GDT Great Divide Trail--Lynx Revised Guide

If you plan to continue your CDT hike into the Canadian Rockies you need this book. I used it during my 2001 thru-hike and it saved me many mis-steps.
Hiking Canada's Great Divide Trail (Revised and Updated), by Dustin LynxAt 1,200 kilometres, the Great Divide Trail is among the longest of North America's continuous hiking trails, not to mention one of the most spectacular. Following the Continental Divide, the GDT passes through six national parks, seven provincial parks and several wilderness areas, stretching from the U.S./Canada border to Kakwa Lake north of McBride, B.C. As such, planning to hike the entire distance presents a formidable challenge in terms of logistics.In this revised and updated version of Hiking Canada's Great Divide Trail, Canmore resident Dustin Lynx, who hiked the entire trail in 1996 and continues to hike sections, has broken up the daunting adventure into manageable portions.Divided into six distinct trail sections, beginning at the Canada/U.S. border at Waterton Lakes National Park with breaks at Coleman, Kananaskis Country, Field, the North Saskatchewan River, Jasper and ending at Kakwa Lake, Lynx provides backpacks full of information as indispensable as a good sleeping bag and comfortable boots.With each section further broken down into one-day distances between campsites, Lynx provides detailed information on alternative routes, crucial junctions and GPS waypoints. As well, each section's introduction explains the unique nature of that portion of the trail, including cautionary advice on various land use regulations and historical anecdotes.As the definitive volume for anyone planning to hike the GDT, this thoroughly researched and meticulously laid out guidebook offers hikers everything they need to know about access, navigation and where to re-supply, whether they plan to tackle the mega trail in one full-summer push, or weekend sized distances over a lifetime.

GDT Great Divide Trail--Trail Crews

Since 2004, AWA has teamed up with the Great Divide Trail Association to run summer trail maintenance trips on the Alberta sections of the Great Divide Trail (GDT). The GDT is an informal 1200 km trail, running along the Continental Divide from Waterton National Park on the Canada/US border to Kakwa Lake, north of Mount Robson in B.C., covering some of the most stunning landscapes in the whole of the Canadian Rockies. It passes through 6 National Parks (Glacier, Waterton Lakes, Banff, Kootenay, Yoho and Jasper) as well as the Willmore Wilderness Park, White Goat Wilderness Area and numerous other protected areas, including and Mount Robson and Mount Assiniboine Provincial Parks.
On these multi-day trail maintenance trips, volunteers carry out a variety of work, including bridge building, trail re-grading and clearance of deadfall. http://albertawilderness.ca/AWA/Stewardship/GDTrail.htm

