GDR 2025

Dropped into a glacier strewn mountain lake wild paradise, we were fully alive!  At last, after several years of planning and setbacks, I was into the Canadian Great Divide with my adventuresome daughter.  For several years previous, I had been fascinated with the idea of hiking the Great Divide Trail(GDT).  I began following the GDT FB group to learn the advice, trials, tribulations and logistics of this +-60 day hike.  Permits for campsites on the GDT are on a lottery system. It seemed feasible if one had several computers ready to execute on the beginning of the nanosecond of the day in January that the process opens. Then, start horse trading for those sites you were unable to secure. Not an easy process, but the motivated were doing it. Sofia, my daughter and outdoor adventure enthusiast, was trying to juggle her academic and job opportunities and obligations and rarely knew what she precisely would be doing for the Summer. At the same time, I had this fantasy of setting off on our own, bushwhacking through our own route, without the need for anything more than a backcountry permit.  Searching through the internet, I found bits and pieces of an occasional trekker or horse party that had ventured North from where the GDT ends at Kakwa Lake Provincial Park.  At about this time there were musings within a few of the GDT alumni of plotting and trekking a northern route. Now that sounded interesting.  Then it started to happen.  A handful of individuals began searching for a route North. Several tried and retried, and some eventually made it all the way.  We were about to follow a route that only a few have crossed successfully.  

I knew  that at my age and conditioning, I had to train for several months in that nebulous space between gain and injury. I would walk or hike 6 to 12 kilometers per day, and a couple times a week I would take longer hikes(16-22 kilometers).  I stretched daily and twice per week strength trained.  To simulate the GDR I hiked off-trail in the Beartooth mountains near Yellowstone and camped and dialed in my gear often. I believe this was essential for our successful trip.  I avoided over fatigue and injuries.  This was probably the most difficult hike I've taken, but very doable since we were in good shape, experienced in the outdoors and content to bushwhack less than 1.5 kilometers per hour. Given how far out from civilized medical help we would be, I complied with my daughter's request to get my Wilderness First Responder Certification(WFR).  She was accurate to assert that a lot has changed since I learned first aid in boy scouts over 50 years ago!  It was valuable information and I honed some forgotten skills. I felt much more confident venturing out to where, in the event of an accident, we might have to take care of ourselves for hours or days before help arrived. 

I learned how to used Caltopo on my iPhone as back up for paper maps(for most people today, that would be reversed!)

The macro and micro weather can make or break the experience of this route.  Clouds, rain and cold can obscure the beauty and elaborate the hardships of the GDR.  

But with planning and luck we managed to hike with warm and sunny days at least half the time, with only occasional rain and temperatures  and always above freezing. Except for one day, we were able to have some hours of sun to dry our wet gear.