Resupply Plan for a Thru-Hike of the CDT

It’s officially now less than one month until I’ll lay my hand on Crazy Cook Monument and take the very first step of my NOBO CDT thru-hike. Time has really flown by these past months. A couple of weeks ago I said goodbye to the job I’ve held for nearly a decade, which was both scary and thrilling. I’m still enjoying some good cross-country skiing where I live, as well as procrastinating packing my suitcase to see if all my gear fits. I own two homes so there is some work to do before I’m ready to pick up and leave, but I’m getting there. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

In my last post, I mentioned that I wanted to have a resupply plan in place before I left. And—voilà—now I do. I’m under no illusion that I’ll follow this, or any other, resupply plan. On a thru-hike things change as you go; that’s part of the game and one of its many charms. Creating a plan, however, is a very good way of familiarizing oneself with the trail and its surroundings. This to me is one of the main reasons for making such a plan. Another reason is that with a plan in place you have a starting point, and options that may or may not be altered as you go. It’s a huge difference to make everything up as you go, and to have something to either follow or deviate from. I happen to be a fan of the latter, so I make plans—even when I know I won’t follow them.

Making a resupply plan for the CDT is special in the sense that the trail offers so many alternates. I have an idea of what alternates I’d like to take, based on what I want so see and explore. However, I have a feeling the CDT is the kind of trail where the weather will often choose the alternates for you—and there’s no way to plan for that in advance. I’m already considering my options for Colorado seeing how extreme the snow levels are this winter. Right now I don’t know whether I’ll head directly into the San Juans, flip around them, bypass them through a low alternate, or maybe save the entire state of Colorado for last. There’s no point in planning resupply stops and sending boxes under those circumstances. But it feels good to have an idea of how I want to tackle the official route and the Creede cutoff, no matter if and when either or them will happen.

For anyone who may be interested, here is a link to my resupply plan. Now let’s continue the countdown for this sweet and brutal trail that awaits.