15-07-09.    Day 89.    Brooks Lodge – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

We all met at the Cobbler at 6:15 am. My stomach was feeling better but just not right. I had two hard fried eggs and sausage. Humm.. 

We loaded up and Dan drove us back to Towotee Pass. Poppa Smurf, Why Wait, Flop, Moonwalker and me. Dan and Mary were headed back to Boston and Jellybean headed back to Phoenix for personal reasons.

Smurf found the unmarked trail and we hiked the three miles to Brooks Lake Lodge. They are on the trail and hold boxes for hikers but with a three night minimum and 200.00 a night we were priced out.

Jason retrieved our box with “four days food” which was packed full..The gang was going to wait for us at the feared Buffalo Creek crossing so we quickly split the food and loaded our packs.

 

The lodge is a trail head for packers which means horses. Lots of horses and lots of mud. It started raining right away. The trail was hard to hike in. Actually there was multiple trails. All were full of mud. We followed Brooks Lake Creek to Bear Cub Pass. We are now both packing bear pepper spray and very alert as to our surroundings. Maybe we will see a bear today.

When we arrived to South Buffalo Fork, Flop, Why Wait, and Poppa Smurf were waiting for us on the other side. The water was milky light brown. It was flowing fast and you couldn’t see how deep it was. “Work your way upstream near this spot”  Why Wait said. It was fast and it was deep. The boys almost went for a swim but made it out just it time.

We hiked a little farther with a great view. We all hung out food with Moonwalker being the bear rope master thrower. As we went to bed I wasn’t feeling to well with a sour stomach.

Past South Buffalo Fork. 16 Miles

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