Day 15 - The Chinese Wall

July 3rd

21.3 Miles

Indian Point

It was a good morning, I had no condensation on my tent for the first time on a while. Packing up a dry tent is always a pleasure. My food bag is really slim with only a day and a half left before I reach Benchmark Ranch and a food package for the next stretch to Lincoln, MT. I ate mashed potatoes for breakfast and it did a wonderful job of filling my stomach up to the brim. I must not have my hiker hunger yet because I can usually eat two packages of potatoes at a time midway  through the trail. The first part of the day was uphill to the Chinese Wall which is a fantastic geologic feature that is roughly 6 miles long. 

The wall is basically about a thousand or so feet high of uplifted land that juts into the sky and the CDT follows right alongside the bottom of it. The hiking was exposed and the trees relatively scarce from all the rockslide along the wall and we took lunch halfway through the it. I loved the massiveness and huge portions of rock that were exposed along the wall as well as the monstrous boulders at the base that were once part of the wall and have now settled after falling off. It was rough hiking for the first half of the day and doing miles like this are really wearing me down a bit so early in the trail but soon enough I'll be conditioned and all will be alright. My feet are hurting but the blisters are popped, callused and on the mend. 

The second half of the day was a wonderful change of pace, downhill into the valley and following a river. The shade, ample water, and gentle grade was sorely needed and the rest of the day went by quickly. We ended up at Indian Point Guard Station for the night with  Panama and Beth and all of us are excited to get our food boxes tomorrow because we are all running a bit thin on food this stretch. Benchmark Ranch tomorrow to pick up more food, hopefully there might be some 4th of July shenanigans going on there....tonight I dream of hotdogs and beer.

Day 14 - Burned Out

July 2nd

21 Miles

Rock Creek Guard Station 

Whelp, not to much sleep last night. Camping with Panama, Beth and the dogs last night proved helpful with regards to strength in numbers. Two times through the night, at midnight and around 2:30am we awoke to something stalking our camp. Nobody looked out to see what it was but it sounded big and bearish. It came close to Spins and my tents, as usual, and noise was made to scare it off. The dogs got in on the action and barked a bit as well and eventually we were able to catch a couple hours of sleep before waking up. The whole time all I could think about was how mediocre of a job I did at hanging my food and hoped the bear wouldn't get it.

That morning was a little rough and groggy getting up and my food was luckily still hanging. At the base of the tree I tied the bear rope off of the ground had been ripped up by something big. Lucky me. Got out of camp a little later than usual and took off to finish our hiking around the awesome North Wall. After heading over a gap in the mountains we came to a huge burn area, again. The hiking was pretty strenuous for the first half of the day mileage-wise and it took way longer than half of the day time-wise. Adding to that the exposure from the burn area and temperatures probably around a highly humid mid to high eighties made hiking absolutely exhausting. Staying hydrated and out of the sun was crucial...insert umbrella. That thing saved my ass once again and I'm so happy to have it. 

After a really shortened lunch around three in a quickly shrinking spot of shade, we crossed a river and had to ford which felt wonderful after being fried by the sun all morning and early afternoon. The water felt great and cooled off my head a bit. At that break, which Panama and Beth were hiding at under a small plot of shade we all realized there was a shelter symbol at the 21 mile mark for the day. The race was on to pound out the rest of the day to get there. We knew it was a guard station and would probably be locked up but also knew it probably has good camping and a privy (outhouse). The rest of the day surprisingly was under trees in forest. It felt great to have a relief from the sun. With roughly five to seven miles left in the day, Spins who had been struggling all morning got a sudden burst of energy and took off hauling ass to the shelter. I had a hard time keeping up for a bit but it was good to see her feeling better than this morning. After little sleep, the hot ass sun, and a bunch of blowdowns she was drained by midday. I felt it to and so did the others, doing around twenty miles a day consecutively for the past five days has taken its toll a bit especially because its still so early in the trail and nobody really has their trail legs yet. The guard station is nice (and locked up of course) but there is good water and good camping so Panama, Beth, the dogs, Spins, and I are calling it a night tenting close together in order to hopefully deter unwanted animal attention (fingers crossed!!). The heat from hiking through burn areas the past few days has really taken its toll, sunburned, dehydrated, and a little dizzy from all this weather which is pretty crazy considering a week ago I was up in elevation on snow field with it snowing on me freezing my butt off. The extremes so far on the CDT are truly extraordinary and it tests your patience on an hourly if not shorterI interval. That being said, this country is beautiful and the divide is really breathtaking in places. Tomorrow is the Chinese Wall first thing in the morning and it should be really impressive in the morning sun.

