15-07-20.  Day 100. Blain and Sunshine – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

I woke early so I could boil water like the good old days in the 1980’s. It was a honor to make hot water for everyone. It really wasn’t a big deal back then. We were using gasoline and it was plentiful. Today we have canister or alcohol fuel and times are different. It is real nice hiking with Flop and Poppa Smurf. If they didn’t stay in Old Faithful Village, I would be hiking alone……I am truly blessed.

The trail and trail signs were great. We passed several campsites with bear boxes and picnic tables…Wow. Very nice trail work and bridges… Unfortunately it only lasted for a few miles and the trail slowly drifted into the CDT we know. Tall grass, blow-downs, no tread and soon we were off trail. We had to back track and  climb up, over, around, and through. Soon we were back on trail and started climbing up to The Continental Divide.

As we hiked. Blain rode up on Sunshine his beautiful horse, and while Sunshine and Poppa Smurf had a love fest, Blain proceeded to give us all kinds of tips hiking north. It helps hiking when the locals have so much information on the areas we are hiking through. Sunshine really made the day, such a loving horse.

We hiked to Rock Spring. The sign a few miles back was bigger than the spring. We needed water so we took the black plastic pipe that was laying on the ground near the spring and made it into a piped spring. Soon cool, clear water was running out of the spring.

We made dinner and hiked a few miles further and camped

Table Mountain Trail Junction 18 Miles

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