Day 12 - Strawberry Creek

June 30th

20.5 Miles

Junction of Stawberry Creek Trail 

This morning was a little on the chilly side but getting up and moving wasn't to difficult. The morning was spent coming down the rest of the ridge and then fording strawberry creek. We followed the river for the rest of the day on the strawberry creek trail. 

O e of the more eventful things we encountered this afternoon was the bushwhack shortcut mentioned of the Jonathan Ley maps. Instead over going all the way around the other side of Beaver Lake and then up an unnecessary ridge you could just stay on the other side of the lake and then bushwhack through the woods up some game trails back to the trail. If only it worked that easily haha. Panama and Beth popped out looking for the shortcut saying there were a few game trails and not much direction. I got out the GPS and figured a route. Spins and I stopped on the game trail to snack when I realized the game trail went far to left of the trail and out of the way so I decided to say screw it to the little pathway and to just head strait up through dense brush and some blowdowns. Spins wasn't to happy considering she doesn't like to bushwhack and was feeling low energy. After a few scratches and countless spiderwebs we made it back to trail and could hear Panama and Beth making bear noises up and to the left of the trail. They must have continued on the game trail up off and past the trail. I hollered a few times so they could orient where the trail was and they caught back up as we all entered the Bob Marshall Wilderness officially. 

Hiking in the afternoon was in an extensive burn area up and along the creek. When we got to the trail junction for the day it looked like the only potential spot to camp for miles. Another night camped in a burn area...looking for places to hang food was a bit of a pain and Panama and Beth got in and camped near us for the night which was nice as far as safety in numbers goes. We ran into a man hiking north who stopped and talked with us for a while. He had a funny video he took a few days prior of two mountaintop goats hoofing it on the trail towards him not even realizing that he was there. They had their heads down and were breathing hard focusing like we do when climbing up hills. He said hey there and they snapped out of there hiking trance right before almost running into him. It was a really funny video. He also talked of how he doesn't camp in burn areas any ore after a small burnt tree fell onto his shoulder as he slept. Nothing like keeping the fear alive, oh well though better risk than bears!

Day 10 - I Can See Clearly Now the Rain is Gone

June 28th

19ish Miles 

Burned Tree Area

Leaving East Glacier was an interesting experience as far as getting "on trail" was concerned. On trail meant go behind the East Glacier Lodge, cut onto the golf cart path in front of the first tee, hook a left onto a dirt road and make a right before a 'dilapidated' shed. This is the official CDT which is entertaining and the morning was spent hiking on dirt jeep roads with occasional mud pits in the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. When I reentered the park it became trail and after ten or so miles I was out of the park for good at Marias Pass where there was a campground and a wonderful camp host, Randy who gave us information on routes which were overgrown and general trail information for the next stretch. Spins and I both brought our ice axes due to information we got online a out snow in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Randy said a trail worker made it from Benchmark Ranch and there was little to no on trail snow, crap. 

Today was the first day i was able to use my new prescription sunglasses and I LOVE them. All this time and all the miles I've hiked in slightly fuzzyland when I could have had sharp vision is disappointing but I'm glad to be able to see clearly especially far distances. The mountains and clouds in the distance look so much more defined and sharp! My sunglasses may have surpassed my umbrella for favorite piece of gear now!

Had dinner at the pass where we caught up to Panama, Beth, the dogs and Simon, a solo hiker from Britain. We all ended up camping together in a burn area for the night. A solid day out of town and the start of a long stretch to Lincoln. 

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.