Day 20 - Zero in Lincoln

July 8th

Between the endless amount of town chores we have to do and the loud and torrential thunderstorms this morning and looming dark clouds currently, we are not hiking out today. There wasn't much relaxing yesterday because of everything that needed to be done so we are relaxing a bit today and vegging out. Next stop is Helena in about 3 or 4 days so look forward to my posts then. Until that I'll be stuffing my face today. Apparently there are huckleberry chicken wings in this town...mmmmmmmm.

Day 19 - To Lincoln!!

June 7th

17 Miles

Three Bears Motel

Getting up and out early this morning was a success. We were hiking by six and being so high up we were in the clouds this morning. I love misty mornings especially on top of mountains and I got my fix. When the sun burned off some of the clouds it revealed a cloud covered range of mountains with peaks jutting out. The hiking today was strenuous but generally moving downhill towards Lewis and Clark Pass. With a couple miles to the pass I left hiking with Spins to gun it to the pass because it was the only spot that has water for the day and it was downhill a decent bit off trail. I figured the time I saved running down the mountain would even out Spins' consistent pace and it would save time and get us to town quicker. While at the pass I noticed the sign which stood recognizing Lewis' journey over this very pass back east on July 7th 207 years earlier. It was really cool to coincidentally be hiking over the pass on the same day. The next right miles were rough and Spins and I made it to Rogers Pass and got a hitch from a couple from Fort Collins, CO vacationing in Lincoln. Getting into town we decided to get a room at the Three Bears Motel owned my Kevin and Louanne who moved here from West Virginia a couple years back. They are so accommodating and nice to hikers and are overall wonderful people and its so comforting to have such great people when you reach town, it really shines a light on the whole town itself and makes the place that much more special. Also after nine days out I'm ready for a shower and some town food  mmm mmm.

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. 

Day 17 - Freshie Burn

June 5th

19.2 Miles

Camped along the river somewhere

Getting up at a campground and eating breakfast on a picnic table is a nice thing in the morning. The simple things in life makes things a tad better. I felt better overall after a short day yesterday, my feet are tons better and the blisters are mostly gone and callused. I can't wait for them to get all callused and stop hurting in a couple days (hopefully). We cruised through the first valley along the river which was a Lay shortcut and enjoyable as opposed to hiking up and back and around another valley which seemed illogical and out of the way. 

After that valley we reentered burn area but it was a tad different than previous burn areas. This area was a recent burn in the last year or two. The trees were still charred, ground still dirt ridden and overturned with no new undergrowth. It was a pretty neat looking area. In addition, trail crews have been hard at work repairing the trail area which was awesome. We ate lunch under the cover of our umbrellas due to the complete lack of shade anywhere. Then we started to climbing following the river up the valley to a pass. It was burned and exposed but quite scenic because you could see the mountains in full due to the lack of living trees. Ontop of the pass the clouds began to build which I didn't like. It look liked a storm was building. We continued down into the next valley along Welcome Creek and past welcome pass which had an impressive rock feature near it with wild flowers blanketing underneath. Dinner was eaten at a guard station and we hung around for a while watching the clouds darken and head towards us. We expected to wait out the storm there über the porch roof but the sky never opened up and it passed over. After a few miles the sky darkened again and we had the decision to hunker down or put in a few more mile to get over 20 for the day. Then it began drizzling, decision made! We hunkered down for the night and stayed dry.

Day 16 - Push to Benchmark

July 4th

12 Miles

Benchmark Campground

This morning went by rather quickly and it was a other day of hiking through burn area. Getting closer to Benchmark it got forested again and we ran into hordes of people heading north into the Bob for the July 4th weekend. Everyone had a dog. Literally. There was even a girl carrying this little rat-like dog in her hands which I found quite comical. Getting into Benchmark meant arriving at a trailhead parking lot and then a mile and a half exposed dirt road walk to the ranch in the heat. Luckily we got a ride on the road to the ranch, yay holiday traffic! 

At the ranch, Panama and Beth and the dogs were already diggin through there boxes and they decided to be done for the day. Beth's feet were pretty swollen and blistered so relaxation and rest are needed. We got our boxes and food together and lingered around while chatting with family associated with the ranch. They drove us back to the trailhead which also has a campground which we caved into and called it a day as well. All these 20 mile days have been tiresome so a low mile rest day felt great. We also realized that regardless of the miles done today after Benchmark we'd still get into Lincoln on Sunday and would hangs to wait till Monday to get our packages so we camped at a nice campground and *gasp* relaxed.

 

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.