CDT guidebooks

[bulldog]

Anyone have any recommendations for guidebooks for the CDT. I plan to thru hike it some time in the near future, after i finish the last 190 miles of the PCT. Thanks

Dan

[JimSproul]

Here is a link:

http://www.cdtrail.org/planning.html

The folks at the CDTA are very helpful.

[Spirit Walker]

Get the Jim Wolf guidebooks, not the Westcliffe books. They are MUCH better. More detail, more alternate routes, more water sources and more accuracy. Check out this month's archives on CDT-L for a discussion on this subject. The Tom Jones Westcliffe Colorado book was good, with only a few noticeable errors, (at least the first edition was, I haven't seen the new one yet) but the rest are not. Jonathan Ley's maps have been highly recommended by recent hikers, but get the CDTS guides as well.

[highway]

Another is:

http://www.cdtsociety.org/

Also check out Johnathon Leys extremely interesting accounting of his CDT thru-hike at: http://www.phlumf.com/cdt/cdt.htm

Plus he offers the CDT maps on CD-rom that he did himself.

While the guides are immensely helpful on the AT, where few seem to take maps, the opposite seems to apply for the CDT. The guidebooks are just somewhat helpful there but the maps, and the ability to use them, is much more important. The trail changes, it is not nearly as well-defined as the AT and it even disappears entirely in places, it changes in some places from year to year, and route-finding is considerably more challenging than the on AT.

One could start an AT thruhike just by purchasing a guide or two. But obtaining maps for the CDT is going to be a chore. Are you section hiking it or thruhiking? When? Are you going north or south?

[bulldog]

Are you section hiking it or thruhiking? When? Are you going north or south?

It will be a thru-hike. As for when or which direction, I'm not sure. Most likely the summer after I finish school which will probably be in 2 years so most likely I will head south sometime in mid to late June. Thanks for all the info.

[JimSproul]

I recently did a work project for the CDTA. One of the discussions was how to decide if you go Southbound or Northbound on a Thru-hike. The general wisdom is to check snow pack depth in Colorado and Montana then start from the end that is lowest.

We were in the Argentine Pass in Colorado last week. There was snow in high elevations, quite a bit on Gray's. Temps overnight in the low 30's at 10,500' nearly that cold in the pass during the day at 13,000'. Weather is a much bigger issue than in the Appalachians.

[gravityman]

I recently did a work project for the CDTA. One of the discussions was how to decide if you go Southbound or Northbound on a Thru-hike. The general wisdom is to check snow pack depth in Colorado and Montana then start from the end that is lowest.

We were in the Argentine Pass in Colorado last week. There was snow in high elevations, quite a bit on Gray's. Temps overnight in the low 30's at 10,500' nearly that cold in the pass during the day at 13,000'. Weather is a much bigger issue than in the Appalachians.

Yuppers. Snow coming again this weekend too. Colorado Mountains - gotta love them!

Gravity Man