My Continental Divide Trail Hike 2022 and 2023

CDT overview

My detailed reports are on this site and can be read straight through starting with Mexican Border to Lordsburg. In 2022, I hiked northbound (NOBO), and in 2023 I hiked southbound (SOBO). I conclude quite easily that southbound is better because of snow.

According to my spreadsheet, I hiked 2,400.6 miles and climbed 384,698 feet. That's like climbing Mount Everest from the ocean 13 times.

I recorded 162 days for the journey, including rest days, but not including the season away from the trail between the summer of 2022 and 2023. This adds up to about 5.5 months.

My hike of the trail is disqualified from being a "true" or "complete" hike of the CDT for two reasons:

  1. There are gaps. In New Mexico a 2 mile gap due to fire. In Colorado a similar sized gap at Silverton, and a 13 mile gap north of i-70 initially due to injury. In Wyoming a gap of nearly 20 miles near Dubois because of bear activity. In Montarna, a gap of ~10 miles due to closure of the CDT south of Helena, and a gap of ~4 miles when Robert drove us to a trailhead outside of Big Sky, probably 4 miles. In total: 49 miles.
  2. We did the Big Sky Variant also called the Butte Super-cutoff which saves 2 weeks of hiking along the Montana/Idaho border. It was sometimes interesting, including the only "technical mountaineering" of the trail, but it is so far from the official route and saves so much time that it shouldn't be considered the CDT.

Nonetheless, I'm happy with the effort. I traveled mostly alone in 2022, but spent some great days with Lemonhope, Mishap and Gargoyle. For 2023, most of the hiking was with Cory, the rest alone.

I only saw one grizzly bear, quite close but uninterested in us. I saw moose, elk, deer, snakes (including rattlesnakes), beaver, marmots, squirrels, foxes, owls, toads, road-runners, rabbits, javelinas, pikas, ptarmigans, bald eagles and hawks. I learned that horseflies are worse than mosquitoes, and that bees are quite friendly.