The Continental Divide Trail is growing in popularity and is hiked each year by a growing number of people from around the United States and around the world. As with its counterpart, the Pacific Crest Trail, the CDT has slowly become a more diverse and less exclusive space over the years as it’s become better documented and more well-known (on this note, be careful with your trail family).
As part of the Continental Divide Trail Hiker Survey, hikers are asked whether they experienced (or witnessed) ageist, sexist, racist, homophobic, or transphobic behavior during their thru-hikes – from either their fellow CDT hikers or from people in town and/or met along the trail (e.g. day hikers).
These accounts must be documented and shared to remind those within the thru-hiking community that just because they may not have experienced any of this, it still happens to others. Covering your ears and yelling, “I HIKE TO GET AWAY FROM THIS”, “EVERYONE ON THE TRAIL IS SUPER GOOD PEOPLE”, or “I’VE NEVER SEEN ANY OF THIS HAPPEN” doesn’t make it any less true.
As more hiker experiences are documented and the trail community becomes more aware of problematic areas and/or behavior, we can continue to build the long-distance hiking community into the incredible and welcoming place so many of us have had the privilege of experiencing in the past.
Lastly, I know that “discrimination on the Continental Divide Trail” is not the most accurate title since, semantically, discrimination is just a piece of the issue, but I thought the word discrimination did an adequate job of capturing the sentiment of this article opposed to something like “social issues and/or injustices perpetrated on and/or adjacent to the CDT”.
Constructive (this word is key) feedback on what would make this information more useful, insightful, or otherwise valuable to the thru-hiking community? Comment at the end of this post or get in touch.
The following breakdown shows the percentage of women, LGBTQIA+, and BIPOC hikers who experienced sexism, racism, or homophobia/transphobia on the Continental Divide Trail. Because the age ranges for people who reported experiencing some form of ageism on the trail varied wildly, the percentages given for this category reflect all hikers.
According to the data, people in town were generally more problematic than other hikers, but not by much. Here’s a look at the numbers.
Overall, 9.5% of hikers experienced ageism on the Continental Divide Trail. 5.9% experienced ageism from other hikers, 2.4% from people in town, and 1.2% from both their fellow hikers and people in town.
*As ageism was reported by hikers with a wide variety of ages, these percentages are for all hikers.
Homophobia/Transphobia
Overall, 23.5% of LGBTQIA+ hikers experienced homophobia or transphobia on the CDT. 5.9% experienced homophobia or transphobia from other hikers, 8.8% from people in town, and 8.8% from both their fellow hikers and people in town.
Overall, 50% of BIPOC hikers experienced racism on the CDT. 30% experienced racism from people in town and 20% from both their fellow hikers and people in town.
Overall, 43.2% of female hikers experienced sexism on the CDT. 11.8% experienced sexism from other hikers, 19.6% from people in town, and 11.8% from both their fellow hikers and people in town.
| On Trail | Off Trail | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ageism | 7.1% | 3.6% | 9.5% |
| Women | 23.6% | 31.4% | 43.2% |
| BIPOC | 20% | 50% | 50% |
| LGBTQIA+ | 14.7% | 17.6% | 23.5% |
When asked to recount examples of the sexism or otherwise inappropriate behavior witnessed on the Continental Divide Trail, here are some of the responses received. Note that each of the below bullets is an account from a single hiker on the CDT in 2022.
I received a few responses in this section from older hikers regarding the way they were treated by younger hikers. Next year, ageism will be included as part of the survey as well.
Women
BIPOC
LGBTQIA+
Support the Survey
I get a lot of people asking every year how to support the surveys and beyond sharing them with your close-knit bubble of weird hiker friends, the best way to support the survey is to contribute via Patreon. You’ll get access to exclusive posts, discount codes, live streams, and super extra cool stickers so that everyone will know how cool you are.
If you’re not into Patreon, that’s cool, you can instead Venmo @halfwayanywhere, Cash app $halfwayanywhere, or PayPal [email protected]
This is not expected. The data collected in the survey will always be free and accessible to everyone who wants/needs it. That said, your support is very much appreciated and helps to pay the website (and survey) bills.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, there comes a day when these accounts along the Continental Divide Trail are so negligible that they cannot even be meaningfully measured by the survey. For now, it’s good to recognize that the CDT is far from perfect and that the thru-hiking community
If you have any thoughts on how this data could be better summarized or used, please let me know.
For now, I hope what I was able to capture from last year’s class helps to shed some light on issues in the trail community.
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