Great Divide Trail--Dustin Lynx

The Great Divide Trail, CanadaBy Julia and Dustin Lynx
I think of the Great Divide Trail quite often. It was my job this summer to share my knowledge of the Canadian Rocky Mountains with visitors at the Parks Canada Visitor Center in Lake Louise. Although my experience on the GDT got me the job, I never answered any questions about the route itself. If people had asked me about the Canadian Rockies Great Divide Trail, the following is the shortest description that I could have offered.
Physically, the proportions of the Canadian Rockies Great Divide Trail are dwarflike compared to other long trails on the continent. In respect to its southern cousin (CDT), the GDT is over 2000 miles shorter. In total, it only reaches 900 miles from the USA-Canada border to northern British Columbia, near Prince George. Maintaining an average pace of 15 miles a day, one could hike the route in 2 months. It is hardly an easy hike though.
This summer was the 14th coldest one on record in the Canadian Rockies. On July 5, Highway 93 between Lake Louise and Jasper closed for most of the day until crews could clear two feet of snow. With over three feet of accumulation in the high-country, the snow took nearly a week to melt. This was on top of the existing snow. Many passes on the GDT held on to their winter snow-pack until the end of August. Due to all the melt water, some of the backcountry campsites in Banff National Park were inaccessible until the end of summer. It was cold and hikers suffered. I helped more than one beleaguered hiker reorganize their long trip into a series of shorter outings. On the bright side, the mosquitoes suffered too.
I mention the climate before my thumbnail sketch of the route because the GDT is as much the weather and the environment as it is a narrow footpath winding through meadows or forest. The route itself is a series of established trails that link well to form a long route which follows the continental divide as close as possible, crossing it nearly three dozen times. Half of the route follows superb trails through five national parks. The other half is in provincial parks, wilderness areas, and forestry districts. The majority of the route is in the province of Alberta but it ends at Kakwa Lake Provincial Park in British Columbia. At the southern terminus, in Waterton Lakes National Park, the route meets up with the Continental Divide Trail. Here, at the last moment, one could waver between hiking north or south depending on whether their supply parcels were already in the mail.
The route that I hiked in 1996 is not the same one in my present manuscript. The supply points are the same but some sections of the route have shifted. The GDT will continue to shift and the choice of trails will always allow hikers to customize their journey. Approximately 11% of the GDT is active road or railway. An alternate route usually incorporates more road or cross-country travel. Experienced backpackers can eliminate some of the road walking or decide on a more scenic or direct leg. I look forward to my next hike of the GDT and I know that I will be able to make of it what I want.
A good portion of the first section of the GDT depends on an excellent trail system through Waterton Lakes National Park. Over Sage Pass, a little known horse trail straddles the Divide before descending to the West Castle River Valley. The route continues to the small mining town of Coleman on Hwy #3 mostly on ATV accessible trails with an exciting crest walk along Willoughby Ridge, just east of the Divide. The first section has two alternate routes that stay on the shale-strewn crest of the Divide just south of Sage Pass and another on Barnaby Ridge to the north.
Relying on another 30 miles of ATV trails outside of Coleman, the GDT traverses one of the most scarred sections of the Canadian Rockies. It is a long section, 130 miles, which teeters between the devastation of natural resource extraction and remote and impenetrable wilderness. Nearly half of this section consists of the original Great Divide Trail constructed two decades ago. The section has a difficult but worthwhile northern finale through Elk Lakes Provincial Park.
Leaving the second supply point of Kananaskis Village in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, the route soon enters Banff National Park. This lengthy section crosses a few hiking Meccas such as Mount Assiniboine, Egypt Lakes and the Rockwall Trail. It is the busiest section of the GDT with excellent trail and designated campsites almost the entire way to the town of Field.
The fourth section contrasts all the others. It follows the Amiskwi, Blaeberry and Howser Rivers to The Crossing, a resort on the Icefields Parkway. It is the shortest section at 74 miles and it is the lowest, never going above timberline. Unfortunately, there is a 14-mile road walk leading into the next section that leaves the Parkway at the Sunset Pass trailhead.
The fifth section takes advantage of some popular trails in Jasper National Park but unlike the third section, it is not as busy. A real prize of this portion of the GDT is the slice of the ‘hiker only’ accessible White Goat Wilderness. The renowned Glacier and Skyline Trails bring the route past the Maligne Lake Resort to Jasper. Getting reservations for campsites on the Skyline can be discouraging but Parks Canada does allow bookings up to three months in advance for a slim fee of ten dollars.
If the idea of reserving campsites sounds deplorable, you may like the sixth section the most - I know it is my favorite. It penetrates the remote corners of Mount Robson Provincial Park, Jasper National Park, Willmore Wilderness, and Kakwa Lake Provincial Park. After a 13-mile railway walk from Jasper, the route takes 168 miles to get to the northern terminus at Kakwa Lake. The trail is sometimes thin and overgrown but there is no where else on the GDT that provides such an immersion into the untrammeled wilderness of the Canadian Rockies. I had the privilege to see a herd of Mountain Caribou and follow a wolf pack over two high passes during my through hike in 1996.
The next time I hike the Canadian Rockies Great Divide Trail, I will do things differently. I will take my time on those cross-country sections and take the weather in stride. Some extra food for an extra day en route makes sense for when it snows - an extra warm layer sounds good too. Not starting until mid-July is my plan of action; I will skip the flooding and take advantage of those brilliant September days when the larches turn golden. Binoculars will come in handy for safely viewing wildlife or for scanning the route ahead.
I have hiked the GDT for the past four summers now; I even skied some segments in winter. Each time I return I get my face slapped by the harsh environment no matter how prepared I am or how much I think I had learned from my last outing. The Canadian Rockies is not a fair-weather range. For anyone planning their journey on the GDT, no matter how long, I suggest having an alternate plan and a ‘go with the flow’ attitude. I caution inexperienced hikers against initiating a long distance hiking experience on this unpredictable route.
I realize now that the GDT is more than just a selection of long trails that link well and happen to lie near the Divide. The route is an expression, a changing face, of a temperamental mountain range. It is a special means of communication that interconnects us with the vast wilderness of the Canadian Rockies. The narrow trail is as much a communion for us to travel on the heels of a wolf pack as it is for the wild heart Mistaya, the grizzly bear, to understand our brief encampments and exotic smells. It is so much more than a path blazed for human recreation.
(Ed. - Dustin and Julia’s guide book to the Canada GDT is still delayed at the printers.

