Continental Divide #OBCDT23

[Kent R]

Continental Divide 2023
21 days on the CDT, eight rigs started and five rigs finished.
We had the best weather you could imagine, no rain or mud and that just made for some really great adventure. Two years ago it rained just about every day on us.
We started at the US/Mexico border and ended at the US/Canada Border and traveled 2600 miles+-. The ending was a little disappointing due to road construction that closed the road five miles from the border just north of Polebridge MT. We had to travel over a mountain range to the west to get right up to the border at Roosville MT. If you do the CDT make sure you try and get to the border above Polebridge, that way you are very close to the actual divide.

Some highlights
Saw some animals:
Black Bears, Grizzly Bear, Badger, Coyote’s, Elk, Deer, Antilope, Bison, lots of eagles and hawks, one member of the group saw some Moose.
Went over four major passes in CO:
Stony, Hurricane, California, & Engineer. CO is a destination by itself, the high mountain passes are unbelievable and deserve way more time than we had. If you need any info about CO, our Local Expert Neal A. Tew is the best resource we have for CO.
Wildfires:
Almost had to turn around due to the 26K acre Divide Fire in NM, but we were able to talk our way through by chatting up one of the HotShot crews that were lighting backfires. They radioed ahead that we were coming through and for the next 15 min we got a front row seat to active firing operations (brought back some memories from my previous career). A second wildfire on the track caused us to detour around and miss one of the great campsites north of Seeley Lake MT.
Perseid Meteor shower:
Got to watch a great show, no cloud cover and absolutely no light pollution.

There will be a youtube video produced by @socialpants, this should come out in about six months
I will be updating the GPX file from two years ago and it will be available to email by the end of next month. Email me if you are interested in the new file Kent@OverlandBound.com
I will also put the new track on the Overland Bound app.
#OBCDT23 for more pictures

 

[Kent R]

YouTube movie premier this Sunday

 

[Carl_5581fb]

Great video! Is there somewhere that I can download the gpx file?

 

[Kent R]

Great video! Is there somewhere that I can download the gpx file?

message me your email address and I will send it to you. Its to large to send here @Kent R

 

[Travelinjohnnie]

We just finished the WY and MT sections and again I have to send a huge THANK YOU to you and your crew Kent ! We took three years to complete the whole trail and loved every section... We did NM then CO and finished with WY/MT. We spent more time in CO than you guys did the first trip completing the Alpine Loop and spent a day in Aspen as well as a few days in the Tetons and Yellowstone. Primarily we camped at your locations but found on a few sections we were just slower so we improvised with many of your other marked sites. Although the road showed closed at the very end, we were able to sweet talk the crew into letting us go through to the Canadian border crossing and complete the trail as laid out.
For anyone wondering about this trip --- I say GO------ you can do it all or just sections and you won't be disappointed. We were blessed with great weather, beautiful Aspen trees in full yellow glory. Plenty of wildlife sightings to keep us excited not counting the COWS !!!!! Got to experience the wonderful MUD of New Mexico , the high alpine passed of CO and the wonderful BIG SKYS of WY and Montana. Thanks again Kent for sharing this wonderful route.

 

[Travelinjohnnie]

The Tetons did not disappoint

 

[Ron R.]

We just finished the WY and MT sections and again I have to send a huge THANK YOU to you and your crew Kent ! We took three years to complete the whole trail and loved every section... We did NM then CO and finished with WY/MT. We spent more time in CO than you guys did the first trip completing the Alpine Loop and spent a day in Aspen as well as a few days in the Tetons and Yellowstone. Primarily we camped at your locations but found on a few sections we were just slower so we improvised with many of your other marked sites. Although the road showed closed at the very end, we were able to sweet talk the crew into letting us go through to the Canadian border crossing and complete the trail as laid out.
For anyone wondering about this trip --- I say GO------ you can do it all or just sections and you won't be disappointed. We were blessed with great weather, beautiful Aspen trees in full yellow glory. Plenty of wildlife sightings to keep us excited not counting the COWS !!!!! Got to experience the wonderful MUD of New Mexico , the high alpine passed of CO and the wonderful BIG SKYS of WY and Montana. Thanks again Kent for sharing this wonderful route.

** Would you mind ... what time of the year did you do your (3) adventures on the CDT? What time of the year would you recommend starting the CDT to complete in single trip?

 

[Kent R]

From the OB trips;
We started at the end of July both times, that way you statistcly miss the rain in the South and Snow in Colorado. Its all a guessing game in 21 we had rain 11 days on and off and in 23 no rain at all.

First trip was 17 days second 21 days.

 

[Travelinjohnnie]

** Would you mind ... what time of the year did you do your (3) adventures on the CDT? What time of the year would you recommend starting the CDT to complete in single trip?
[/QUOTE

** Would you mind ... what time of the year did you do your (3) adventures on the CDT? What time of the year would you recommend starting the CDT to complete in single trip?

Each of our trips were in mid September and we had 2 days of rain in New Mexico so we got to experience the FUN of that mud....But CO and then recently WY and MT we had no rain / snow at all. We did deal with colder temps ( 30's at night ) and shorter days so we weren't able to make as many miles daily but we stopped and saw more sights along the way.
Overall, if I were to take the CDT on in one trip, I would go earlier to allow for longer days and warmer temps.