Getting Started

Welcome to the Lewis' Continental Divide Trail Blogspot! We’ll keep updates here as we progress throughout our trek along the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), which extends from Canada to Mexico. We are starting in central Wyoming in early June and heading to the Canadian border in Glacier National Park, then coming back to southern Wyoming and heading to Mexico where we plan to arrive in late November. So who is going? Our whole family, Bobby, Natalie, Cody (15), Jessie (14), two burros – Wellstone and Pingora, and our dog – Deso.


May 4, 2006: This is our initial entry – and we’re in the midst of doing our final preparations for our big adventure – making sure everything on the gear list is packed, including lots of bug spray. We will be departing on Memorial Day and heading to Wyoming to continue a section of the trail that we hiked last September as a trial run with our gear. We’ve included some pictures to give you a flavor of what we will be experiencing for the next 6 months. We are expecting to have amazing scenery, to get lost now and then, to enjoy our burros who will be carrying our kitchen set-up and some mighty good trail food, and to grow in our love for each other and God’s universe.

"Reflections on the CDT" (Jessie):

It seems so impossibly big, so very, very long - 3100 miles in fact from beginning until end. Trudging along at 15- 20 miles a day for six long months the way we figure it. Yet we are hoping to conquer it - The Continental Divide Trail - the longest trail in North America.

My family has been planning this trip for five years. FIVE YEARS!!!!!! Not a day goes by when we don’t discuss it, or someone asks me, “Excited about your big trip?” The word big is the one that always stands out to me. I wish I could always say “Yes!” with enthusiasm, but the word comes out with some hesitance most of the time.

Border to border we are planning on walking from Canada to Mexico down the divide which separates the Atlantic and Pacific watersheds of this country. The trail winds through five different states and over the many big mountain ranges of the Rockies. We will start in late May and hopefully all seven of us finish up in late November.

My two parents Bobby & Natalie, my older sister Cody who is 14, our dog Deso, and two pack burros Wellstone and Ping, are setting out on this adventure. We all hope to finish, maybe with flying colors, and maybe no colors at all. But our goal is to one way or another keep walking south until we walk across the US Mexican border. We will I imagine have our good times and our bad, our easy and hard days, or maybe weeks, or months, but we will pull through. Certainly the trip will bind us together, as family and friends.

As I write I can feel that word “yes” growing, a little more enthusiastic with each sentence. Now it is a strong happy “YES!” Yes I am excited.

So that big long frightening trail is just as long and big, but now it looks like an adventure, something good to experience, not just something to conquer.

The history of the trail and our plan (Bobby):

The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDT), which we aspire to hike, was first approved by Congress in 1978. Since that time volunteers have worked diligently to mark the 3,100-mile route that begins along the Canadian border in Montana and works its way south atop the Divide through Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, finally concluding at the Mexican border. 90% of the trail is currently complete – the other 10% is cross-country navigation. The CDT is by far the most remote, scenic, and the longest of the three major American trail systems – the others being the Appalachian and the Pacific Crest. This summer the CDT will host its annual trail festival here in Buena Vista.

In the early 1990’s when our girls were pre school age I had the opportunity to help with construction of the trail while serving with Americorps. It was at that time that the seeds of a dream to walk the trail as a family were planted. Both Natalie’s and my work has begun in experiential education with the Outward Bound School and we have treasured the idea of sharing this walk and its accompanying lessons as a family. For the past 10 years we have been the Directors of the Adventure Unlimited Ranches and 100 Elk Outdoor Center just north of Buena Vista. Having received a 6 month leave of absence from our positions at the camps it is our great desire to devote this time to contributing to the education the girls have been receiving from school with an experiential education experience where they can learn mountain ecology, geology, ornithology, zoology, botany, biology, forestry, astronomy, meteorology, western history, current western issues, photography, creative writing, navigation, animal husbandry, some serious PE, and cooking in the field. Unquestionably it will be a time of personal and spiritual growth for each of us.

Our plan is to leave at the end of this school year and head up to Wyoming. There, we would begin packing with the four of us, our two pack burros Ping and Wellstone, and Deso the border collie towards the Canadian border 3 months and 1500 miles away. Our goal would be to reach Canada by the end of August and then drive back to the Colorado-Wyoming border and head south three months and 1600 miles to Mexico. This plan will break the trip into two more manageable chunks and more importantly allow us to miss the deep snows in Glacier National Park right off the bat.

A Sonnet (Cody)
Who would want to walk 3000 miles?
How would you accomplish such a great feat?
There's so many hardships, so many trials,
You can prove you are not easily beat.

You will need mental strength most of all,
Along with that you will need to be fit.
Having someone you can trust when you fall,
To catch you when you fall into a pit.

Fam'ly is what you need to get you by.
Your fam'ly is who cares for you the most.
When they are there it makes you want to fly.
When you get back you have the right to boast.

The thing you need the most is your fam'ly;
So that while you're gone you won't be lonely.