15-08-04.  Day. 115.   Back to One – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking the Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

Another sleepless night. It’s not the Travelers Rest fault. I didn’t drink any coffee…. I think it’s just town. Lots of things to do..Lots… Eat, Download Maps into phone. Install Guthook’s App and download Maps. Back-flush water filter. Eat,  clean pots and pans. Repack food for five days. Eat. Load box for Anaconda and bounce extra stuff to Helena like the Bear Spray..  Charge all the batteries, Camera, speaker, and MP3 player. Make a replacement windscreen. Eat, write post cards. Delete email, respond to a few. Eat  I walked to the store for coffee and two donuts. Stopped by the ranger station museum.  Darby was a logging town until they cut all the trees. Now it’s the river for fishing and rafting.

I packed up and took two boxes to the PO. Extra food to Anaconda, bounced my tee shirt, towel, battery for solar charger, blue tooth speaker, bear spray, and a canister of fuel to Helena.  Hopefully it will lighten my pack since I have five days of food and seventeen miles of no water…..

The town of Darby is very friendly. It must be the water….Everyone was nice to me. I even got invited to stay another night at a home…..Nice.

The library was busy and the had a computer for me to catch up on the CDT Facebook page. My last stop was Bandit Brewery. Rachel was working, with her big smile and CDT hiker Derek was keeping everyone entertained and bought me a beer. Thanks Derek….The breakfast brown ale was my favorite…. Yummy…

I wrote a few cards and it was time to meet Renee and her husband Devon for my ride back to St. Josephs Pass. It rained on the way and cooled down the afternoon heat.    The hike to Gibbons Pass was nice with gentle rolling hills. The pack was heavy with lots of food and lots of water. At 8:00 pm it was time to cowboy camp….

Past Gibbons Pass.  7 miles

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15-08-03.   Day 114.   Flopster – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

The wind blew through the trees all night making a wonderful sound to sleep to. Flopped sounded the morning wake up call.  It was Flop’s last day, completing a section hike from Rawlins, WY to St. Joseph Pass, MT. 763 or 712 miles plus or minus from June 20th to August 3rd, 44 days. Wow. He will be home tomorrow night, with his wife, sitting in his hot tub, drinking a Moose Drool. He really hasn’t been present the last few days with his thoughts of going home. He can’t wait to get back home. I don’t blame him. It’s a long trail and I’m missing home to and not looking forward to hiking alone. I hiked alone in ’78 on the AT. Back then there wasn’t a lot of hikers. But as always the trail provides and only the future will tell.

We enjoyed our morning coffee. I had to sit and take it all in. We had plenty of time to hike the 10.5 miles to Chief Joseph pass and then Lost Trail Pass. We put our time in and pushed when we could to make it happen. We still had two climbs straight up and down to remind us that it isn’t over till it’s over. We soon were on a forest road a cruised to the Chief. Flop was thinking of a hamburger and onion rings for lunch. I was hoping we could find a ride that would stop in Sula to pick up my package and Darby to have a last meal together. Both of our dreams came true.

As we crossed highway 93 at Lost Trail Pass, Barb stopped and asked if we needed a ride. “Well yes, Sula to get a package, Darby to have lunch and drop me off, and Hamilton to drop off Flop..”. “Great, no problem, hop in I’m going that way”. Wow that was to easy… Sula is 13 miles away, Darby 31, and Hamilton 47. Flop was worried about the hitch and Barb put that all to rest. We picked up the box, and had a wonderful lunch. Barb even arranged a ride for me back to the trail with Renee our waitress at the Little Blue Joint.             She is truly a Trail Angel on steroids.     I was so happy for Flop and sad to see him go as they dropped me off at the Travelers Rest Cabins and RV Park. Soon they were gone and another chapter to begin on the CDT adventure.

Sally met me with a big smile and made me welcome. The bunk house would be great. “Most likely you will have it all to yourself” she said. I cleaned up and walked a block to the PO to pick up my food box. It had leftovers from Grants in Yellowstone.. It’s hard to think that far back. Smurf texted me to pick up his box. I showed the postal clerk the text from Smurf and she gave me the box. Nice, between the two boxes my food supply was done and a big donation to the hiker box. As I was leaving I asked about a place to eat. “The only place in town open after 4:00 is the Little Blue Joint”. I ate there for lunch. What I really could use is a home cooked meal. Rachael said, “Tacos OK?”. “Sure” I said, just inviting myself for dinner.

Rachael, Neff, her husband, Three old Owen, and I all sat at the dining room table and celebrated today with home made tacos.

Blessed truly Blessed

Darby, 10.5 miles

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15-08-02.    Day 113    Flies – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

  We hiked the last of the Beaver Head Mountains, Dropping all morning to the South Fork of Sheep Creek. Then over to the North Fork all the way down to 5,800 ft. As we ate lunch, flies landed all over us. I had my trash out and no flies were on the trash, they were all over Flop. Flop was covered….. and I was covered. I wonder if it was because we haven’t had a shower for five days now…. Hummm?          After all the descent, we paid for it dearly. All afternoon we climbed….. Steeply then descended ……  Steeply. They were old forest roads the where a thrill for ATVers to ride but gaspers for Flop and me.

