After a fifteen year hiatus, regular trail work has resumed along the original GDT route between Fording Pass and Tornado Pass.
Little or no work was done on the GDT during the 90s.
During the 1980s the GDT project saw major accomplishments as the Trail was extended south to Tornado Pass.
The Great Divide Trail finally sprang into being as a result of the federally-funded Opportunities for Youth programme, under which, in 1974, six students from across Canada joined forces to do the first formal survey of the GDT trail route.