Our dear friends Dale and Lewis (Squarepants) got married in June and had the fine idea to thru-hike the Great Divide Trail for their honeymoon. What better way to solidify their love than to spend six weeks in a smelly tent together! They were kind enough to invite Shannon and me on the hike and thus, the Waterton Weiner Lovers were born.

The Great Divide Trail begins where the CDT ends at Waterton Lakes National Park and closely follows the Continental Divide to Kakwa Lake, 1,100 short kilometers north through the heart of the Canadian Rockies. It is not consistently marked or maintained along much of its length: often we would be following a well defined path only for it to completely disappear, leaving us to mutter expletives while meandering vaguely in the right direction and then suddenly, the trail would reappear as if it had never left. Sometimes, there was no trail at all. But the truth is that along the majority of the route, crews have taken great strides to repair this federally unsanctioned route into the high quality trail it deserves to be. The GDTA deserves your money if you avoid such endeavors and therefore are graced with financial stability.

Given that this was a honeymoon, we were in no rush. Morning coffee always took longer than expected, botany breaks were frequent and having fun was more important than putting down distance, which I struggled with. Alas, I think the Weiner Lovers were right to stop often and smell the roses, which was a whole lot more fun than busting our buns to get to the end.

The GDT may have been our thru-hiking grand finale. In October, Shannon heads to Spain for grad school and I’m moving to Idaho for a new year round job. Of all the trails to celebrate nearly a decade of thru-hiking with, this sure was a good one.

Trail Name: Couscous

Distance: 1,103.5 kilometers (685.7 miles)

Termini: U.S. Border to Kakwa Lake, Alberta

Elevation Change: 66,916 meters (219,540 feet)

Days Taken: 47

Zero Days (no distance traveled): 5

Average daily distance including zeros: 23.5 km/day

Average daily distance without zeros: 26.3 km/day

Greatest Distance: 44.3 kilometers

Steps Taken: ~1,206,800

Honeymoons Attended: 1