We made it to Big Hole Pass where a ATVer told us there was a problem ahead….Oh no we thought….A PROBLEM…. “What problem?” Flop asked…. “The trail disappears” he said……. We hiked on thinking… Or Not Thinking what ever you pick……   We made it to the divide and hiked the rolling spine till we reached much needed water at Nez Perce Camp. Derek was there with a slew of hikers hiking three select hikes in the area. It was late so we really didn’t have enough time to share…. Bummer.

Above Nez Perce Spring, Camp.  22 miles

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15-08-01 Day 112 Hikers Bikers Lamas – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

We knew we had a big day ahead of us by looking at the maps. We started with a 1,000 ft  decent to 7,400 ft to cross Minor Creek. We climbed up to 9,200 ft passing Ross Island Lakes and Little Lake.

On the way up we met Periwinkle hiking south. I met him in Chama before the snow. Hi and bye. Next Kent hiking north with two lamas…. I was jealous when he told us of the trout he caught last night.  We met John and Rich hiking up from a trail head and gave us the key to their car for a few beers… YES Trail Magic!!!

We QUICKLY hiked down to 7,800 ft to cross Big Swamp Creek and drank two beers and lunch. Thanks John and Rich. We climbed back up to 8,400 ft passing Lena Lake and Slaga Melt Lakes where we met JoHan with his mountain bike. He had enough of the CDT and was looking for a road to get out. He was biking the Great Divide Trail and parts of the CDT….Lots of up and downs.  On the Divide. 20 Miles

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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

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15-07-30  Day 110  Emotional Roller Coaster – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

As we were drinking our coffee Smurf gave Flop and I an update as to his physical condition… “My left knee has an issue and the pain in my side is back”. The new Osprey Amos pack is not helping. “Well let’s take two vitamin I and see what’s up”…..I said.

It didn’t take very long to see we were not going to make it to Darby like this. Lemhi Pass was 6 miles away so I turned my phone on and amazingly I had coverage. I called Sam and the angel that he is agreed to pick up Smurf at 10:00 am. Smurf worked through the pain and hiked without one complaint. Tough dude. We were sad Smurf couldn’t continue and happy Sam could pick him up in the middle of nowhere. Again we were two.

We had a twenty mile section to hike without water so we filled up at Lemhi Pass. Smurf met a south-bounder that said there was water off trail in six miles. Four litters of water for six miles or one? Humm. I will carry one, then three. That’s better.

Jason

Shimmy

K2 and Ridgerunner

Jason                              Shimmy                     K2 and Ridgerunner

We bushwhacked to Patti Creek and loaded up with three liters of cow flavored water. We hiked back up the trail and found a great place to camp at 9,000 ft on the divide. I love camping high. We even had phone service but much to late to call anyone. I caught up on my blog and uploaded a few.

On the Divide before Goldstone.
24 miles

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15-07-29.  Day 109.  Cruising Again – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

I had a lot to do before Sam gave us a ride back to Bannock Pass. I packed my backpack last night but still had some last minute packing. I boxed up three packages to send. One to myself in Boulder, return the OR gloves that only one was in the box, and the solar charger is not working.

At 7:00 I walked into Sam’s kitchen and he had made fresh home-fries. We fried the bacon and eggs….and drank all his coffee. At 8:00 am I ran to the Post Office to see Sandy at the counter. She  helped me get the boxes packed just right and I was out the door in fifteen minutes

  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.

We hugged Sam goodbye. What a wonderful person. Wow…..The hike was amazing compared to Mondays hike. We hiked the Divide most of the day. Grizzly Hill and skirted Goat Mountain. We loaded up on water at an unnamed spring that will need to last us for ten miles to Lemhi Pass. At 8:00 pm we found a campsite and turned in.

       Between Two Peaks.  20.5 Miles

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15-07-28  Day 108.     Poppa Smurf Lives Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

Really didn’t sleep that well  with all the activities pending….. And coffee I drank. Around 3:00am I drifted off to sleep. At 5:00 am the biological clock said “GET UP”. But I needed to sleep in. At 7:00 I checked the main house, Sam’s home and coffee and breakfast was ready…. Wow….the magic continues.

We walked down to the PO at 8:00 am and picked up our food resupply for the next 120 miles to Darby Mt. I also bought some storage pouches from Gossamer Gear since the Osprey Atmos hip belt pockets are worthless. Also a mp3 player. The idea of using the phone for music hasn’t worked out since it drains the battery and the Suntastic S5 solar charger is broken. Lots of details that make the hike just a little stressful.

