15-07-31. Day 111 Real Trail, Real Nice – Mark Trail CDT
Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015
We were camped at 9,000 ft and had a great night with the full moon shining bright. We were hiking at 6:15 am. We hiked two miles to Goldstone Pass where we were suppose to get water but we stayed on the 9,300 to 9,800ft ridge with beautiful views to the east. We hiked an additional six miles to our first water of the day. That’s a twenty one mile section without water. We did great on three litters but if it was hotter, four would have been better. We dropped down to a low of 7,400 ft before we began to climb again. 
We had dinner at Hamby Creek and met Elena and Will from England, another couple that are true south-bounders.
We hiked another three miles to the edge of a thousand foot drop in elevation that we will save for tomorrow morning.
Past Hamby Creek. 24 miles
#cdt #continentaldividetrail #cdt2015 #marktrail #marktrailcdt #marktrailhikes #marktrailrocks #thruhike #thruhiking #backpacking #triplecrown #idaho #montana
Poppa Smurf, Flop, and Sam were ready to go so I grabbed my pack and jumped into Sam’s truck. It is a 15 mile ride on dirt road back to Bannock Pass. The time went fast as I finished off the popcorn and coffee. Nice combo.
Between Two Peaks. 20.5 Miles
Sam’s Mom and Dad, Perl and Fred, stopped by along with neighbors, Mark and Tater for an exciting evening of watching a State Trooper arrest a truck driver for DUI.
We stopped by the spring when Heart Breaker and Hiker Box walked through the woods looking for the spring. We talked about having Sam pick us up at the pass. We had fifteen miles to hike so we did the boogie.
Around 12:00 pm Johnny Z hiked by in shorts. It had stopped snowing and my tent was covered in three inches of snow. Flopped yelled “What do you want to do?” Humm Stay in my tent and sleeping bag sounded like a great idea…..” I’ll buy you dinner if we go” Oh boy…Food is a BIG motivator. It was ten miles to Banning Pass where Sam will drive up and take you to his Leadore Inn for a hot shower…. “LET’S GO”. As soon as we started packing up it started to rain. Then snow….I could feel the rain run down my back, into my pants, and soak my only once dry long underwear. Now we were living on the edge. I turned on my phone and luckily got reception and Sam answered. See you in three hours. Nice. We hiked as fast as we could and when we reached the pass, Sam was there thirty minutes early with the heater running….. 
Sam thank you So Much…..
We hiked on some amazing trail to Deadman Lake. We then chose the most direct route north….which was straight up…..Soon we were without trail. No worries, maybe a little stressful but just a typical day on the CDT
Little did we know……, well there was a lot of cow poop,…….. that we made camp in the cows favorite camping spot. Sometime during the night, there was a stampede of cows through camp. “Are you OK Trail?” Flop yelled out. “Yep, You?” We survived. 
We made coffee and started at our regular time of 6:15 am. We hike to the Sawmill trail head and promptly got misplaced. When ever the trail losses you, always hike straight uphill. You will always run into the trail. Well…..Maybe sometimes.
We packed up and at 8:00 am Mike had us rolling down the road, back to the exact spot where he picked us up.. How did he remember?
We took an “alternate purple route” down to Shineberger Creek and hiked to Little Beaver Creek to camp.
Flop and I drank Moose Drool and ate salad with brownies for desert. A wonderful Birthday indeed….
Smurf met Joe at Jan’s Cafe as we were having dinner. Joe had a Green Bay hat on and Smurf is from Green Bay and needed help. Joe was traveling around Montana and agreed to drive Smurf back to Lander WY to get his car and some medical advice. Well another change in the all together separate group.
We went into the lobby and nobody was there. We had the whole Old Faithful Lodge to ourselves. I asked Flop to take a picture of me in front of the front door. As I looked to my right, I could see Old Faithful spewing off.
As we decedent into Old Faithful Village I texted everyone as to where we were. Poppa Smurf replied he was at the Inn. What? They waited for us!!!! What great friends.
As I was packing up, I could not find my OR Foray Rain Pants… Oh Noo. A serious problem since they are my pants. My only pants. After looking in the bathroom and laundry room, Greg offered his size too big wind pants to my and I had to accept. It was cold and I needed pants.
We soaked and we’re back on the trail refreshed.
We were hiking at 6:00 am because it was a big day. I needed to get some help and the gang had 20 miles to hike. We also wanted to dip in the hot pools along the Heart Lake Geyser Basin.
As we hiked to Fox Creek Outpost, my intestinal problem returned. I am back on Imodium and hopefully I will be feeling better soon.
.We had dinner with the mosquitoes at the first of two lakes that made up the Green Lakes. There was a Campground on the map at the base of the second lake where we wanted to get showers but no luck. Only a pit toilet. We camped near the campground in the woods.
MarkTrail 