Well, I'm not writing this post from the trail. I'm actually bouncing around the US after getting off the trail for a few weeks.
Listen to “Dirty Paws” by of Monsters and Men. It reminds me of going on adventures, especially if the adventures don’t go as planned!
Before the start of the trip I knew the next state was going to be a challenge. When I gave notice at my job and selected my start dates the snow pack was near 100% average in the mountains. Unfortunately, the mountains got hit by a lot of storms late into winter and the storms continued into spring. It was still snowing in the mountains after I started the trail and the snowpack reached between 250 and 300 percent on the CDT. The New Mexico mountains started to melt out as I was going through them, but they are a single band and don't insulate themselves like the next states mountains do. There have also been record number of avalanches and deaths because of the amount of snow and temperature fluctuations. So even though I geared up to go in, I took some time off in Chama and reevaluated the situation (by far the most mature thing I have ever done).
There are really three options in front of me: 1). Go into mountains on the CDT, 2). Take the Great Divide Alternate, 3). Flip up to Wyoming. Unfortunately all of these ideas kind of suck .
Some groups of people are going into mountains on the CDT. They moved very slowly doing 10 miles a day and to my knowledge, they only made it to Pagosa Springs which is the next resupply town before having to take a lower route or get off trail. This doesn’t work for me because 10 miles a day is too slow to go through this terrain and even after they pushed in they still had to bail so they really haven’t gained anything.
Other people are taking the Great Divide Alternate which is the bike path that the cyclist who ride the divide take. This is mostly on forest roads and regular roads. People have made it on this path but it completely bypasses the San Juan's. The San Juan's are one of the crown jewels of the CDT where you spend 200 miles above 11,000 feet and are surrounded by some of the most beautiful mountains in the country. They also happened to have been hit the hardest by the snow and while taking the great divide alternate gets you around them, it's not an option for me to miss them, plus when you rejoin the CDT, I don’t believe its even passable yet so again, you haven’t really gained anything.
Some people are flipping up to Wyoming, but there is only a 280 mile section that isn't snow covered which a thru hiker can do in 10 or 11 days and after completing that snow free section you are still stuck as there hasn’t been enough melt time to make the mountains doable, again you haven’t really gained anything (are you starting to see a pattern here?)
So not liking any of the options I decided to get off trail and do a southbound hike starting at the Canadian border in Glacier NP and ending in the San Juans (This is going to be an EPIC finish). I cannot start southbound until late June as I need to wait for Glacier to melt out, but since it got a normal amount of snow this year I shouldn’t have any problems getting on trail in late June. The only real downside to this is I might loose my trail legs which I will be working to keep during my time off trail. The CDT has traditionally been a southbound trail so starting in Glacier is not a crazy idea and is pretty normal, in fact the guidebook is written for south-bounders which made planning for my original northbound hike confusing at times.
So, for the next few weeks I'm off to see friends, climb, hike and drink a few beers... man my life sucks.