[cdt-l] CDT

Thu Jun 28 11:18:24 CDT 2007

To Martine & Henri,

You may want to get the Jim Wolf guide book for
Colorado. All thru-hikers (or most) use it, not the
Official Guide. The Colorado Trail book/maps are
useful as well and you will be following the CT for
some time. Trails Illustrated Maps are great, and Jim
Wolf will sell those as well. He runs the Continental
Divide Trail Alliance and has a site (www.cdta.org).
If you have time to order stuff, you may want to check
it out.

If you want to send yourself stuff (maps, film etc.)
people use the post office to mail a box ahead ("drift
box"). Put maps, town stuff, photo stuff, etc. in a
good box, and mail it to yourself addresed "General
Delivery" to a town along the trail when you expect to
be there. You have to have the name of the town and
proper zip code on the box. Also write "HOLD FOR CDT
HIKER." Put an estimated arrival date on the box, too.
You can arrange that when you get to the U.S. You do
have to send the box ahead with enough time to get to
the P.O. before you do!

A hiker called Yogi has printed both a planning guide
and town guide that lists all the typical towns where
hikers go to re-supply, also which towns have Post
Offices... I don't have the website handy, but someone
on this list will....Also, Ginny and Jim Owen also
have a great website on the CDT and list all the
towns/services along the way (www.spiriteaglehome.org
or .com - I think). 

I am doing a section in CO in August from Twin Lakes
south to about Creede or Spring Creek Pass, and will
re-supply in Salida (all services), Creede (you can
walk a 10 mile trail from the CDT into town from San
Luis Pass or hitch from another location), and end in
Spring Creek Pass - heading to Lake City (all
services). You can also hitch back to Creede from the
Pass.

Last time I did Grand Lake south to Twin Lakes and
re-supplied in Grand Lake, (stopped also unexpectedly
in Winter Park - no full grocery here, just small
markets) Silverton, Copper Mt area (The ski resort did
have small shop, but I didn't use it.  Don't know if
it's still there. There are restaurants, and I think
you get a shuttle bus here to town - Frisco/or
Breckenridge? This is the free bus that Mags mentioned
in his email. A trail angel invited me and another
hiker here to his home in Breckenridge, and he drove
us to Frisco to a good supermarket.)

It's absolutely gorgeous in this stretch of trail.
You'll love it. I was there last time in July and the
flowers were fabulous.

Don't know about a particular spot for horse trips,
though there are plenty of places - check the
internet. One thing I do know. I ride and my trainer
does a lot of natural horsemanship, based on Pat
Parelli's techniques. Well, Parelli has his ranch in
Pagosa Springs. So, if you know Parelli stuff, and are
heading down south that far (it's a trail stop) you
can go for a visit. Of course, they don't do trail
rides/trips. But, I plan to check out their place when
I come back to do my next section in Colorado. It's a
bit south of where I end this year.

Well, have fun...when are you on the trail?
Melanie

--- Tom and Donna <tom87020 at mac.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> We are a French couple of hikers, intenting to hike
> for about
> 5 weeks on the Colorado Continental Divide Trail,
> southbound,
> from Willow Creek Pass trailhead (segment 7 from Tom
> Lorang
> Jones CDT official guidebook).
> We have trekked in the US before, The Appalachian
> Trail and
> south-west New Mexico, as well as many a place
> around the
> world, mostly the Himalayas, Tibet, South American
> Andes,
> Africa etc... However we'd like to have some advice
> on the CDT
> Colorado part: is the trail clearly marked all the
> way in
> Colorado? In other words, is it easy to follow? Are
> there
> signs, marks or cairns?
> We know you are thruhikers: what can you say about
> the
> trail in Colorado, especially across the wilderness
> and remote
> areas like the Weminuche Wilderness and San Juan
> Mountains?
> We intend to get off the trail a couple of times, to
> get
> supplies , and we'll try hitch hiking to reach
> Denver(no buses
> or public transport in the US anymore
> unfortunately), in order
> to reach a place where we'd like to leave a few
> things like
> for example part of the heavy 13 trails illustrated
> maps, some
> photographic equipment, some dry food and clean
> clothes, etc...
> Then we'll get back to the trail.
> Do you have any idea of a suitable place to leave
> such a bag?
> We have no idea where you live, but if you are
> around Denver,
> we'd be interested in meeting you before we start -
> or a
> friend of yours whom you could recommend for
> information.
> We'll fly from Nice to Denver on July 11th, and be
> around for
> a couple of days or so, to get organized.
> Also, we know by experience that carrying over 40
> pounds each
> on our backs might be tiring... maybe after a few
> weeks we'll
> wish to get off... One alternative in the second
> half of
> August could be to change for a horse back
> expedition: riding
> across the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Colorado
> for 8 to 10
> days, starting somewhere near the town of Salida in
> Chaffee
> County, and ending south in the Amalosa County. Can
> you
> suggest or recommend a reliable outfitting company,
> or even
> better an independant guide, who would consider
> organizing and
> leading that type of project for/with us? On the
> internet we
> only find companies offering a few hours' and
> maximum one-two
> days' ride with huge groups of tourists, and that
> does not
> appeal to us at all!
> Any idea or tips on that matter too?
> Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks a lot!
> Martine & Henri Ferrero
> 10 rue du Petit Parc
> 06000 Nice
> France
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Martine --
> 
> _______________________________________________
> cdt-l mailing list
> cdt-l at backcountry.net
> http://mailman.hack.net/mailman/listinfo/cdt-l
> 

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