Decide to walk the GDT

1-21-25

I have been wanting to walk along the great path divides since 2018 when my wife and I spend time exploring the Canadian rock mountains. We made day walks in Jasper, Banff, Yoho and Rocky Mountain Parks. The long -distance hiking that I have made provided more knowledge that yearned for the interior.

I spent the following years learning about the GDT through bloggers and the incredible GDTA website. I followed the GDT 2022 walk of Austin Hager on the walk. Austin now leads the very useful GDTA Web Seminars, and has assumed a significant leadership role in the GDTA.

Some mental obstacles had me in the fence on the walk.

Climate

The GDT can be a very humid walk and, therefore, much of the landscape can be clouds and storms. I passed several stretches of rain and wet in the San Juanes and the Wind river mountain range in the CDT. Ah, and I didn’t want to mention that the car washed by Rocío or sauces soaked in rain. For now you will be Enjoy walking in the rain, but I have learned to drive it. Above all I feel a little deceived when I miss impressive views that hide behind the clouds. Then there is the euphoria I feel when I see the sun after several rainy days and perhaps an even more rewarding experience of putting dry socks for the first time in 5 days. Our lives today are isolated from the extremes of nature, which makes it more difficult to appreciate the simple gifts of the sun and the warmth that our bodies brings not only to our spirit. I await all extreme natural ones in the GDT, even snow. It is not unusual for hikers to have rain with 40% of the walk, and I give myself full permission to hug the sun as a lost friend a long time ago when it finally occurs.

Isolation

The GDT only receives a few hundred hikers per year. I don’t care to walk alone, but I enjoy seeing and meeting other hikers. When the section went to the bubble CDT, I would not see other hikers for several days at the same time. I suspect that there will be reasonable traffic on the popular paths in Banff and Jasper. In addition, hiking is only the best strategy in the Grizzly country. Outdoor Justin had a close call when he surprised a brown. Dan Durston said you will see them. I have a respectful relationship with the Grizzlies and hiking with a group is statistically safer.

I was lucky to comply with the sale of garage last year on the PCT, and he and his map of friends will walk with me. I welcome the company. It will be good to share the ups and downs of a walk with some friends. I hope there are some good memories!

Allow anxiety

I really don’t like controlled scenarios. If you are greater enough to know the song of John Mellencamp’s authority, that is me. The freedom to walk until I am tired or I simply want to stop is an aspect of through the hiking that attracts me. The idea of having to book camps for every night, seven months in advance, having to pay them and negotiate nine different permits was not my idea of a walk. After having mainly walked in the US, I am spoiled by the lack of permits or minimums necessary to make long walks.

I am probably in my last decade of hiking skill. I am still reasonably fit, and I cannot lose that romantic feeling that I had in 2018 in the Canadian rock mountains. The GDT is a walk that I really want to do, permits, weather and isolation are condemned. I will not like the process of permission or hiking to an established itinerary, but I have done more difficult things for less solid reasons. I will solve it and I will. However, I reserve the right to complain about the structure and permits along the way. Just writing that prayer makes me feel a little better!

There is not much cell service in the GDT, so, at best, I will publish at each city stop. I tend to write every day as a way of documenting these important adventures. I write mainly for friends and family and to have an album to look back. When I read publications several years ago, I remember the climate of the day, my mood, and my energy level. I like that. My garden sale of my hiking partner will also be blogging on the walk. If you care to read any of our blogs or both, we would love to have you. I always hope that my blog can influence others so that they venture in some way. For me, I live for these adventures that continue to shape who I am.

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