Day 13 - Blowdowns, Burn Areas, and Beargrass

July 1

19.3 Miles

Meadow Along the Lewis and Clark Range

Woke up around usual and got ready for a dry sock day which is exciting for me because the wet shoes and socks have been destroying my feet. I wrapped up the blistered areas and put on clean dry socks which felt amazing. I also shoved down some ibuprofen to help as well. After about five minutes of walking came a ford. Damnit.

I took off my shoes and socks and forded barefoot and the ice cold water numbed my feet making it not as bad. When I got to the other side I had dry socks and shoes, mission accomplished. All morning we hiked through an extensive burn area like the second half of yesterday which means you are exposed to the sun pretty much directly. Thank god for my umbrella, it kept me from burning and overheating. Along with all the burn area comes fragile dead trees which fall all over the trail called blowdowns. There were a bunch and it turns hiking into a jungle gym and becomes quickly tiring. Fortunately there was a bunch if beargrass in the area which made it semi-scenic (can see it in the picture below) instead of a dead burned wasteland. After about nine or so miles we took lunch at a makeshift campground right out of the end of the burn area.

I also got my feet wet multiple times which sucked but was able to dry everything out during lunch. After lunch it was a slow hot hike uphill and I felt pretty out of it. I was super dehydrated. It made climbing a bit of a pain in the ass and a good part of the day was uphill. Slowly but surely we came to a trail junction around five thirty and took a much needed rest because we were about to climb up around the north wall in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The climb was worth it because the alpine area up here along side of a towering rock face is quite an awesome site. We hustled through to save daylight and got a few miles along the wall to a campsite for the night. The bugs this stretch have been horrible and as I type this there are probably 150 black flies, mosquitoes, and regular flys in between  the  mesh and outer rain fly of my tent. Sleeping to a buzzing tonight!

Day 9 - Zero in East Glacier

June 27th 

0 Miles

Brownies hostel 

So today is a day off (or zero day as in zero miles hiked). After getting thrown some crazy weather and annual encounters a day off was sorely needed to recoup our minds and bodies.

On that note, out of the 8 days hiking only yesterday did my feet stay dry. Between the rain and the fords (river crossings) my feet have been overwhelmingly wet as compared to dry which has caused a few blisters and sores from my feet getting over wrinkly quickly and then staying like that for hours. But it does not matter now because I have freshly laundered clothes and a belly full of pizza. I have to get food for my resupply and then relax the rest of the day, I think I can handle that!

Day 11 - Officially Out of Glacier

June 29th

20.5 miles

Past Bruin Peaks Before Lost Horse Camp

I woke up and started to get packed as Simon, a thru hiker from Britain, was taking  off and he does pretty large milage days so that'll be the last I'll see of him most likely. Leaving the burn section, I headed into waist high condensation soaked vegetation. I immediately threw on my rain pants to keep the rest of me from getting soaked. This led directly to wet feet right off the bat this morning, I can't wait for the dry desertish great divide basin in Wyoming where it's not possible to get your feet wet. Of course when I'm there I'm sure I'll be reminiscing about all the water around me currently.

The morning went by relatively uneventfully and we were cruising to get to Badger Guard Station which Randy the caretaker over at Marias Pass Campground talked about as a nice place to rest. The trail converged into old warn jeep roads with mud pits to dodge and grizzly prints to follow in the mud. I've seen so much bear poop and tracks that its pretty normal now and doesn't erk me to much. We moved quickly and got 12 miles done by the time we arrived at the station which is nothing more than a remote log cabin, a well pump, and a few sheds. That being said, it had a great shaded porch for lunch where we ate our dinners instead and dried out or shoes if only for a little bit. 

The second half of the day was mostly jeep walking in a Jonathan Ley Map route instead of climbing up into the mountains on the official route. After reconnecting with the official route Spins and I heard a rustling in the trees to our right as we were making our routine "hey bear" calls and I drew out my mace and saw the butt of a grizzly scatter further into the trees and stop. So we slowly made out way past making plenty of noise and continued on. The jeep dirt road walking came to an end and we hung a left onto a grassy trail into the woods up a series of non strenuous switchbacks. After climbing the switchbacks we were a couple of miles from where we thought would be a good camp so we ate our lunch food for dinner because it was less of a hassle then cooking food and moseyed downwards. We ran into Panama, Beth, and the dogs, who we've been flip flopping back and forth while hiking, setting up camp as thunder was making noise in the distance. We didn't make it much further than them set up camp on a slant( and I mean a slant!!), I hung the food and we went to sleep for the night. Socks and shoes still wet as usual, feet nice and wrinkly and blistered as well. Blah. New day tomorrow.

