When 12 Miles Isn't Enough

A few months ago I was contacted by an ad agency who had been hired to put together a film for Wyoming Tourism.

They wanted to tell the story of a group of women from all over the United States coming together to hike a section of the Continental Divide Trail in Wyoming's Sierra Madre Mountain Range. The producer had stumbled upon Hike Like A Woman, discovered that I live in Wyoming and reached out to see if I'd be interested in leading a group of women from our Ambassador team on a short backpacking trip along a section of the CDT.

Naturally, I said yes.

This post won't be a full recap of the trip, that will come next summer in a sponsored blog post in conjunction with the release of the film.

But what I do want to talk about a little bit about the trip while the memory of it is still fresh in my mind and share a podcast episode that was recorded on the trail and driving from the trail with you. I also want to mention our route and some gear we used along the way.

If you're looking for an easy, 12-mile stretch of the CDT to hike I highly recommend our route.

I also want to mention some of our recommended gear, food, logistics and our route because this is the kind of backpacking trip that is perfect for beginners or those from out of state who might not be acclimated but want to spend a few days on the CDT.

The Route

To plan this trip I used the third edition of Marc Smith's book, Hiking Wyoming's Medicine Bow National Forest and the CDT Wyoming app on my iPad. We also used a plain old topo map too. I enjoyed using Smith's book in conjunction with the app so I could look at the imagery from the trail while reading the trail description.

Our original trip was going to be 3 days/2 nights from the Pipeline Trailhead to Battle Pass, a 15-mile section through the Huston Peak Wilderness. That route got changed about 8 days before the trip and instead, we hiked about a 12-mile section of the trail from Battle Pass to Deep Jack Trailhead.

[caption id="attachment_4705" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Photo Courtesy Michelle Long[/caption]

While the sudden change in route caused a little bit of scrambling it actually turned out to be a great route to show the diversity of the trail as we climbed up out of a forest to the summit of Bridger Peak (at 11,004 feet) and then climbed back down through a beautiful forest of lodgepole pine's to the Deep Jack Trailhead.

This route offered epic vistas, lots of sunshine and shade in the forest and snow melt even in mid-July for drinking water. When our film is published you'll probably notice that we actually did a lot of shooting on a summit just on the other side of Bridger Peak where views are uninhibited by radio towers.

My biggest complaint about this route is that it often intersects an old road and there's just something about people zipping by on ATVs when you've earned every single mile on your boots. But, I turned this into a positive knowing that I was out with a group who weren't used to our altitude by knowing that if there were a medical emergency search and rescue could hop on an ATV and help us out in a jiffy.

We also had cell service near Bridger Peak...it was ironic because we were trying to unplug but still decided to hop on the interweb for a Facebook live video ;)

The Team

We had an interesting and fun mix of people in our group. Gretchen, Michelle, Elisa, and Stephanie joined me from our #TeamHLAW and my awesome friend Brittany joined the crew as our medic and co-guide. Britt's medical skills were invaluable along the way as she patched up members of the team and was super zen during times that were stressful. We love you, Britt!

We were accompanied by 2 videographers, a producer, a writer and another woman who came along to help the film crew with gear and equipment.

None of the girls on my team were used to interviews, camera's and it was a great learning opportunity for us. Once we got used to the crew we had a blast...our last shoot was especially memorable.

We had been hiking this same back-and-forth area for a bit when Gretchen pulled out a bunch of fake mustaches that she had stashed in a plastic banana that was hanging off of her pack (that's a story for another day). We quickly put mustaches above our lips and then when the crew told us to turn around and walk towards them hilarity ensued.

This picture simply doesn't do the situation justice. Never underestimate the value of a fake mustache.

The Gear

Coming together was really awesome because we all got to check out each other's...gear!

Michelle had a neat little 1-woman tent from Teton Sports and sweet cook set up from Sea to Summit.

Stephanie had all the good stuff...because she backpacks...I mean hikes into places without people and lots of fish...every single weekend with her husband and kiddo.

May something beautiful find you this weekend