September 20, 2024 |
Photo – Continental Divide Trail Coalition logo – Courtesy CDT Coalition webpage
For the eighth consecutive year, the City of Rawlins has proclaimed itself a Continental Divide Trail Gateway Community.
The Continental Divide Trail is a 3,028-mile-long walking path that runs through the center of the United States. Along with the Appalachian Trail in the east and the Pacific Crest Trail in the west, the Continental Divide Trail, or CDT as it is often called, is considered part of the Triple Crown of Hiking.
Rawlins is located roughly in the center of the Continental Divide Trail, halfway between Mexico and Canada. Every year since 2016, the city council has declared Rawlins a CDT Gateway Community.
At the September 17th Rawlins city council meeting, Mayor Terry Weickum proclaimed Rawlins as a Gateway Community once again. Mayor Weickum said the city pioneered the use of painted markers to direct hikers and other visitors along the trail.
The city’s status as a Gateway Community is recognized by the Continental Divide Trail Coalition. Founded in 2012, the CDTC is the official non-profit organization working with state, federal, and private landowners to promote and protect the trail. Coalition Community and Outreach Program Manager Liz Schmit told Bigfoot99 that her organization is specifically tasked with overseeing and caring for the Continental Divide Trail.
While the Continental Divide Trail Coalition receives federal money from the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, Schmit said her organization is primarily funded through private donations. Schmit said the Coalition relies on volunteers to physically maintain the trails.
The Continental Divide Trail Coalition recognizes four Gateway Communities in Wyoming, including Lander, Pinedale, Encampment and Riverside, and Rawlins.
Schmit said a designated Gateway Community must be friendly to hikers and dedicated to protecting its section of the trail. The Coalition program manager said Gateway Community status encourages trail users to stop and spend money in town.
As a Gateway Community, a municipality must hold at least one CDT related event each year, such as a trail clean-up day or a community hike. In exchange, participating towns receive free marketing materials from the Coalition.
Rawlins joined the Continental Divide Trail Coalition Gateway Community program two years after the organization’s creation. Schmit said the city was not only the first in Wyoming to join the program, but also one of the first in the entire country.
According to the Continental Divide Trail Coalition website, approximately 150 to 400 people attempt to complete the trail in one go, or through-hike, every year. That number does not include the hundreds of others who split the trail into sections. Schmit told Bigfoot99 that her organization has given out over 600 trail tags to CDT hikers, many of whom do not walk the entire trail at one time.
