The Wildest Thru Hike in North America - Great Divide Trail ep1
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- čas přidán 15. 11. 2023
- Spanning 1,200km (or 750mi) across the Canadian Rocky Mountains, the Great Divide Trail is one of the most premier long distance hiking trails in the entire world. Following the divide very closely between Alberta and British Columbia, along the mountain range crest. They call this hike the wildest thru hike for a reason, it's extremely remote, and the conditions are truly challenging given the high elevation and extreme landscape. Similar to how the Continental Divide Trail was 10 or so years ago, the GDT is a collection of existing trails, strung together with cross country and off trail sections to make one long footpath.
My guide on how to hike the GDT (picturies, stats, gear, and info!)
jupiterhikes.com/2023/11/15/h...
My top gear picks for the GDT:
- Patagonia Rain Jacket - bit.ly/3ua4k7H
- Ursack Major XL Food Bag - amzn.to/47nbfIM
- Mosquito Head Net - amzn.to/46bpiAv
- Satellite Communicator - amzn.to/3SFnxbt
Our Full Gear Lists for the GDT: www.jupiterhikes.com/gear/
Become a member of the GDTA to help grow this amazing trail!
greatdividetrail.com/get-invo...
The Great Divide Trail at a glance:
- 1,200km (750mi) in length, depending on end point
- Grizzly and moose country the entire way
- 5 National Parks (Banff, Jasper, Kootenay, Waterton, and Yoho)
- 9 Provincial Parks, 4 Wilderness Areas, 4 Forest Districts
- 2,590m (or 8,500ft) is the high point @ an un-named pass in Section E
- 1,055m (or 3,500ft) is the low point @ Old Fort Point outside of Jasper
- Peak hiking season is from July to September,
- 30 to 60 days is roughly how long this hike takes depending on experience and fitness
Overall the GDT is one of the most amazing thru hikes you could ever do. Unparalleled scenery, glaciers around every corner, grizzly bears, moose, pika, marmots, exposed alpine meadows and lakes. Ridge walks on loose scree and talus. Off trail travel, bushwhacking, and adventure. Hiking through popular national parks such as Banff and Jasper. It truly is an incredible beast of a hike.
Most of the time there are no markings to let you know where to go, so basic map reading and navigation skills are necessary. You will almost never have cell service, even when in a 'town'. The trail varies greatly from old forest road, national park perfect trail, bushy and overgrown, or completely non-existent. I would say that this is a pretty harsh first thru hike to do but then again, if you're going to do only one, you might as well do the best one right? This is a true adventure, and no hiker willing to plan and prepare for it would be disappointed.
The GDT starts in Waterton Lakes National Park, which is directly north of Montana and Glacier National Park on the US and Canadian border. If you're American and have ever done hiking in Glacier just imagine doing that for 6-8 weeks, and you have the GDT. The southern terminus is actually shared by the CDT, so conceivably one could start a hike at the Mexican border, walk the Continental Divide Trail across the US, then continue on the GDT even further north into Canada for a monster 3,500 mile hike. This has been done a couple times before. It is a special thing to stand at the CDT monument but to be going in a different direction. Just knowing those other trails also begin or end there is really cool and adds to the feeling.
The first big challenge being the La Coulotte Ridge and Barnaby Ridge alternate, which are both physically demanding, and also waterless stretches. It is about 150km from the start to your first town of Coleman/Blairmore, which is the end of section A. The trail is split into seven sections, and this video shows both A and B. While the final two sections (F & G) are the hardest.
The second section follows the newly built High Rock Trail. From Coleman and Crowsnest Pass it is 200km to the next town at Peter Lougheed Provincial Park. An extremely long section without resupply, should something go wrong. Unfortunately for us Sprocket go shin splints, and we both came down with a cold! So section B turned into quite the slog.
