Hiking Section B of the Great Divide Trail; the commitment was quickly made, the plan is taking a little longer.
Somewhere along the GDT - 2013
My daughter Rianne brought it up first, and she mentioned doing it alone. Her mom volunteered my participation. And that was it. A week in July was quickly picked, working around some plans with visitors from the old country. Leave on Saturday morning, get picked up on Sunday a week later. About 200km, some 8 hiking days, 25km per day therefore; sounds doable.
Rianne has done a few mini through-hikes by herself on the island (that is Vancouver Island); four nights on coastal trails here, a loop in the mountains there, and a brutal inland trip that ended in a death march out, when, after days of rain and mud, the snow on the high trail had become more than hip-deep. She can be pretty tough when she wants to. But she’s not a big girl, and heavy packs grind her down.
My experience lies more in multi-day hunting and scouting trips. Nothing too onerous, and very few with the sustained higher mileage for longer periods of time (mountain hunting requires a lot of sitting around, using binoculars to find animals). Recent accolades include one finished 51km mountain ultra, and one 55km non-race mountain run, but I’m not a big guy, not very strong, and heavy packs grind me down too.
So we have lots to figure out before we embark on an 8-night trip, where we have to carry all supplies from the start.
Here are some topics that immediately sprang to mind:
Food:
What are we going to eat? I can eat Heather’s Choice breakfasts everyday without tiring of it, and Rianne can eat our home-dehydrated chilli pretty much every night and still want more the next day. But I’m kinda picky with dinners, and she’s very picky with breakfast, and the prospect of 8 days of bars for lunch is enough to make me nauseated.
Pack weight:
Neither of us has ever invested in super-light gear. I’ve been whittling down the amount of stuff that I take, but not to the extent that it makes a big difference. Rianne tends to take the kitchen sink, plus utensils for cleaning it, so she will be even more challenged. Just the food will probably run 15lbs per person for 9 days.
Fitness/injuries:
I will have to ramp up the strength training for sure, if I am to last nine days on the trail, carrying a big pack. I’m not worried about the cardio. I have a 32km race with over 9,000’ of elevation gain scheduled two weeks before departure, I will just about be rested up when we leave. But we will have to do a few prolonged training hikes with full packs to get at least some preparation for what lies ahead. I can only hope that all of the current aches and nags in foot, leg, back, and other parts of the body are mostly healed by then.
Rianne has a demanding day job, that cuts into her evenings and weekends, so she’ll be even more challenged to get back to her lean-tough self.
Footwear:
Normally I would grab my heavy hiking boots for any backpack trip, but I’m going to try using trail runners. Probably Hoka’s Speedgoat’s, but I’m eyeballing the new Altra Timp 2.0 as well, which has the nice wide toe box, but more cushioning than the Lone Peak’s that I use for runs. A shake-out trip will be required to see if I am willing to take that gamble.
I feel we are pretty good on all the rest. We’ve been on backcountry trips before, both alone and together. We know what to expect, the only surprises (hopefully) will be the beautiful views. I’ve been to one little piece of the trail in the past, a gorgeous spot, where my friend saw a wolverine a week after we were there together.
Flowers along the GDT - 2013
Ah, why Section B-ish? Well, we don’t know exactly where the start is, but it looks like a part of it may be on a road, about 10km or so, so we’ll drive that, and start where the road ends. And we have our eyes on a little detour towards the end, where it appears that the trail follows a forest road for long stretches. A well-chosen left turn will bring us to Cadorna Lake, and beyond that Coral Pass, before descending underneath a few glaciers to get to the finish line. Sounds a lot more attractive than slogging on a road.
And that’s the plan. Stay tuned for updates on the preparation.