For more information on it you may contact them at: lynx@expertcanmore.net .)
Family Lynx606 4 StreetCanmore, AltaT1W2H3 Canada
If you hike the GDT you NEED Dustin's Book! -Dickebird

Crossing The Divide--Back Light and Eat Right

Trying to eat right and pack light while backpacking can be challenging. On extended long distant hikes, as when I hiked the CDT and the GDT, menu selection takes on a new dimension—variety. Everyone develops their own personal meal choices and often it takes many trial trail concoctions to settle into a nutritious and desirable assortment of food items that keep you going and make you happy.
My first meals were not my last. I tried many ideas before I settled into a normal routine of meals that seemed to work for me. Let me first discuss some of my mistakes. Long-distance hiker Ray Jardine’s suggested in one of his books that corn pasta packed a punch and he would even eat it cold on the trail. I bought a case of the stuff. I learned quickly that I hate corn pasta, I would not only refuse to eat it cold I wouldn’t eat it hot or sprinkled on top of a New York strip. I couldn’t even get my squirrels to eat the stuff.
After meeting Laura and Leslie on the trail I learned that they would eat mostly couscous . It’s not that I dislike pasta I just didn’t care for it the size of buckshot. Andy ate a lot of black beans. These are all great choices if they appeal to you, but I’m a meat and potato Irishman. I’m a vegetarian in a way. Cows eat grass, and I eat cows.
No I didn’t carry T-bones in my back. The only meat I carried consisted of ham or beef sandwiches the first day back on the trail after a town stop and one freeze-dried meal a week, usually sweet and sour pork.
Everything get old after awhile. I love Ritz-Bits, put after a month of them they lose some appeal. When I first started across the high desert of New Mexico my body was breaking into the new routine of hiking hard all day. Though I carried over a pound of food for each day out, I often came in to town stops with many food items not touched. For whatever reasons I had little appetite. Few things seemed appealing. It was part of the reason for losing 30+ pounds the first few weeks on the trail.
The menu I developed during the months of hiking the Continental Divide consisted of things like Helper Meals without the meat. Mostly pasta and sauce packages such as Hamburger Helper, Tuna Helper, Chicken Helper. I used tortilla for bread and often made burritos with packaged, dried, refried bean mixes. I discovered a company in El Paso called Old El Paso. Their dried refried bean mix is used by thousands of restaurants around the country. Just adding hot water makes wonder bean mix. It made a tasty and fulfilling meal, delivering a real energy punch—you just didn’t want to be hiking behind me.
Breakfast consisted of maple flavored oatmeal, powdered milk on dry cereal or breakfast fruit bars. Powdered milk does not appeal to many people but it’s not bad if you mix it with mountain stream water so cold you can chew it.
I would eat breakfast and dinner and snack all day. Snicker bars, Oreo’s, Cashews, Crackers, Nutella and various trail mixes. Preparing for the trip I found power bars at a Walmart that had been reduced in price several times. I bought one to test. I figured if no one was buying them they must really be nasty. I went out in the parking lot and munched on it awhile. It was really good. I went back into the store and bought the whole shelf. I took well over a hundred power bars to the check out counter and the woman at the cash register started scanning each bar individually. I said, "I know Sam Walton must have equipment that can scan one barcode and multiply it by 150." She assured me that the way she was doing it was the way she was trained.
I started out each segment of the trail with two bottles of GatorAid. These two bottles would become my water bottles as I slowly drained off the contents. For hot drinks I would use mixes such as specialty coffee and Tang.
I had my experiments with instant potatoes, gravy mixes and powdered puddings, but often they were more hassle than they were worth. I settled for quick and easy meals that had the most appeal and thought of them as fuel instead of cuisine.
I am not suggesting that is the way it should be. I continue to experiment with trail food and new items now available in most grocery stores. Meat in foil pouch containers have added greatly to my Helper meals. I now use a metal grid in the bottom of my cooking pot called a BakePacker. This allows me to steam bake many wonderful meals in a quick, easy, no mess fashion. Everything goes into an oven bag and the pot stays perfectly clean.
When I am long-distant hiking I do not take extended meal breaks. I never eat where I sleep. I usually cook a meal in the late afternoon and hike for several hours before I make camp. Cooking consists basically of boiling water and adding dry ingredients.
With enough trail and error a backpacker can achieve a well balanced menu that both satisfies the palate and the bodies energy needs. The rule of thumb most bandied about in the hiker community is two pounds of food per day for high mileage hikers. I have never carried that much food. I do lose weight on long hikes but I try to make up for light meals when I make a town stop. I graze all the time I’m off the trail and dream about grazing all the time I’m on the trail. I have never heard of a backpacker starving to death. I have run out of food two days out and I have to say, "I didn’t enjoy it." But I knew I was not the first go without food for 48 hours. Like many other situations in life, you suck it up and keep moving.

