Countdown to the Great Divide Trail

My watch alarm starts to ring at 4:30am. It’s July 2, 2017 and I am in my tent at the Bertha Bay campground in Waterton Lakes National Park. At just over 2km from the Waterton townsite, it’s a beautiful spot to easily and quickly access the backcountry, and sits right upon Upper Waterton Lake, a gorgeous large mountain lake that the Canada/US border intersects. My friend and I had made the big climb up to Avion Ridge the previous day and stopped in town for some much needed bison burgers and Canada Day celebrations. We then lazily made our way the 2km to camp late in the day. Little did I know I had taken my first steps along the Great Divide Trail.

I get up quickly before easily falling back asleep and get ready for my aggressively planned day ahead, which would see me run 20km in 6 national parks while driving 9 hours in between. It seemed like a good idea at the time. My next steps on the Great Divide Trail (GDT) were an EASY out and back run in the dark to the international border. Easy pace, not effort, as while the trail basically follows the lake, it gains and loses about 130m of elevation in that 4km one way. Flat in Rocky Mountain terms, but not flat for this south-western Ontario native. I snapped a quick photo at the monument which sits 6km south of the townsite and is the southern terminus of the GDT (also the northern terminus of the Continental Divide Trail).

Fast forward exactly 4 years later and I will be taking another monument photo in the early morning on July 2, 2021 when I take the initial steps to start my first ever thru-hike on the Great Divide Trail.

The Great Divide Trail starts from the US/Canada border in Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, winding north along the continental divide through the Canadian Rockies to its terminus a little over 1100km (700mi) away in Kakwa Provincial Park. It travels through 5 of Canada’s premier National Parks, as well as a handful of equally treasured Provincial Parks and Wilderness areas, while climbing and descending approx 44,000m along the way. It’s classified by those who have completed it and those who have done other long distances hikes as well, as a more wilderness hike than most with a bit of everything: nice trail, bushwacking, cross country, route finding, high routes, valley routes, river crossings. Overall more of a challenging effort, however, even with all its challenges the GDT is always described as stunningly beautiful for the entirety of its length through the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Having lived in the Rockies for a brief stint, I can attest to the beauty of the landscape – it’s a magical place. It’s also full of wildlife! All of the classic Canadian wildlife one would expect to see in a mountain environment: deer (all 5 species that call Canada home, white-tailed, mule, elk, caribou, and moose) bears (both black and grizzly for the entire trail) cougar, lynx, wolf, mountain goat, bighorn sheep, wolverine, many species of rodents both big and small, and even a great selection of mountain dwelling birds! I’m really excited to see as much wildlife as possible, especially the couple species I haven’t seen before like cougar and wolverine, but hopefully a good mix of everything.

How long will I be out on this adventure?

Six weeks. I will be starting officially on July 2 and ending on August 13, (which is a Friday the 13th) so 43 days in total, 3 of those being zeros with just recovery on the itinerary. Yes, an itinerary is an essential planning tool. For most long distances hikes you would just pick a start date and go, ending when you ended. The GDT, however, takes a bit more planning and preparation. The sections of trail that travel through the National Parks are popular day/weekend hiking areas, therefore are extremely difficult to obtain a campsite reservation. With little or no random camping permitted in the parks, it’s crucial to plan where you will be each night in order to get the permits months in advance of your trip. This year the reservation system was delayed because of the pandemic so I only had to get my reservations a couple months in advance, on a day that will live in infamy, 4/16, when all the backcountry reservations opened for the mountain parks at once and 30,000 people logged on to a site that struggled hard. Luckily I came away with most of the sites that I wanted or worked with my rough itinerary and my hike was finally officially booked.

Starting at the beginning of July is due to following my time off from work pretty well exactly (although this year that has changed and we are working in July…whoops). It’s also the ideal window for the GDT, however, I would probably go for August/September, which is prime hiking season in the Rockies. But July is also good, I will just have to contend with a few more bugs and a little more water in the rivers for the crossings. It also gets really hot in the summer, with days over 30C not unusual down in the valleys. Up higher it should be a bit cooler, and definitely overnight has the potential to be below 0C, so the trail in summer should have it all, maybe even some snow. Overall it should be fairly pleasant hiking weather, or not, we shall see. My plan is also to hike for the entire day and utilize those amazing long summer daylight hours. I’ve scheduled a decent pace to the trip but I know I need time throughout the day to stop and create some images. I will be hiking with 8lbs of camera/electronic gear which will be well used as the Canadian Rockies are a big inspiration for me. I’m also hoping to meet as many fellow GDT’ers out on trail and create some hiking portraits!

