Dipped the travel bug on a road trip to Colorado where I hope to drop it off. Here, New Mexico’s share of the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) passes through many desolate and deserted landscapes. Unlike imaginary boundaries such as state lines or city limits, the Continental Divide is an actual physical feature of the landscape. Viewed on a map it is a squiggly north-south line running the entire length of North America from the Bering Strait in Alaska to the Strait of Magellan in southern Chile. As a physical feature it marks the point where rivers or watersheds on the east side of the Divide eventually flow into the Atlantic Ocean, while those on the west side flow into the Pacific Ocean. If not for highway signs that indicate when the road is crossing the Continental Divide, there really is no way to know when you are on the Divide. Although it is generally following the line of mountain ranges, it doesn’t always go over the highest point on the landscape. A number of years ago an effort was begun to create a hiking trail from Canada to Mexico that would, as closely as possible, follow the line of the Continental Divide. The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDT) is now about three fourths complete and a good portion of its 3100-mile length passes through New Mexico. Although the idea of the CDT was to have it follow the line of the divide, this is not always possible. For example, in New Mexico portions of the divide are on private lands or Native American lands that the owners don’t want to sell or donate to the public.