The Great Divide Trail (GDT)

100 rivers begin in the Canadian Rockies. Clear, icy flows from melting glaciers trickle down the mountains, creating headwaters to rivers that feed into three oceans: the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Arctic. The thousands of lakes here take on every color in the blue-green spectrum. The shades are created when sunlight hits the water and reflects off suspended particles of rock ground into dust by the movement of glaciers. The color of any particular body of water is determined by the different sizes and mineral contents of those ‘’rock flour’’ particles. The shades are so unusual that on my return from a trip to the Canadian Rockies last summer, I consulted paint charts for help in naming them. Some of the best matches: jargon jade, calypso, rapture blue, emerald, Aegean. Summer days are long, with up to 17 hours of sunshine, yet temperatures tend to hover in the 70s. Still not convinced western Canada’s Rockies, the south end of which border Idaho and Montana, are worth the trip? Consider the waterfalls thundering into deep green pools and explode against protruding rocks. Tiny sprays of water droplets collide with beams of sunlight, creating constant flickers of rainbows. Or the snowcapped mountains that in a certain light are mirrored in still lakes, making it appear as if earth, water and sky have become one.
Hollywood discovered the Canadian Rockies before the moving pictures had sound. Many times, these mountains have been stand-ins for the Swiss Alps. Many of the pictures floating around our minds of the wild American West are actually images of the Canadian Rockies. The question is not whether to put this area on your travel wish list, but which part of the vast territory to tackle. Four contiguous national parks - Banff, Yoho, Jasper and Kootenay, all UNESCO World Heritage sites - lie within the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and are surrounded by millions of acres of wilderness areas, forest reserves and provincial parks.

Great Divide Trail Bear Encounter Advice

Dealing with bears along the GDT can be tricky. You need to be aggressive. You need to make a statement and take a stand. Don't run, don't walk away from a fight. Example of how to act in bear country: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_VlVckrUgY

Hiking The Great Divide Trail News

Hiking the Canada’s Great Divide Trail is becoming more popular every hiking season. I hiked the trail in 2001 when I was the sole thru-hiker. It is a magnificent trail. With the right information it can be a simple route. I did it in 30 days. This site contains News and Resources for hiking The Great Divide Trail.