To see a full list of my gear: https://lighterpack.com/r/25kvx4

I will arrive a few days before my official start to get adjusted to the higher elevation and recover from my travel day, so I am well rested and ready to go for day one. My idea has been to be as prepared as possible as the plan will undoubtedly change and I will have to adapt. The biggest area of preparation I’ve taken is physical training. Once I started planning this hike 14 months ago to get myself through the pandemic and give me something to do (I like to plan), I wanted to prepare my body as much as possible. I was able to get out on a 2 week hike last summer here in Ontario that proved a good and fun challenge. I have continued this year by substituting about 2/3 of my usual running volume with hiking with my base weight in my pack, which means I was able to cover 750km of hiking so far. It’s good to note that I have yet to become tired of a 20km loop here in London that I’ve done 16 times now since January, in winter/spring/summer. I continue to see, hear, smell – just experience the trail differently each time. I think that’s what excites me about hiking the most, each day will be different. And not all good days either, the challenge is part of the fun. It’s all part of the experience. I have done days in the snow, in the rain, in the mud, in the sun, with the bugs, but all have been good experiences…except for maybe the bugs, that day was crazy. If you’ve ever been to Algonquin Provincial Park in June, you know.

What am I going to eat?

It would appear to be a lot of food. This part of the planning was a bit tricky having never completed a hike of this length before. Having done week long hikes is one thing when it comes to food, as you can easily pack too little and be fine (I believe this is true for how much I packed on previous week long trips). Prepping for the GDT it took a little more thought. One reason for this is because the trail has few town options along the way. It is fairly evenly broken up into roughly seven 1-week long sections, some shorter and some longer potentially based on individual hiking style and itinerary setup. The bigger town stops like Jasper will have everything you need to resupply on food, while other very small town stops like Field and Saskatchewan River Crossing will have very little options and will also be very expensive. I am choosing to prepare all my food in advance and mail myself resupply boxes to my stops along the way. (Big shout out to my amazing girlfriend who coincidentally was driving to BC and who took 2 of my boxes, one she is bringing me in Jasper, and the other she stopped to drop off in Calgary to a trail angel who is bringing it to me mid-hike. Also that same trail angel is picking me up from the airport and driving me to Waterton. This trail is crazy logistically, and there are some good people out there, very much appreciated!) This gives me total control on what I will have for my food. This is the ideal plan for me, as it will be one less thing to worry about while on trail, and will allow me to grab-and-go on a couple pickups instead of lingering in town. You can see below how I’ve portioned the food to gradually increase the calorie count as the hike progresses, starting at 3100 calories each day and finishing over 4500 per day.

Hopefully I will continue to enjoy the food I’ve prepared the entire way! I have chosen to make use of my dehydrator and make all of my dinners, 3 different options. Lunch will be peanut butter wraps and I will be snacking heavily on bars throughout each day. The best part about this level of food planning is you can really hit the deals and shop early for things, I started buying up my 450 bars early on massive discounts, which definitely helped in saving quite a bit. Making dinners is also a huge saver, just make sure you like what you are making and have some variety, luckily there are so many resources out there now on homemade backpacking meals. I would say I am taking the bare minimum on the variety side of things but I like everything I will be carrying. One good find that I will be taking advantage of are some candied walnuts, a suggestion from a fellow hiker in the GDT Facebook group, a super helpful resource and community of all things GDT. The walnuts pack some incredible energy at a low weight but most importantly taste amazing!

Why am I doing this?

I guess a couple reasons, the main one being because I can. I feel privileged to have been able to get out and explore the parks of this country for the past 5 years or so. This has led me to find hiking and realized its a perfect way to explore the many beautiful backcountry areas. It’s also an activity and sport that I really enjoy and has allowed me to meet some of the wonderful hiking community, and really helped and challenged me in many ways. This has been the biggest trip plan to date and I have spent many hours of preparation, physically, mentally, and mostly logistically because this trail is crazy to plan for, again, all part of the experience that is the GDT, and I’m finally ready to see what awaits. Mountains. Big Mountains. Bring it on.