What is the Great Divide Trail? It’s a 1,123km continuous footpath traversing the spine of the Canadian Rockies; weaving between British Columbia (my home province) and Alberta (Dawson’s home province). As I write this, we are camped just outside the small town of McBride, which will act as our final connection to the GDT’s northern terminus. Hiking this trail from north to south all though not the most common, is our only option in hopes of being far enough south before the snow season catches up to us. If all goes according to plan, we will be on trail for the next 54 days.

There has been several months of planning and preparation that have gone into the making of this thru-hike, yet it still feels like we are walking into the unknown. Taking on the GDT is much less daunting, due to the fact that I won’t be solo for the next three months, but at the same time it is still a much larger undertaking than the PCT had been.

The anticipation of getting on trail is slowly eating away at us and the itch to be out in the backcountry is making the wait even tougher.

Meet Dawson

It’s only right to introduce the other half of the ‘we’ that will be used every day throughout the next two months on trail. The benefit of having a partner whose interests include everything you love to do, is that you have a built in adventure buddy. Dawson, while of course being my favourite human, is also one of the few that I would follow into the backcountry with no questions asked. I knew that there was no better fit in a hiking parter than someone who is undoubtedly the most dialed adventurer and who’s puns can make light of even the most type 2 fun situations.

I had a clear idea of what I wanted to get out of my first thru-hike; this hike is a little different. A large portion of the way I want to adventure has changed over the past three years and my willingness to learn from the environment around me has increased exponentially. All that being said, I am here to learn from what the trail has to offer. There is no benefit to setting expectations for what I need to get out of my GDT thru-hike when there is so much unknown ahead. These questions will start being answered tomorrow…

THE GREAT DIVIDE TRAIL Episode 1: Home Between Homes