CDT: Rough Route

Last week, I got the rough start and stop points for the CDT hike I'll be doing.

Here are the details:

Start: Cottonwood Pass Road
End: South Clear Creek TH
Distance: 45 miles
total elevation gain: 9,790 ft

I did a quick rough trace of the route we're taking, from a book I'm reading. I think everything should be within a few hundred feet. The switchbacks look pretty awful, but the book claims to have them wrong anyway.

Map of our route
Elevation Profile of the route
Google Earth file (kml) of the route
*you do need to sign up for a free account to download the kml though.

This could be a tough little hike... the elevation is the scariest part :-)

Introduction to the CDT Project

As some of you know, I'm going to be hiking a small portion of the CDT (continental divide trail) in July. Last night I finally received Colorado's Continental Divide Trail: The Official Guide
It's very exciting, but a little scary.

The hike will be through about 50 miles of wilderness, but will be fairly strenuous. I normally wouldn't be too worried about it... you have to deal with the wildlife, weather, and altitude, but none of that is too much of a concern for a 50 mile hike. The problem, and the biggest concerns come from my knees. Recently I took a shorter hike, and one of my knees started to hurt. which makes me worry a bit about the longer hike. I hope that a little stretching and training will take care of that problem.

I'll be meeting later this week to get more details on the start and stop points, and then I should have a better idea of what to expect.

More to come on this one.... I'll label them "CDT"