some people manage to fly with their petrol stoves, but only after they disassemble them and completely take them apart. If there is the slightest smell of petrol, they will be confiscated by the Transportation Security Administration, the US Govt agency responsible for airline security.

There are lots of light weight, very small tent manufacturers in USA. Some have even grown large enough to contract the tent sewing to sweatshops in China. I have owned tents from all of these: Tarptent, owned the Rainbow about 1 kg, www.tarptent.com; Six Moon Designs, owned the Wild Oasis, a shaped tarp and used it on the CDT, about.75kg, www.sixmoondesigns.com; and Zpacks, the Hexamid Plus, a very light ~.5 kg tent with full bug protection made from Cuben Fiber, www.zpacks.com. The first two were of siliconized nylon. The less the weight; the more the cost.

If you are hiking northbound (nobo), you call to the Yellowstone Backcountry Office from either Togwotee Lodge or Brooks Lake Lodge and make your campsite reservations. For Glacier NP, it's a dayhike from the southern boundary (at Marias Pass) to the town of East Glacier, so you don't need a permit. There are two hostels in E. Glacier. From E. Glacier, it's about a 3-4 hour hike over to Two Medicine Ranger Station where you can get your permit for camping in Glacier NP. When you tell the rangers you are a northbound CDT thru hiker, they will do all they can to work with you.

Check out this link for CDT info from an English thru hiker from 2009 or 2008: http://www.made-in-england.org/category/continental-divide-trail/ Somewhere on this site will be a link to a 3-minute, 15-minute, and 2 hour movie of their hike.

[Blommetje]

Thanks once again, lots of good info and links. Have read a bit more and man, I'm excited to go!

The uk video is also really nice!


- I think I can easily cross from usa to Canada since I'm EU and should be visa free for 180 days. Not sure yet if this goes for land crossings or only for arrival @ airport. But that would make it cool to also hike the Canadian part.

- Petrol stove will be fine, just air it out and clean it. Dissable and fuel up somewhere around the start. Issue might come when there is a fire ban. Does this go also for gas canisters? Or petrol only?

- Weight in general. Loads of food and both warm / cold clothing, tent, sleeping bag, stove, water, water pump, ...I'm thinking this will be heavy. And I read a lot of stories of people pounding out 20 miles a day. Which sounds like AMAZING to me. I'm fit, but 20 miles with load. Wow!

- bear canisters. In Europe there is no wildlife trying to kill me, so this is new stuff for me. I've never touched a bear proof canister... will have to look into this and get 1 .. or 2?

Oh, lots to do and already looking forward to it!

Alex

[handlebar]

I just typed a long response and lost it due to log in time out.

Short and long of it

Both canister and gasoline (petrol) stoves are OK if fire ban is on. Open fires, wood stoves, and alcohol stoves are not OK since they don't have a positive shut off valve. You can fly with a canister stove, but not with the canister. For petrol stove, make sure it and the fuel bottle/pump are very clean (completely disassemble and clean). Otherwise, US TSA (Transportation Security Administration) may confiscate. Check out TSA web site for other requirements on what can/cannot be carried onto a plane and checked in luggage.

You can save weight by using a bounce box to send things like maps, spare clothes, etc. ahead to your self. My base weight (without food, fuel, or water) was about 16 pounds (7kg). Most younger folks hike with less, but I was 65, 66, and 67 the years I hiked the CDT. I managed 20+ mile days about 1/4 of the time and 15+ mile days about 3/4 of the time (includes the 20+ days). You can see on my trail journal at www.trailjournals.com/handlebar. The stats tab shows daily miles breakdown.

You will not need a bear can (as of this writing, but may change in future) in either Yellowstone or Glacier National Parks. You do need one in Rocky Mountain National Park if you stay overnight, but most all CDT thru hikers hike the loop into RMNP as a day hike from Grand Lake, Colorado.

If you send your email address, I will forward my hike plans and the data book I put together from Ley's maps. You might want to also check the pages of CDT2010, CDT2011, etc. on Facebook as I recall someone posting a data book from more accurate miles from Bear Creek Survey maps.