CDT Through Ride

[Foster]

Been looking at the CDT and doing it as a through ride not this summer but the next after I get the tour divide under my belt.  I have done quite a bit of research, but I cannot quite get a feel for how long it would take to ride.  Anyone that has any info about it that would be great.

Thanks

[dream4est]

I have been thinking of it for a few years. Mapped out Colorado with detours. IMHO I think it would take the average bikepack racer about 45-60 days if one was to ride every open to mtb section. 1100+ miles of singletrack and about 2800 total miles (guesstimates). Some/most of the ST would be slow going. Even the detours would have some ST and 4x4 stuff.

Basically it would make the AZT 750 look easy by comparison. Like doing that 3 times in a row.

[tonymason]

Foster,

My daughter and I road the CDT in New Mexico detouring to the GDR around wilderness areas and such.
Here is a link to our trip- https://sites.google.com/a/greyrock.org/new-mexico-s-continental-divide/
There was some great single track around Silver City, Grants and in the north. Due to lack of water in this years drought we bypassed the Black Range but there is some good single track there too (see Scott Morris's exploration of the Great Enchantment Trail in the trip report section of this site)

I have hiked the CDT in Colorado and mt biked portions of it. The single track portions are slow going with lots of hike a bike. It is not well maintained or marked like the Colorado Trail or Arizona Trail.  In fact above tree line there is often no tread.

Check out Scott Morris's rides on the CDT in Montana (also in the trip report section of this site)

To truly ride all the singletrack on the CDT open to bikes I'd give myself all summer.

Tony

[Foster]

Nice trip report.  Looks like doing the CDT is huge just by judging from your NM section ride.  Looks like route finding is a big obstacle.  Lots of planning and reconing will be done if I pursue it.  Thanks for the tips.

[Roland Sturm]

Tony, great to see your report. I was curious how your trip went after talking to you at the cafe and Toaster House. Your approach has a lot to recommend, I feel that you saw much more that way than doing TD.

The little stretch of CDT after Silver was fun, but I did it in the morning after a good breakfast. I don't think the CDT would work as a real long distance ride (i.e. alternative to GDMBR). On the other hand, interspersing a bit more single track could improve GDMBR.

In any event, I think I rather pass on NM below 9000 feet in the summer. Your approach of sitting out the afternoon heat was good and maybe my bad impression of NM comes more from riding through the middle of the heat (but then Tour Divide doesn't mean touring). North of Cuba and particularly Brazos Ridge was nice though.

Maybe I do something similar to your ride with my son in a year or two, but having ridden the full GDMBR, I would start with another state. I liked Canada the best this year (I did the regular route, the other racers went for the Fernie shortcut), but possibly the biggest gain might be doing Colorado on the CDT: CO has by far the heaviest car traffic on the dirt roads of the GDMBR. I was also  a bit disappointed with southern Colorado, the GDMBR probably doesn't do justice to the San Juan Mountains, so another route might be worth exploring.

[tonymason]

Roland,
Congrats on your Tour Divide. We enjoyed seeing you north bounders blow through Pie Town. Inspirational. Had me thinking about racing for a bit before I came to my senses.

New Mexico was great though I would not ride the southern part in the summer again either. It was great to get off the GDR dirt grinders and onto CDT single track. The section north of Silver City was fun. North of Grants and north of Abiquiu were also a blast.

Too bad about the GDR in southern Colorado. The difficulty with mt biking the CDT is having to detour around all the wilderness areas, national parks and monuments. NM wasn't too bad in that respect but CO requires a lot more detours. The CDT spends ~90% of it's time in the San Juans in wilderness. Figuring out a single track alternative through the San Juans would be tricky.  You might consider the Colorado Trail if you wanted to tour single track in Colorado. Cassi and I did that 2 years ago.  https://sites.google.com/a/greyrock.org/colorado-trail/

keep pedaling,
Tony

[Roland Sturm]

The CDT spends ~90% of it's time in the San Juans in wilderness.

Well, that should take care of any CDT idea..... Probably all the wilderness areas also account for the less attractive GDMBR routing in Southern Colorado.

Anyway, the Colorado Trail has been on my ride list for a while, I have done minuscule amounts of it on day rides, but not even an overnight on it yet.

[chrisx]

looks like purple is wilderness
yellow is national park
and green is national forest
5. Can I horseback or mountain bike the entire Trail?

With over 1,000 miles of the Trail incomplete and some of the existing Trail along precarious terrain, it is not possible to travel the entire �official� route by horse or bike. Yet, areas like the Great Divide Basin are very desirable for alternate uses like bicycles, enabling travelers to cover more ground. Be aware of any regulations or user restrictions for the specific areas you are traveling through. National Parks and Wilderness Areas prohibit the use of bicycles. The CDT currently travels through 20 Wilderness areas and 3 National Parks and 1 National Monument. Those interested in biking the length of the Divide corridor may contact Adventure Cycling Association for information on the Great Divide mountain bike route that closely parallels the CDT.

the routes link at the top of this page provides this info and much more



did not somebody post info on bikepacking.net about carring their bike on their back across the grand canyon or elsewhere¿

[THE LONG RANGER]

AZT my friend:

http://www.topofusion.com/azt/aztr.php

Probably a lot of misadventures of Mike Curiak as well?

I have lots of trips planned for things like this - Colorado mountains and the passes that lead up to the trailheads are perfect for riding your bike to the top of the pass (think, for example, Guanella Pass), climbing say - Bierdstad, traverse over the Sawtooth, climb Mt. Evans and ride back down the Mt. Evans Scenic Highway, making a HUGE loop, if you start in Denver.  A mixture of road riding, mountain biking, hiking and scrambling.

Other ideas,

* doing the 10 mile range, from peak 1 - 12(?) - hike/traverse would be from Peak 1 - 3, the rest is somewhat rideable.

* Starting in Frisco, riding up Loveland Pass, hiking to Grays/Torreys, (jumble mumble mumble) to Argentine Pass and ride home.

* Ride to St. Mary's Glacier, hike up la Plata Peak, to another trail that goes (mumble mumble) to the SnowMass Side/HW 40 and connect.

* The entire Colorado Trail, hiking the parts in Wilderness (someone's done this, at least in parts?)

None of these would be races, although getting the mythical Known Best Time would be kind of rad. Hucking up a bike - ANY type of bike in Cat 3 Scramble is not for the faint of heart! The legality of going through National Parks/Wilderness zones with a bike strapped to your pack is also a little blurry. Most likely, you'll piss off a lot of other hikers and probably get fined. It opens up a fairly big pandora's box. Certain code of ethics should probably be followed (do this type of activity on the deadest times of weak, accept that it's illegal, do no harm to the hiking-only trail)


Riding/Hiking the CDT would be interesting. So would hiking as close to the Continental Divide magic imaginary line would as well. Props for being as close to it as possible with the least amount of gear and perhaps least amount of time. Again, legal issues with private property and you'd be scaling mountains The Wrong Way quite a bit. Which, I guess is the fun of it.

Man, I gotta tell you, one of the weird thoughts in your head when doing the GDMBR is that "these roads are so WIDE" and it's sort of a bummer. All the "Singletrack" parts are not so much fun - the part in Canada was hilarity.

Of topic, but who's the mythical happy sticker placer around the GDMBR? Helpful little bugger!

[THE LONG RANGER]

Hiking with a bike thread:
http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,90.0.html