Continental Divide finishers

[Raymond]

A father and daughter from Oregon have apparently become the first to hike the official Continental Divide Trail. Calling themselves Balls and Sunshine, the story began when Balls finished section-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2010. His older daughter, who I guess was 10 years old at the time, asked him when he was going to take her to hike it. So they did the entire trail together in 2011, then the Appalachian Trail last year, and this year the Continental Divide Trail. Balls believes that Sunshine, now 13, is the youngest Triple-Crowner, too.

I read about them in the Pacific Crest Trail magazine originally, and have followed their online postings the last two summers.

They had a pretty exciting encounter the last day, too, having a grizzly bear run past them, which you can read about here:

http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=433281

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Hmm ... I think others have done it before this father and daughter. A friend of mine finished it in 2011. He started in 2010 from the south but due to heavy snows that year, stopped somewhere in Colorado. The following year he started from the north, and completed it.

Prior to that, he'd done the AT and then the PCT. Of the 3, he preferred the PCT.

 

[Raymond]

Eric Ryback and his brother hiked it ages ago, I think they were the very first, but this fellow Balls says, ‘‘Traditionally hikers have hiked many different alternate routes under the ‘it’s a corridor not a trail concept.’ These alternate routes with the CDT together add up to between 2,600 and 2,800 miles depending on their choices of alternates. The official CDT is now completely mapped (not completely built) and spans from Mexico to Canada for almost 3,100 miles.’’

Earlier in the summer he mentioned that there was a shortcut that most of the hikers were taking that was saving them something like 70 miles, so maybe between things like that and the trail not entirely having been established for a long time, he thinks they’re the first. I don’t know, I’ve never been there.

Still, they were pretty impressive. When they did the AT, they started rather late, but were among the earliest finishers last year.

 

[Billy]

Looks like Tom Hanks when he had the beard in "Castaway".

 

[Jay H]

i ran into a few CDT hikers on my Great Divide MTB ride, in Wyoming's Great Basin, including one guy who prefered to call it the Continental Divide Route since he called it more of a route than an actual trail..

Jay

 

[Kevin Rooney]

With a first name of "Balls" maybe his last name is "Hubris"?

 

[Guthook]

With a first name of "Balls" maybe his last name is "Hubris"?

I met Balls on the PCT in 2010, the year before he hiked it with Sunshine. His trail name comes from a drill sergeant during his time in the military that started calling him that because his last name sounds a lot like cajones.

But then again, if he feels the need to say he and Sunshine have the first official hike of the CDT, I won't argue with the last name you put forth

 

[Tom_Murphy]

I followed some of their AT hike on Trail Journals and I am not surprised that he is framing ther hike in this manner. He is a piece of work.

Sad, cause their accompliments are impressive.

 

[Guthook]

Balls contacted me to clarify that the "First" that he mentioned was specifically the Official CDT Route without alternatives:

Many have thru-hiked the CDT long before us. I'm only saying that as far as we know, no one else as of today has thru-hiked the entire Official CDT route (using no alternates) after it was established by the USFS/BLM.

I hadn't read through the linked Trailjournals.com entry because I just don't like reading trailjournals.com, and my previous comment in response to Kevin's was in jest (the second half, not the reason for his trail name).

Regardless of how I or anyone else sees the claim of being the first to hike the route, the more impressive accomplishment shouldn't be overlooked: Sunshine is the youngest person to hike the CDT, and to complete the Triple Crown (PCT at 11, AT at 12, and CDT at 13). Which is definitely pretty impressive.