When would you think the latest you could leave sobo ? August ? I know you'll want to be thru the San Juans before the winter gets there. Any input would be awesome.
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When would you think the latest you could leave sobo ? August ? I know you'll want to be thru the San Juans before the winter gets there. Any input would be awesome.
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october is usually when the trail closes in katahdin so you would need to start going south before then. you would make it to georga by march then but the majority of the time on the trail would be winter. i would reccomend an early start date like june or july.
I'm not talking about the AT Holmes ... this is in a CDT thread.
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didnt notice sorry. i feel stupid now hahaha
You might be able to pull of an early August hike - but Im sure youd hit a lot of snow in the San Juans and have to go the Creede route. I started June 27th and hit snow in the San Juans, and it was pretty nippy in New Mexico the rest of the way. The Gila River Route was icy - 40 degrees and waist high water. In my personal opinion the latest start I'd go back and do would be mid July.
Forget the San Juan mountains. Wyoming won't be a picnic. Services in Yellowstone and Flagg Ranch start closing after Labor Day. The Wind River range can be sketchy from Mid-September on. October in Southern Wyoming and northern Colorado could be iffy too.
Dress and sleep warmly. Be safe and have fun.
Wayne
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SWami started his SoBo CDT hike in early August. BUT! You would need to do his pace to have a good chance of success.
http://www.thehikinglife.com/2012/08...xpected-feast/
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The trail is 3,100 miles long. I guess if you do 30-35+ miles per day then maybe it is mathematically possible.
Last edited by bearcreek; 02-26-2017 at 22:33.
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Eddie Valiant: "That lame-brain freeway idea could only be cooked up by a toon."
https://wayne-ayearwithbigfootandbubba.blogspot.com
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Don't forget when you are thinking about doing the CDT that basing what you are doing on what hikers did in past years could get you in trouble as the trail you are getting ready to hike is not the trail that they hiked.
To wit: there is an "official" CDT route now and (as BearCreek mentioned) it is 3100 miles!
Almost no one in the past hiked anywhere near that far. Many CDT hikers taking the easiest routes did not hike as far on the CDT as the length of the PCT. Some likely only 2500 miles.
Swami hiked a 2700 mile route.
If you are going to do the 'official' route then your planning should take the above into account. That extra 500 miles is not to be ignored. If folks are going to start looking at thru hiking the CDT the way they they do the AT and PCT then all the old hikes are no longer useful guides as the timing of how fast you need to go and such are going to be very different. The trail is going to be much harder than it used to be. It is quite probable that in some years the snow conditions will prevent all but the extremely fast hikers from completing the CDT in a single year.
If you are not starting SOBO as soon as you can and wait until the end of July or early Aug then you will likely have to average much higher mileage than Swami did. Unless you already have sustained that kind of mileage over a long distance hike then you assuming a lot if you are planning on being able to do it. Not many people are actually capable of that kind of speed.