As you might imagine the Great Divide route along the Continental Divide crosses tracks a number of times with the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), a cross-continent trail for hikers.  The CDT is one of the jewels in the Triple Crown of American hikes, the others being the Appalachian Trail (AT) and the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).  I saw and talked to probably 12 or more of the hikers, always in groups of two or three, trying to glean whatever I could about their ultralight gear.

The one question I always try to remember to ask is, “What would you do different. Or what would you change if you could?”  This far along, all that I talked to had started at the Mexican border and had already “dialed-in” their gear, so I generally got comments like, “the weather” or “nothing.”

One solo hiker was zipping along with his head net on. After stopping and talking to him for several minutes along the road, I asked him about his net, which evidently was so comfortable that he hadn’t noticed it was still on.  He quickly pulled it off, embarrassed, saying he didn’t know he was wearing it from early morning.

Later I asked another group of four about head nets and one hiker quickly whipped his out saying it was the best one available, Sea to Summit, and that I should try it on.  It actually has underarm shock cords that keeps it down and away from your neck.  I’ll definitely be looking into this new piece of gear for backpacking.

Other info gathered from the troops of thru hikers: One preferred a canister stove, a cheap 4-oz knock-off of a MSR with the smallest fuel can, he only ever carries one canister and when it’s out, he eats “cold” until the next resupply.  One guy carries his alcohol in a squeezable Platypus water bag, so volume decreases with fuel level.  Another guy absolutely loves his Z-pack chest bag (another item I’ll be looking into).

Most hikers seems to be in the 12-pound base-weight range and most had a tarp-tent.  All but one was in trail-runner hiking shoes, everyone had poles and two I saw coming down the road with identical Go-Lite Chrome Dome umbrellas deployed above their heads like Asian ladies in the afternoon sun.  Water filtering was with Sawyer minis or Aqua Mira, no one mentioned SteriPens.

Most surprising was a couple of guys, the ones with the Chrome Domes, said when I mentioned Z-Packs, “Z-Packs gear doesn’t hold up.  Not suitable for thru hiking.” When I protested that I love my Z-Packs gear, they remonstrated adamantly, “it may be great for bike packing but it’ll never hold up to a thru hike.”  Strange, I’ll be looking into this further.

Best of all, every one of the thru hikers seemed jovial and eager to talk about their gear and the six-month journey.