Looking back on the Blaze the CDT Campaign:

In 2018, the CDT celebrated its 40th anniversary. Created in 1978, the CDT has evolved slowly into the Trail it is today – an amazing backcountry, primitive trail experience that runs along the backbone of the North American continent. For much of its history, the Trail traversed open roads and highways, and often the Trail was hard to follow. In its early days, the CDT was known as the “blue tin can” trail, named for the blue tin cans that volunteers used to mark its route in the early 60s and 70s. As the CDT has become more established, the Trail’s route has changed and today while 96% of it resides on public lands, and is hikeable, it was still poorly marked or marked incorrectly. We changed that this year by sending out 50 dedicated volunteers, or “Blazers” to mark hundreds of miles of the CDT, including trail intersections, junctions, road crossings, and confusing sections of the CDT.