Day 8 - Down and Out of Glacier

June 26th 

10 Miles

Brownies Hostel, East Glacier Park

The one fortunate thing about strong wind is its ability to dry things out really quickly. I awoke to a dry tent much to my surprise but still very windy conditions at Two Medicine Campground. My tent was fine all night in the wind thankfully and we took off with a ten mile stroll into East Glacier Park on the southeastern corner of Glacier National Park. I resupplied my food for the day at the campground store yesterday which consists of a can of Pringles and three packets of Grandmas Cookies(yay limited food selection!). I figured that'd last me ten miles worth of hiking. 

The hike in the morning was three miles up over 2000' to Scenic Point and then down seven miles out of the park to East Glacier. On the way up we saw two mangy mountain goats which was exciting and they ran down the hill gracefully away from us. The wind kicked our butts again as we went up though. More of the same wind trying to blow us off a cliff type scenario. It drizzled then rained then cleared up with a rainbow but the wind did not let up until we crossed over and descended into a rocky mountain lion-esc type environment which reminded me of part of the southern Californian desert on the PCT. Walking at the end of the park and seeing the sharp drop off of the mountains to the hills ahead of me was a awesome transitional geologic environment. From there we hooked onto jeep roads and followed them down into town where we popped out right next to the hostel where we stayed before we started our hike. I get my prescription sunglasses at the post office in town today(thanks mom!) and am so excited to see the world around me more sharply and polarized! Well time to stuff my face with food and beer. I will definitely be taking the day off tomorrow to take care of town chores and reflect on all the craziness of the past week. Up next on the CDT is the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Day 7 - Getting Blown Off Mountains

June 25th

15.1 Miles

Two Medicine Campground

The Atlantic Creek campground was full of hikers, a couple out for a few days, Panama Beth and the dogs, and Steve who has done the CDT before who lives about 40 minutes from where I grew up. It was quite reassuring to have so many people there after the bear thing, safety in numbers. It rained almost all night but I stayed dry and slept like a baby. We anticipated leaving early but with the rain we ended up leaving around 7:30ish because the rain stopped at 7ish letting us pack up dry. 

The start of the day was blustery with intermittent showers and I had a nice likely graded ridge walk for the first few miles. I went in and out of grassy meadows and up to morning star lake where others were camping. The rain started to pick up and so did the uphill. Some really small patchy snow fields appeared after a while which were easy to cross. Then snow took over everywhere in the trees as the wind began to howl faster and louder. Navigating on the snowfield was alright because we used the maps and also followed footprints.

Up at Pitamakan Lake at the base of Pitamakin Pass we saw snow chunks blowing around freely in the lake from the increasing winds. The wind made conditions really cold. The rain had stopped at this point as we made our way up the snow out of the trees towards the pass. After breaking free from the snow into dry trail is when it started to get really difficult. The wind really picked up and gusts were hitting us so strong that it literally pushed us back and over and close to the edge of some of the ridges. It got to such a strong point that Spins and I had to hold onto each other and walk with our feet wide to stabilize ourselves while climbing the switchbacks. The wind made it bitterly cold and I was getting frustrated. After walking through this strong craptastic wind I was really angry so much so that when we went to take a break a threw my ice axe ahead and slammed my pack off me. I hardly ever lose my cool especially when hiking; I'm more prone to laughing off miserableness but after all the stuff this week I hit my breaking point. I cooled off quick (thanks to the wind) and we hunkered down behind a boulder looking at the next ridiculous challenge uphill ahead, a seemingly steep snow field up towards the top of the pass. We both thought, how the hell are we going to walk across slippery snow with winds like these when we can't even keep our footing on land? We decided to figure it out when we got up there and thankfully when approaching the snow field we realized it wasn't very steep and footsteps were already made in it. Additionally the ice axe added extra stability when walking across so it looked worse than it was. 

Coming over the pass and heading down the ridge we ran into a few smaller snowfields and some steep bushwhacking down to the trail. I accidentally glissaded (sliding down snowfields on your feet or butt, in this instance my butt) down a small snow field and almost slid past the trail onto the edge of the hill which was momentarily frightening but funny as well. The snow broke as we lost elevation and we hustled down to Two Medicine Campground which is similar to Many Glacier in that is has a campstore with tasty microwaveable food and beer. We got in at 5 and it started to rain right as we were setting up. We get no breaks on this trail and it is really testing my patience haha. But after setting up we walked over to the campstore in the rain and I ate superhuman amounts of food until I could fit in no more (except another 14oz of huckleberry ice cream). We went to sleep with the wind howling still and intermittent rain yet again. The campsite was really rocky so instead of staking my tent in I had to weight the side down with big rocks, I hope it holds for the night.