CDT – Red line vs. Blue line vs. Make your own line

The six-mile highway walk brought me to the small town of Elliston where I scored one of the four rooms at the Last Chance Motel. Nothing else was open on a Monday so I ate the last of my mashed potatoes in front of the fan in my room. Joss was there early the next morning with my resupply box and cold soda. I hugged her goodbye and began hiking the dirt roads that were part of the McDonald Pass reroute. The day grew hot, the flies and mosquitoes were incessant and the trail was boring. My mind turned to the decision I would have to make the next day – would I take the Anaconda cutoff?

Last Chance for me

No topic about the CDT is more fraught with tension than the redline vs. alternate discussion. Invariably hikers will conclude any disagreements about alternates with the super useful cliché “Hike your own hike.” In my mind this cliché boils down to “mind your own business.” The official mileage of the CDT on the Continental Divide Trail Coalition website is 3,100 miles. The FarOut app clocks it at 2,992.9. A individual hiker’s actual miles hiked on the official trail can vary depending on which, if any, alternates the hiker takes. Most of the alternates are shorter than the red line miles. Other blogs and sites detail this discussion better than I could. Here I’ll talk only about my personal decision framework about alternates.

My goal for this CDT thruhike is three-fold: hike a continuous footpath, as much as possible on the official trail, in one season. Is it the end of the world if I don’t meet this goal? Nope, in the big scheme of world-ending scenarios, how I hike the CDT is ridiculously close to the bottom. But, at the end of the hike I want to be able to tell myself (and others, if asked) that I tried my best to walk from border to border on the CDT and not on another makeshift series of trails. Under what circumstances would I take an alternate? If the weather and terrain combine to make the route unsafe for me to traverse I will take an alternate. Are there exceptions? You bet and I had already made two exceptions. I started the hike at Chief Mountain, an official alternate start point, rather than Waterton. The Chief Mountain route is almost 9 miles shorter. The weather and logistics made a Waterton start tediously difficult to arrange. In the Bob Marshall, Wapiti and I took the Spotted Bear alternate (14 miles shorter) to ensure we made our meet up time with Baby Bird at Benchmark.

I thought of this as I approached the Anaconda cutoff. The Anaconda cutoff skips about 90 miles of the loop around Butte and takes you directly through Anaconda where you can easily resupply rather than hitch into Butte. I had no time constraints and more importantly, my husband’s family was meeting me south of Butte to take me off trail for a zero. When I approached the cutoff the decision to continue on the redline was easy.

Headed to I-15

The trail took me through forest and meadow and then dirt road to the I-15 crossing north of Butte. The trail was nicely graded, if a little rocky sometimes. The worst was the emergence of all and any bugs. The mosquitoes were bad but the flies, their feet tickling your skin, were awful. Every time I stopped, I was swarmed by sweat bees intent on getting to my skin or the sweat on my backpack. Maddening. But, I digress. Late in the afternoon as I walked south around Butte I climbed up a steep path to see Our Lady of the Rockies. The 90-foot statue is on a high ridge overlooking Butte. I had seen pictures of the Lady when I was planning the hike and it was thrilling to see her in person and to see Butte laid out in front of me.

Our Lady of the Rockies stands tall

The next day I took a four mile detour on Maud’s Canyon trail down to Three Bears, a grocery and sundry store to resupply my dwindling food bag. The Ben and Jerry’s ice cream was the best I’ve had ever but I’d forgotten it by the time I was midway through the steep climb back to the redline. I passed the last water source for 30 miles and filled up my bottles and bladder bag. This part of the trail was popular with mountain bikers and I stepped off trail frequently as they hailed me.

Mountain bikers own this trail

The trail switched back and forth over the east and west side of the ridge giving me good views of Butte and Our Lady from several angles. I crossed I-90 south of Butte and the trail became relatively flat. More mountain bikers passed me as I approached Pipestone Pass and found trail magic water in a cooler by the trailhead. Walked through Burton Park, a huge grassy meadow with different rock formations. I didn’t stop to admire it because the flies and mosquitos were demanding attention.

The best trail magic comes just when you need it

The next day was dominated by a road walk towards and away from I-15 and an ATV trail through meadow and forest. At this point in the hike I was consistently exceeding 20 miles but my body was feeling the toll. I was looking forward to a day off trail. I finished out the Butte loop on trail that frequently faded away causing me to route-find for most of the morning. Under pleasant blue skies and warm temperatures I walked a dirt road to the link up point with family. Fairmont Hot Springs was calling.

Hiker trash waiting for a ride