From May 3 to September 14, 2021, we hiked the Continental Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada. We hiked a continuous footpath following the official CDT route. There were four legal fire closures along the way, which we walked around on the Forest Service's/CDTC's officially suggested reroutes. Our GPS watches clocked the hike at 3,149 miles and 454,185 feet of total elevation gain. A common perception is that the CDT does not have an official route, but the CDTC marks and maintains the official route, and publishes an "Authoritative Centerline" of the trail. When we realized that nobody before us has documented an FKT along the official route, we decided to share our data.
We wrote daily summaries which are available on our blog. We also documented the hike on TikTok, Youtube, and Instagram. We saw remarkable scenery, met wonderful people, saw abundant wildlife, and tolerated a LOT of rain. Hiking the CDT was a challenging but amazing experience!