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I am not a thru hiker. I love walking, and travelling is my favourite thing to do, but I had never walked long distance and had no idea what ‘thru hiking’ was until Dan and I set off to America to hike the Continental Divide Trail. This was our first ever thru hike, and a whole new challenge! We had no expectations, only a dream of living in the wild and carrying everything we owned on our backs. We counted down the days until our flight, dreaming of lazy mornings in our tent, sipping coffee and gazing out over sun blushed mountains. The reality? This never happened. 

 

The CDT is a 3,100 mile trail, stretching from Mexico to Canada - well, this is what we were told. In reality, the CDT is a route connecting a series of trails to patch together some sort of route from Mexico to Canada… It wasn’t a rare occurrence for us to be found aimlessly wandering around private land trying to find our way back to the non existent trail. Our relationship with the CDT was love/hate. The trail has a magical way of trying to stop you from getting to where you want to be whether that’s navigation, terrain or weather! But despite the obstacles, life was simple. The stresses of work deadlines, commuting and money were swapped for weather warnings, blown down trees and elevation gains. Our days were managed by distance and our time was measured by miles. We longed for the border and a chance to just.stop.hiking. But still, it was simple. All we had to do was walk. 

 

And now as our daily routines fall back into the old normality, our memories of trail life become tinted with that sun blushed glow we dreamt of before it all began. 

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- Caroline