The big challenge in section B is the length, and how much food you must carry. We planned 7 days, but many take as much as 10. There are two major passes, tornado saddle, and Fording River Pass. Both you would hope to have good weather for, but overall it is the length of this resupply that is the major difficulty.
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Thank you for watching!! I just put up a big guide with all sorts of stats, photos, and information about our Great Divide Trail thru hike you can check out here jupiterhikes.com/2023/11/15/how-to-thru-hike-the-1200km-great-divide-trail/
I've been looking forward to your GDT videos ever since you announced you were doing this trail. The GDT is at the top of my bucket list. You have now made me even more excited to hike the GDT and you are only on ep 1! Thanks for all the info you provided! It will be greatly appreciated by many, including me!
It really just gets better from here even! Hope you enjoy, and hope this helps with planning and such! @@GoldenBoyHikes
Looks great…looking forward to seeing the rest!🙂🙏
This link currently does not work properly, would love to see what you wrote
The link is working now. Thanks for all the effort you put into making the vlogs as well as the written content. A truly impressive effort!
One of your best-ever videos, looking forward to the rest of the series. Would love a video where your GF shows and reviews her kit & clothes.
I've been watching on my phone, but would love to watch this in a IMAX theater!!!❤😊
Beautiful! Always enjoy your videos and the narration 👍. Looks like a tough trail.
I'm watching this from Waterton right now! Winter has set in here in the Canadian rockies, and all these shots have made me nostalgic for summer hiking - you captured our little park so beautifully. I've hiked just about every corner of this park and recognize so much of where you were filming! This summer we saw tons of thru-hikers, both starting the GDT or ending a NOBO CDT hike - there was a decent wave of hitch-hikers in September heading to the customs office on Chief hwy. I love that our tiny town of 30-100 permanent residents is becoming a hub for the thru-hiking community - it brings a swell of life to this place! I'm so glad you enjoyed the park!! :)
It's such an incredible place! Thank you for the hospitality and for hosting all of us!
What a terrific story this has already become.
Loved seeing Waterton…..we were in Glacier NP and Waterton June 15-25. We liked Waterton so well, we are going back the first part of August 2024. Enjoyed this video😃😃
Waterton was the best, before even starting the GDT we hung out there for over a week! Loved it, great town, great lake, great camping and hiking. Would go back anyday
Awesome.sproken is a trooper. Alberta just says Canadian Rockies with such class. Subscrbed
Incredible man! And thanks for showing me my own country 🤙🏾🇨🇦
You are an amazing story teller!
This trail looks amazing. Thanks.
Love love love- thanks for sharing!
I live just 10 mins from Waterton, and it makes me happy that you enjoyed it so much! definitely not as hype as Banff, but a different kind of beautiful imo
Thanks for posting your videos , absolutely gorgeous .
Well done 🙌
I absolutely love your videos.
Such amazing photography! Love that scenery
Canada is beautiful!
Beautifully captured. 👍
This is the most beautiful video you have ever made!! Your girlfriend is absolutely adorable and if she can keep up with you then she's a keeper!
👍🐿👍awesome adventure. Glad yall shared it together.
Yall are very blessed. Be very grateful 😊
13:46 could be the cover of an outdoor magazine. Great shot composition ... silhouette of the hiker, different layers of the peaks in a misty, almost painting-like tableau, the cloud layer flowing & complimenting the peak lines. Very evocative.
It does idea look wonderful. We had a bad forest fire season and this is smoke haze not mist. Super crisp and clear today after a dump of snow a couple of days ago.
Really fantastic Jupiter!
I love that your border shots really show how trivial the idea of borders really is
Well thanks to BIDEN the USA is effed. BUILD THE WALL TO KEEP THE Americans out of my Mexico.
Yeah hut the real border isn’t a fence is the hundred of kilometers of wilderness between the last American town in Montana and the first Canadian one in Alberta.
So beautiful, and so great that you took the time to share these videos and this information. What a perfect way to make use of this life we get.
