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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15-07-19. Day 99. Dry Shoes and Socks – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

It was my first time getting up by myself in the Hexamid tent. I estimated it would take 45 minutes to pack up and at 6:15 am we were ready and started down the trail.

We started climbing and by 11:00 am we were as high as we could go. The fog took two hours at lift and then we could see the amazing mountains. We soon began to desend and ran into Treebu, Track Meet, Carrot Quinn, and Spark.

We squeezed two liters of water at West Dry Spring and hiked another 45 minutes at 7:45 pm. It was the first day in weeks that I didn’t ford some stream, just to have my sneekers dry out to have to ford another.  There are foot bridges in Idaho… Yea!!!  We looked for a campsite..we found a great site and went fishing…….No we did not go fishing. We ate and went to bed.

Past West Dry Creek  21 Miles

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15-07-18  Day 98 Contour Lines – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

We awoke at our normal hour and packed up and met at the Office to drop off our keys. Thanks Macks Inn for a great stay.

We left at 6:15 am  and hiked the two miles to the Sawtelle Town area. Connie’s didn’t open till 8:00 am so we had a cup of coffee at the general store. I was feeling great for the first time since Duboise. I bought a half gallon of Moose Tracks ice cream. Bad decision….. Even though I ate two lactace pills everything started rumbling. We said goodbye to Why Wait and Moonwalker and started our climb out of Mack’s Inn.

As we hiked up towards Sawtelle Peak, ATVs  sped by, blowing up dust. I flagged down cars and ATV’s and asked then to slow down so we could breath.  Everyone, decided to help us out and slowed down. We left the road after climbing 3,000 ft . From 6,200 ft to 9000 ft. Wow. Just after crossing into Montana, we began bushwhacking and came upon a monument, noting that we where at the most remote source for the headwaters of the Missouri River. We took some pics and hiked on. Soon we got into trouble crossing a steep slope. You could see the tight couture lines on the map that you always want to avoid. We all slid down the loose scree at one time or another. With a stream flowing below us down a ever steepening gorge with steep cliffs above, we were not in a good situation. Very dangerous and luckily no one got hurt. We crossed a creek and climbed straight up to the official CDT, filled our water bottles, and found a campsite. We were worn out…..

Blair Lake CDT Intersection. 18 miles

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15-07-17.     Day 97.      Macks Inn – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking the Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

Every one was eager to start hiking but we had to have our morning coffee. It was Why Wait and Moonwalker’s last morning on the trail. We all enjoyed our time together knowing change was coming.

As we hiked closer to Macks Inn, we started to pass homes and camps.. ATVs are the transportation of choice around here. I have no idea why…but it is big, really big. The locals would slow down as they passes by us since we were hiking a dirt road to avoid the dust.

Soon we were at the PO and I picked up my food box for the next section to Lima, MT.

We arrived at the Inn and walked across the bridge to have a Mexican lunch. We went back to the inn and cleaned up for our second feeding of pizza. It was a great section we had  just finished and I was happy and sad at the same time. We celebrated our last night together and made plans to hike together two miles north for breakfast and then split…

Macks Inn.  12 Miles.

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