Day 18 - Up on the Divide

June 6th

17.7 Miles

8000' Up

After a wet pack up this morning from the light storm last night, I followed the river for the first few miles before the big uphill for the morning which puts us up on the actual continental divide which I am really excited about. The climb itself was three mile of up up up and the availability of water was scarce. The end of the climb was up on the rainshadow side of the divide so it was basically high desert. Super exposed terrain and views as far as the eye could see was breathtaking but hard work. The slope of trail on the CDT is reminiscent of the steep sections of the AT. The CDT is certainly not the gradual horse grade like the PCT but there are still horse tracks going up here. I'm amazed by this because of the loose steep gravel-ish trail seems like a sketchy place for a horse.

With water stretched few and far between up on the divide we had a solid section until our dinner spot for water which was a shallow lake nestled down in a valley. Spins and I were getting water collected and filtered when we heard something big near the opposite side d the lake. Damnit. Of course it got closer and louder and spins and I got out water and got the hell out of there without cooking dinner. I've had enough bear encounters already and I'll be dammed if I put myself in another situation. While hiking up I found a note from another hiker saying he ran into a mama grizz and her two cubs down here. Glad to know our intuition is still solid and we were both happy to move on. 

It was a steep as shit climb back up into the divide and we wanted to put a few miles between us and the lake before cooking. It was getting late though and being up high and exposed meant looking for safe camping is a bit more of a challenge. We had a decision, cook now and hike late, definitely into the night or not eat and stop soon in the area we were which had decent camping and places to hang food. We've tried to be smarter on this trail as opposed to our seemingly 'f' it it'll all work out' strategy of previous trails and called it a night, sharing a poptart for dinner. That sucked but town tomorrow, 17 miles away which was further than we'd hope for when starting from Benchmark but it is what it is. 

Camping tonight was cold and high around eight thousand feet. The spot was leveled and nice though. Tomorrow will be an actual early start so we can get into town earlyish in the afternoon.