Thanks for sharing 😊
So nice to have these videos for nostalgia, while heading into winter, when thru hiking is mostly off the table. And beautiful imagery, as always!
Always so good ‼️ Thanks for continuing to share your knowledge and adventures 🤩🤩🤩
Absolutely phenomenal scenery guys! Brilliant content 👏👏
Wow.
Incredible footage. I'm glad you were able to get out when sickness and shin splints set in.
I can't wait to see the next section.
Take care!
Well done my friend!
One of your best vids
Oooo! I've been waiting for this series! So beautiful! Glad you were able to continue.
Man, love it! Can’t wait for the last two section. These where the only ones I did (hiking southbound) before I had to quit.
Final two sections are rough! We ran into some southbounders that said after G & F they were so beat up they had to skip a couple of the next sections just to keep with their schedule.
@@JupiterHikes :) I feel it!
That looks incredible! I'd love to do it one day.
I've been waiting patiently for this video of you in my backyard. For a little while I was worried it was you two that were eaten by a bear in Banff.
I normally don't like music and narration in hiking videos, but this is very well done!
Glad that was not us, but very sad for the couple. Seemed like a truly random thing that never happens. They were prepared and experienced. At the very beginning of our hike, maybe a day before we started, there was actually a person in yellowstone that had a very bad end with a grizzly. Which certainly put me on edge for a while!!
@@JupiterHikes A problem that often occurs with experienced hikers in bear country is complacency which leads to sloppiness. Plus having the dog with them didn't help.
Love to see the start of your journey. Such an amazing adventure
Great video arrative.
Great to see more videos on the GDT! A friend and I will be taking on the GDT next July, so thank you for the insight into the trail!
Unfortunate about getting sick and the shin splints on section B, but happy to hear that it was all up from there!
Happy Hiking 🥾
I want and i will do this trail! i am very curious about the "getting food from where?" situation on that trail.
Great that you shared this! K´
I put up a bunch of info here about resupply jupiterhikes.com/2023/11/15/how-to-thru-hike-the-1200km-great-divide-trail/ Just search resupply (ctrl + F 'resupply') in the article. It's really not so bad! Towns are sometimes infrequent and cell service is pretty bad. But overall I thought it would be much harder than it actually was.
Dehydration, shin splints and illness- no, no, no. Glad you talked about it in the video, and glad it didn’t ruin or end the hike for you both. 💙
Welcome to canada. Where music and noise is welcome on trails to scare bears away
honestly didn't know what to expect since I haven't heard much about this hike, but this is beautiful!
It just gets better even! Consistently amazing throughout, no dull bits. A rare thing in long trails
Stunning, thanks for sharing your experience and dedication. I always look forward to seeing your videos
Looks beautiful!
Nice! Would be good to see a video quantifying with a ranking or scale how hard different sections of the major trails are (in normal conditions) according to Jupiter. When he says a trail is easy or hard… it’s tough for weekend warrior hiker to really gauge what he means. Maybe miles per day difference would be a measure (deviations up or down from his normal mileage) and assessment of risks. It’s tough to do but just ballpark estimates would be helpful.
I've always wanted to do that! A 'tier list' of trails I've done. But cant seem to figure out how I'd rank them. By difficulty, ease, which once are best or worst, etc? Then hard to do that without being disparaging to some trails lol I'll keep thinking about it
For me for a ranking of sections A to E it would be:
A: 7.5/10
B: 7/10
C: 6.5/10
D: 8/10
E: 7.5/10
Best section was E. We saw a few section hikers doing that one.
Also it would be great to see a "what's in your resupply" video specific to your GDT.😄 As your packs look so small, I'm UL and I still can't get my pack that small with a week's resupply...😮💨 so I'd love to see yours!
I don't think we did anything special there, and often times chose to pack out more bulky foods. Probably the small packs comes from the gear more than anything.
Looks like a beautiful trail!
