Leave your mark
Volunteers can help finish putting signs along the length of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail
Unlike its bicoastal cousins —the Appalachian and the Pacific Crest trails — the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail can be difficult to follow. The trail, which runs from Mexico to Canada along the spine of the Rocky Mountains for 3,200 miles (770 miles of it in New Mexico), is unmarked in some sections. In others, blown-down trees and bleaching from the sun have made the existing trail blazes difficult to spot.
This year, in honor of the trail’s 40th anniversary, the Continental Divide Trail Coalition is changing that.
Amanda Wheelock, a spokeswoman at the coalition’s office in Boulder, Colo., said the hope is that if the trail is wellmarked, more people will be encouraged to explore the trail and surrounding areas.
“It’s a big undertaking,” she said in a recent phone interview. “The trail has never been completely and consistently signed from end to end.”
To accomplish this feat, the coalition has been organizing volunteer groups, holding training sessions and taking sign-ups for volunteer work. Collectively, the project is known as Blaze the CDT. Throughout 2018, these volunteers will install thousands of blue-and-white signs along about 750 miles of trail.
In earlier projects headed by the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Youth Conservation Corps and volunteer trail adopters, more than 2,000 miles have been properly signed.
The CDT was designated a National Scenic Trail by Congress in 1978. As it winds its way along the crest of the Continental Divide, the trail passes through alpine meadows, desert canyons, quaking aspen forests and imposing mountain ranges, making for a journey through some of America’s most dramatic and rugged terrain.
Even though the trail is officially 40 years old, Wheelock said, it is incomplete. “Some 180 miles of the trail are still in need of federal protection and hundreds more are in need of maintenance,” she said.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the National Trails System Act. The National Trails System provides outdoor recreation opportunities, promotes natural resource preservation and public access, and encourages appreciation of America’s history and cultural diversity. Since its creation in 1968, more than 81,000 miles of trails have been included in the National Trails System.