Bubbles: Why we are hiking the CDT

We are hiking the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) because of the amazing experience we had on the Appalachian Trail (AT). When we finished the AT we immediately knew that we wanted to hike another long trail. If we had had the funds we would have left the next day for another long trail after finishing the AT! We knew before we could do that we would have to put in a lot of time and work to save the money to hike this trial.

Next, we had to decide on which long trail to hike. The “Big Three” (or Triple Crown of U.S. long trails) are the Appalachian Trail (AT - about 2,190 miles), Pacific Crest Trail (PCT - about 2,650 miles), and Continental Divide Trail (CDT - about 3,100 miles - but this varies greatly). Both the AT and the PCT are hiked more often than the CDT. For example, in 2016 (when we completed the AT) there were 1110 thru hikers who completed the AT, 719 thru hikers who completed the PCT, and 51 thru hikers who completed the CDT. All of these numbers are the official numbers of each conservancy and there are more people who didn’t volunteer register their thru hike.

I decided to hike on the CDT because I wanted to not be around big crowds of people. The AT has a lot of people on it (not just the thru hikers above but millions of people section hike the AT every year!)

Another reason I want to hike the CDT is because although the AT was a real physical challenge for me, it was frustrating because of people constantly (not everyday but a lot of time) asking questions about my size and body type. They would ask me if I was actually thru hiking the trail and it was offensive sometimes. Eventually, it just made me laugh but it obviously struck a chord. There is a person on Instagram, named Jenny, who follows Unlikely Hikers. Unlikely Hikers are people of size, different ethnicities, different backgrounds, LGBTQ people, or anyone who is generally considered someone who wouldn’t be a hiker.

When this started to happen to me I was embarrassed to be an Unlikely Hiker, which is just silly. It’s just how the outside world perceives you.  Anyone can do whatever they want to accomplish if they set those goals and follow through. It doesn’t matter what your size is and you definitely don’t have to be a certain size to go out for a walk in the woods! I’m living my dreams and I am blessed.

Sprout's response to why he wants to hike the CDT:

AT thru hiker information found from:  (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/home/community/2000-milers)

PCT thru hiker information found from:  (https://www.pcta.org/discover-the-trail/thru-hiking-long-distance-hiking/2600-miler-list/)

CDT thru hiker information found from:  (http://continentaldividetrail.org/cdtc-official-list-of-cdt-thru-hikers/)