Bummer you both had such a rough time in that section. Still GORGEOUS! Love watching your adventures. What shoes was sprocket wearing?
She was wearing topo atheltics, they're great shoes and a lot of people like them, but they just didnt work for her feet. Problem fixed as soon as she went back to her old altras
I feel her pain. I can’t wear anything but Altras. Every time I try to switch, I get blisters. Which is a shame, Altras are expensive and fall apart fast.
I'm curious how Sprocket got her trail name?
Originally she was planning on biking the PCT, but later on realized that's not allowed, so she decided to hike it instead
I loved the video! The GDT was my first ever long distance thru hike this summer and its truly amazing. Video of our experience a few days behind Jupiter up on my channel!
It would be a tough first thru hike! But bonus for you, everything else will now seem easier :)
"Away from the Phones and People."
Don't I wish.
As a Calgary resident planning 2-3 GDT sections next year, I'd love more detail about which alternates you took, how you re-supplied, where you hitch-hiked & stayed for 3 days, and how you replaced gear. Would love to hear if you tackled Barnaby Ridge or La Coulotte. Great videos!!!
I put up a big GDT guide on my website that answers all of those questions! jupiterhikes.com/2023/11/15/how-to-thru-hike-the-1200km-great-divide-trail/ Stats from our hike, photos, and all sorts of information about alternates, resupply and everything else
@@JupiterHikes thank you so much, that link is working now, so great!!! can't wait to see the next installment. Thank you for visiting Canada & sorry about the smoke
Great video ! Have you had any problems changing your plans with reservations at authorized campsites ?
Yeah pretty much immediately. Having to make new reservations in town, or find alternatives (like wolverine camp just north of floe lake, or porcupine just north of assiniboine). Sometimes we stayed in town extra time as it would work out for whatever permit we could get, or had to speed up to make an earlier date.
All around, my least favorite part of this hike. It's a tough system given the nature and length of a thru hike. Would work great for a section or weekend trips though. Either way it's something we managed, and all thru hikers must manage if they want to do this trail
Are you doing a gear list for this one? 😀
I did a pre hike gear list! Nothing really changed throughout other than I bought a fleece along the way just to have a layer to hike in. You can find that video on this channel, or the full list on my website! I will do a post hike kind of 'top picks' kind of thing though
Grouse is good eats
Yay first comment and first like
in my feed it shows you got it!
Hi Jupiter! Random question but you have done a lot of solo hiking, any tips on dealing with that much solitude?
I really enjoy the solitude! You can do what you want whenever you want. There is something very special about hiking with a partner, but it does come with compromise. So both have their ups or downs. Podcasts are great when solo as it makes for a feeling of companionship, talking to others you meet, taking time to enjoy the things that are specific to you ie flowers, birds, lakes, making miles, or extra town days which others may not want. I like making lists, things i'll do when i'm back home. Things to do in town. Stuff I want to research when I have internet. Call home or friends when you can. Enjoy the freedom of just being by yourself
@@JupiterHikes ☺️
Thanks for the reply! Yeh I do the podcast thing, audio books etc definitely help, i seem to rush along and do big days with no zeros to sort of get it done which kinda misses the point sometimes!
Anyway loving your channel and I really appreciated your GDT tips on your site.
I'm planning the GDT next summer and that was some of the most useful info I've found so far! 👍👍👍
Cheers! Greg 🇦🇺
1st 💪😁💕
a very close race, but I think second ;)
Your attitude to life, and what you do with yours, is what makes your presentations such a draw. I'm sorry that there are only going to be three videos and one guide that are going to be shown. But, still, it's all good. Thanks. :>)
How've mosquitoes and black flies been so far?
We got very lucky with a dry year, so not bad fortunately!
Is that a hiking dress? Is that even a thing?
It's definitely a thing! Heather 'Anish' Anderson set more than a couple speed records on long distance trails while wearing dresses, averaging more than 40 miles per day.