Is the Collegiate West so good that you'd hike it twice instead of East once and West once?
Is the Collegiate West so good that you'd hike it twice instead of East once and West once?
Interesting question. I'm seriously pondering the CW instead of another visit to the Weminuche. I'm waiting for the answer.
Wayne
Ps,
Pick one. Collegiate West or Teton Crest?
Thanks.
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Eddie Valiant: "That lame-brain freeway idea could only be cooked up by a toon."
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Simply, Yes.
I hike with a dog. Please, tell me why i shouldn't.
Another yes. Hands down.
We're already too accustomed to linear thinking. The circle - non linear thinking/path - can be a welcoming reprieve.
The CT East has it's pros - 'good' - too. Hiking is not just about hiking. Good and beauty is in the eye of beholder. The CT East affords that possibility as well as the CT West. Diversity and change can be/IS good.
Assume you meant already walked west on CDT?confused yet????...
This is what the pup had to say about the East!
Another great view from the west! No brained says the flatlander....
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Teton Crest Trail
The reason I asked is because I'm sectioning the CDT and originally wanted to combine as much of the 2 as possible.
As contrary as it sounds I'm considering hiking CE this summer and save CW for the CDT since that'll be the trail I'm actually hiking.
Seems like a guy from Tennessee would want to hike both...
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saltysack, the picture of the mountains in your post is truly stunning, I'm sooo looking forward to my hike of the CT this summer. Definitely doing the Western route.
Note to myself, repeat; July will be here soon, July will be here soon, July will be here soon, July will be here soon!!!!
Dogwood,
You don't play fair.
The Teton Crest Trail, even if you start on Hwy 21 in Idaho as many do, isn't as long as the CW. However, there is a trail that connects the lower end of the various canyons that extends the total experience by a few days.
Who wouldn't want to camp in a place called Death Shelf?
https://backcountrypost.com/threads/...76/#post-58583
Too many trails. Too little time.
Wayne
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Being bored is also a frame of mind...stemming from a lack of gratitude.
On the CT East I appreciated stopping at PHS for two great meals, shower, doing laundry, and soak being treated with utmost congeniality by the resort staff TWICE on CT hikes. AND, it helped to reduce the food haul by supplementing at the PHS Store.
Stopped at the restored 1800's Interlaken Hotel for some history. Dodged thunderstorms on the Dexter's House covered porch twice.
Stopped to chat with and get a CO gold panning lesson, including seeing 3 ozs gold flake, that came from Cache Creek/Flume Crk?. Was offered food and drink at the site as well on one very hot summer day.
FINALLY got a tour of the Twin Lakes Powerhouse Visitor's center.
Have liked staying at Cottonwood Crk FS CG. Usually someone is there I can get a quick ride into Buena Vista and back out from. It's one the most direct routes into BV from the CT.
Understand though this isn't about which is better - CT East or CT West. This is about what each one is willing to do to not be bored and what can be experienced on a hike that doesn't always have to be about hiking.
You can go much further than that. Again, trails have named ending/starting TH's to imply somehow greater significance but often that doesn't have to be THE END of one's hike. Actually, although I haven't done it as a loop, but a large portion of it, a large Loop can be done that includes the TCT, trails in carabou-targhee, Yellowstone NP, the CDT, Wind River Range, and Gros Venture. It's easy to conceive closing the Loop as Tapon did an alternate CDT in this area on his first ever CDT yo-yo. I liked what Francis did and mimicked it on a CDT thru.
I know.
Even though I am retired, I don't have unlimited time away from home.
Besides, armed with my car and a bike I can connect the dots quickly with mechanized transportation.
There's no way I'm driving past Pinedale, WY and Big Sandy again without poking my nose into the Winds. Nor would I hike the TCT and not spend a few nights in the Yellowstone Backcountry.
I'll get there soon enough.
Wayne
Eddie Valiant: "That lame-brain freeway idea could only be cooked up by a toon."
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I am fairly lucky. I went to do the collegiate loop last summer with my youngest son. He soon decide that he would rather do other cool things in Colorado rather than hike the western half. (I question rather he is really my son.) So this year I will do the west as part of the CT so everything worked out.
The TCT is very nice. Can't compare it to the west trail. How does this connect up into Idaho? We crossed over the crest and went on some trails and dirt roads into Yellowstone last fall. I didn't really the TCT, as in the named trail, continued into Idaho.
enemy of unnecessary but innovative trail invention gadgetry
Eddie Valiant: "That lame-brain freeway idea could only be cooked up by a toon."
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