Rep. Joe Neguse pushes for completion of Continental Divide Trail

The Continental Divide Trail stretches more than 3,100 miles from Canada to Mexico, but 44 years after Congress authorized its creation, it still has 160 miles of gaps. Rep. Joe Neguse has been trying to fill them through congressional action, and he visited one of them this week, a potentially dangerous stretch at Muddy Pass in northern Colorado near Rabbit Ears Pass.

On that 15-mile section, CDT hikers must walk along U.S. 40 and Colorado Highway 14. Neguse went there Wednesday to dramatize the need for completing the trail.

“To see that portion of the road — some of the busiest highways in northwest Colorado that 10, 20, 50, 70 hikers are traversing as they attempt to walk the full extent of the Continental Divide Trail — from a safety perspective this is really important,” Neguse said in an interview following his visit.

The Muddy Pass gap is the only one on the CDT in Colorado. There are four in Montana, one in Wyoming and six in New Mexico.

Teresa Martinez, executive director of the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, said she has ridden the Muddy Pass gap on a mountain bike and it “terrified” her. The roadside section connects sections of the trail that are on public lands.

“The road is a two-lane highway on Highway 14, and then you come onto a three-lane highway, Highway 40,” Martinez said. “In both cases, people tend to (drive) very fast. The traffic isn’t just passenger vehicles. A lot of times it’s larger trucks and equipment vehicles, also going very fast. There are curves and there is no infrastructure, shoulder, whatever, for people to be on. It’s just a recipe for disaster.”