Jims Journal

The first two people I met on the Continental Divide Trail were a German man and his wife in southern New Mexico in April.  They had flown from Germany to El Paso the day before.  Three days later in central New Mexico I met three men, one from California, one from Oregon, and one from Germany.  Four days later I met four young men at Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico hiking toward the Canadian border, one from France and three from Israel.  Of the first nine people I met, seven were foreigners.  I was so astounded by this small sample that I called Theresa Martinez, Continental Divide Trail Coordinator for Colorado and Wyoming, based in Golden, Colorado.  She wasn’t surprised.  “Over half of the thru-hikers on the CDT are foreigners,” she told me.

This was just my first surprise when I arrived from Florida to do six weeks of day-hikes on the CDT, but here is another.  The 2,100 mile AT has 25,000 members; the 3,100 mile CDT has 800 to 1,000.  Explaining this is not easy.  As one might imagine, the trail is poorly maintained.  One of its foreign friends had this to say, “The trail in general has a marking problem.  There is not even one section we can say that is fully marked.  The thing is that even if the trail is marked, it is not consistent nor continues for more than a few dozen miles.”  He was not out to bad-mouth the trail because he added, “The scenery was amazing; green meadows, crystal blue water and abundant wildlife.”  “First of all the great thing about the long trail is the diversity in scenery and the people along the way.”  “It is hard to decide on one specific place that was the most beautiful, all of them were gorgeous (really!!.)”

I have hiked the AT, the Florida Trail, the Sierras, the High Uintas, the Bitterroot, the Beartooth and a dozen other places, but I think the CDT when properly marked and mapped might surpass them all in diversity and grandeur.  Let me put it another way; the CDT and the CDT Alliance have no where to go but up.

Up it will go.  I say that because of the staff I met and talked to from Hachita, New Mexico, to Gunsight Pass, Glacier National Park.  They are fully cognizant of the treasure placed in their care, and they are fully capable of taking the CDT where it needs to go.

Looking ahead, here are some tasks:

• Market the trail to Japanese, Western European and Israeli Trail clubs (I’ll commit to give two programs to the Club Alpin Francais next June.)

• At home, market the CDT in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Colorado Springs, Denver, Missoula and Helena for starters.  The CDT Alliance should have 5,000 members in the greater Denver area alone.  (Offering well-thought-out programs to outing clubs is probably the most cost-effective option open.)

• Identify trail friends in the BLM and USFS.  Explain that some pressure on the system will be needed to change attitudes about how they do things.  Ask them to stand by you.

• Apply the pressure.  Too many in the BLM and the USFS think this trail is theirs and that too many hikers will ruin it.  (Let me take a few of them to the French Alps.  I’m serious.  We don’t know what high use is.  I can’t see that the resource or experience suffers.)

There is a culture in the Rockies that Uncle has all this free land and all you have to do is enjoy it freely.  The work ethic must catch on here as it has on both coasts.  Citizens need to maintain trails.  Authority accrues to those who do the work, know the resource intimately and press their views.

• Promote Trail Towns that in turn provide for the needs of hikers.  Here are some naturals: Lordsburg, New Mexico; Cuba, New Mexico; Grants and Pie Town, New Mexico; Salida, Colorado; Granby (Grand Lake), Colorado; Rollins, Wyoming; West Yellowstone, Wyoming; Butte, Montana; Helena, Montana.  (There is a healthy co-dependent relationship in the east between trail towns and hikers that proves it works for both.)  The Chamber of Commerce should help with this effort.  Hikers don’t spend a ton of money, but they don’t make much of an impact either.