CDT JOY: Counting Down to the Start of Trail

Time is flying both incredibly slowly and incredibly fast in my time between hiking the Arizona trail and Continental Divide trail. I have spent more time preparing for my SOBO CDT trip than any other adventure I have been on before.

Chapter 1 Highlights:

• 6 weeks until start: Completed the Arizona trail and taking a week to rest, relax, and recover.
• 5 weeks until start: Downloaded maps and planned resupply points. Ordered gear.
• 4 weeks until start: Created a strength and stretching routine. Bought and packed non food consumables for resupply.
• 3 weeks until start: Purchased plane tickets and hotels. 
• 2 weeks until start: Final shakedown hike. Bought and packed food for resupply boxes. 
• 1 week until start: Saying goodbye to friends and family. Mailed the resupply box to Benchmark Wilderness. Flying to Glacier National Park.

Preparing my body

After the Arizona trail I suffered some IT band pain in my right knee that I knew I had to address for this upcoming hike. I have done a gentle yoga routine almost daily and am enjoying short hikes with long bouts of stretching afterwards. The pain is gone, but I am very aware that this could become an injury on trail if not addressed. In high school and college I enjoyed long distance running and this was a common injury I faced, so I am mentally prepared for the slow time to heal. I also completed the 800 miles thru hike of the Arizona trail this spring and feel like I have a good endurance capacity and base, so I am not focusing as much as increasing my mileage but rather on maintaining with a weekly long hike.

Online Preparation for CDT

There was quite a bit of research that needed to be done before embarking on a thru hike. I took the time to download the FarOut map of the CDT and the trail maps in Avenza and Gaia. Then I set out to determine a resupply strategy knowing that it will be a framework and there will be lots of changes to the plan along the way. For my hike I will be as self-reliant as possible and take alternates that allow walking into town rather than hitching or shuttling. I will also mail packages to small towns to ensure better nutrition for my time on trail. If you would like to know more about my resupply strategy please let me know in the comments below and I can put together a separate post on the topic.

In addition to planning resupply, I also used ChatGPT to help curate a list of audiobooks, music albums, and podcasts to entertain myself during the point in the hike where you need to put your head down and make miles. I found as many books as I could from apps that are associated with my library and then used Audible and Spotify to make up the rest of the books that I wanted to read, but wasn’t available from the library.

Next I purchased plane tickets and booked hotels for a few days prior to my CDT start date to explore Glacier National Park. I hope to meet other hikers at the hostel in East Glacier and get walk up permits together.

Finally, I learned more about social media, editing photos, and creating video content. I only recently got an Instagram account, halfway through my 2024 AT thru-hike in order to connect with friends I met on trail, and I had a lot of catching up to do. I hope to share photos and videos while hiking on my social media platforms in addition to my blog. 

Getting New Gear

Online I researched gear that I needed to replace before this trip. There were several critical pieces of gear that were no longer reliable from my kit after my thru hike of the Arizona Trail. My first Zpacks duplex tent now has thousands of miles (4,000+) and is no longer reliable, so I replaced it with a newer lighter version. My puffy coat zipper was not always working (Mountain Hardware Ghost Whisperer from 2020) and I upgraded to the Montbell plasma down 1000. The zipper also failed at times on my ULA Fanny pack so I changed out to a LiteAF featherweight Fanny pack. During my research on new gear I additionally took the time to pick out a few new luxuries for this trail: a sleeping pad inflator and new stuff sacks. Finally, I ordered clothing and shoes that I will be wearing for the trail. You can find my complete gear list on my author page.

Setting up Resupply Packages

For my upcoming CDT thru hike I will be sending resupply packages more frequently than previous trails. I have planned boxes every 250 miles plus a few for food only boxes. I also have planned swapping out shoes and socks every 500 miles. 

I have quite sensitive skin and found I can’t always rely on small towns to carry certain items in a fragrance-free or sensitive skin version (body wipes, laundry soap, sunscreen) . I also have found that at times it is cheaper to buy in bulk and send a supply in each town than it is to pay more in a town every time you may need it. Things like Benadryl, ibuprofen, bandaids, KT tape, and leukotape fall in this category. 

My parents will be helping with mailing packages along the trail and we went through everything together before I left. They also will be adding some treats along the way for fun surprises as I hike.

Resupply boxes for my CDT hike

Flying to Glacier National Park 

Ghost Pepper, who I hiked with on the Arizona trail and the second half of the Appalachian trail, will be shuttling me to the Canada border for the trail start. Our flight left at 6am from the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport so we woke up around 3 am to drive to the airport from my parents house in Peoria, AZ. The first leg of the flight went smoothly to LAX, but we had an hour delay on our connecting flight because we were short a pilot for the plane. When we landed in Glacier Park International Airport in Kalispell we rented a car and made our way to Glacier National Park for a short walk and view of Lake McDonald. Afterwards we went to a brewery called Backslope Brewing for dinner and then made our way to the hotel in Kalispell for the evening after being up for 18 hours.

View of Lake McDonald

Exploring the Park and Getting Permits

The next morning we planned a day of tourist activities in the national park. Currently you either need to get a permit for timed entry at the west entrance or arrive before 7am. We planned a 4:30am start to get us to a very popular trail called Avalanche Lake trail. We slept through the alarm and when I woke up naturally at 6am, we hurried awake packed everything in the car and were off to take the 45 minute drive to the park by 6:08am. We were able to get in the park and were able by some miracle to find parking near the trailhead. The Avalanche Lake trail hike was about 6.5 miles and we saw mule deer and had a nice snack break at the lake and watched the fog clear over the lake to show beautiful waterfalls and snow-capped mountain tops. Next, we went through Logan’s pass on the Going to the Sun Road and hiked to Hidden Lake overlook. This 1.4 mile trail was snow covered most of the way and I was glad to have micro spikes. From there we made our way to East Glacier and checked into our hotel at the Whistling Swan Motel and ate a great dinner at Serranos Mexican restaurant nearby.

Snow capped Mountain View from Avalanche lake

The next morning we made our way to Two Medicine Ranger station and arrived at 7am (30 minutes before opening). I heard from other hikers at the hostel to get there early to view the current campsite availability and plan the route. It is also first come first  serve so getting there early would make it more likely that the campsites would not be already taken. At the ranger station, one other thru hiker was waiting and I was able to hop on his permit and get a very good itinerary. Also at the ranger station I learned that at 4:30pm the day before the rangers will give out the current availability for campsites so that hikers can take it with them and plan overnight. The permit process at the ranger station took about an hour and a half . From there, I ate breakfast at the Two Medicine store and confirmed that there would be food to resupply for a day from here to East Glacier. For some exercise I hiked Aster Falls and then went to the Looking Glass Basecamp to see about having them hold a hiker package for me and to buy some bear spray as I had no luck with checking hotels around Glacier. The afternoon was spent doing a final pack of my backpack and relaxing in the hotel.

Tomorrow, I set out for the Canadian border to start my thru hike of the CDT!