Pprovost - Continental Divide Trail Journal - 2018
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Pierre "Jackrabbit" Provost
City: Vancouver
State: WA
Country: USA
Begins: Aug 27, 2018
Direction: Northbound
Daily Summary
Date: Mon, Oct 1st, 2018
Start: Jackson WY, town
End: Jackson WY, airport
Daily Distance: 0
Trip Distance: 464.0
People Met: 0
Journal Stats
Entry Visits: 351
Journal Visits: 2,439
Guestbook Views: 52
Guestbook Entrys: 8
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Antelope, checking us out
10/01/2018 Antelope
To: myjournal@postholer.comFrom: Pierre and Betsy
Subject: Epilogue
October 1, 2018 Monday
I have been thinking of how my Elevator Talk might sound when Im asked what our CDT hike was like. Here are my thoughts on the trail in general and particularly on the section we just completed.
This trail is remote, seriously. Even on the dirt roads where we would walk for miles in the desert, we sometimes didnt see people for a day or so. This was even going against the thru-hiker current. If one were hiking with the rest, it could be days before you saw anyone else.
Water: we take it for granted. I have hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and know what marginal desert water sources can be like (think murky water and cow poop). The CDT brought this all into focus again and even more strongly. We are so thankful for the technology of water filters to get the water clean and scrubbed of pathogens. Because the distances between even remotely viable water sources were many times more than 20 miles, not being able to hike at least this far in a day would seem to make this trail a non-starter.
There are so many amazingly beautiful places on this trail. We hiked over breathtaking passes and summits to see equally gorgeous valleys and meadows. Even though very stark, the sagebrush desert basin of Wyoming had its own beauty.
Scouring wind: Although the Colorado section had high mountains to climb, the relentless wind required some psychological adjustment. At the end of the day we were often feeling exhausted despite a relatively flat day of walking.
Antelope: Even though they were usually running away from us, after a while we seemed to reach an equilibrium with them where we were closer. They would pause for a while and check us out. We could appreciate the subtle calls they would make to each other. We noticed how they purposely scuffed the trail where we walked.
Guthook (GPS Mobile phone trail app): This made navigating no problem. With just map, compass and marginal trail signs: Yikes! This would be really challenging.
Animal report: Just in-town Magpies and a few grackles
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