At 10:00 am Smurf drove up with his Big smile and a great big bear hug… So Nice. Moonwalker sent us a BOX full of my favorite yummy chocolate chip cookies.. Thanks Moongirl.. Since he had his car, we drove to Salmon, ID for lunch and for Flop to make his return travel plans back to California in a week. More change….

We stopped by the grocery and picked up some salad and a chicken for a celebration of Smurf’s 71st birthday…..Celebrate!    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.

Life in Leadore ID…….

Leadore ID. 0 Miles

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15-07-27. Day 107. Elk Mountain Snow – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

When Memphis hiked by as we were setting up our tents he mentioned rain and snow. The sky was heavily overcast and fog was blowing over the ridge as we hiked.

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.

As we climbed to 9,000 ft it began to rain. When we reached the top of Elk Mtn at 10,340 ft we were in a full blown snow storm. Flop asked me to lead but my glasses were frozen with snow. We found a saddle but couldn’t find the trail. I was wet and freezing and began to shake. We decided to set up out tents to block the wind before we couldn’t. By the time I got into my then and out of my wet cloths and into some dry clothes I was in full stage one hypothermia. I was uncontrollable shaking. I shoved some of Flops delicious gorp in the pie hole, chomped it up and promptly fell asleep.     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…..

Leadore Inn. 15 miles

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15-07-26.      Day 106.      The Herd – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

Flop posed like a bird since we are birdless. Our campsite was nestled in a group of pine trees with a thick mat of needles. Very soft and comforting. We sipped coffee while we packed up and headed up.

We  climbed up to 9,500 ft, then down and up over and over and over ranging between 8,200 ft and 9,700 ft. We passed Coyote Creek, then  Morrison Lake. There were four mountain bikers warning us of the steep climbed. They should have warned us of the wrong turn we made hiking a half mile straight up to a dead end…… Bummer. Back down and back on the trail.

We started meeting south-bounders. First Patrick and Jeanine from Switzerland, then Scallywag, Easily Distracted, Veggie, and The Darkness. I met The Darkness on the AT, PCT, and now the CDT…..small world. Then Andy, Leah, Action and Short Stack. Last but not least, Memphis. It was a lot of fun meeting everyone and we needed to get in 21 miles so we hiked late and camped at the Spring on the actual Continental Divide.

Spring.  21 Miles

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15-07-25.  Day 105. HoJo, Das Boots, Scout, and Bird dog – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

There has to be birds to wake me up. It’s the only way. It was 5:15 am and still no birds. Flop chirped “Good Morning Mark Trail” . I guess that’s going to have to suffice. No birds… Very strange.     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

We met HoJo early in the morning, Scout and Das Boots just after lunch, and Bird Dog after dinner. We spent lots of time telling stories and talking about the trail coming up. As always we were trying to get in 20 miles so off we went, parting ways till we meet again.

Flop and I found a great campsite around 7:00 pm. We walked to water, had a snack, and went to bed.

Near Meadow Creek,  22 Miles

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15-07-24. Day 104  Buffalo Spring – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

     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.

Back on the trail and climbing up 2,000 ft to 9,400 ft we took a break and relished in the moment of how blessed we were to be here. Flop has gone through two bouts of leukemia. He is doing great and I am having a tough time keeping up with him.

We had thirteen miles to Buffalo Spring and then no water for thirteen miles. We decided to have dinner for lunch and then load up on water at Buffalo Spring.

We met Sleepwalker and Whistle, the first true southbounders. YEA, There is a hiker other than a flipper. We gave them some tips on the next the few miles and the did the same.

We needed to get water so when we saw the sign for buffalo spring, we read the map and it said hike uphill and look for the pipe. Well it didn’t say a quarter mile uphill. And it didn’t say there was a new pipe attached to the old pipe that ran the water down to the saddle a quarter mile north of where we stopped. Do you kinda get the picture of a hour of running around to figure out all we had to do was hike the trail to the saddle to get water. Very frustrating. …..Did I say VERY?…

Below 8494 Peak    19 Miles

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15-07-23  Day 103  The Roller Coaster Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

It was back to Jan’s. I already ate a frozen dinner left over from yesterday’s grocery run. Flop had the #2 with ham… How can you resist?

 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?

Flop and I began our climb back into the mountains. We heard we were going to be going up and down but I had no idea if was going to be ALL DAY.  I mean straight up and straight down. Some one played a joke and we actually hiked around one peak… What were they thinking? I needed to climb another peak……or two…..or twenty.

And to top it off we needed it to storm. Yes ..No trees, Balds for as far as you can see, and lightning and thunder. Now that’s what I call real CDT adventure. The views and landscape were something I have never seen before. Flop said it was his favorite day hiking.

We met Poppi, and Axel hiking south and since it was raining and I was climbing straight up, gasping for air, we didn’t spend a lot of time talking. A real shame.     We took an “alternate purple route” down to Shineberger Creek and hiked to Little Beaver Creek to camp.

Little Beaver Creek.    20.5 miles

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15-07-22.     Day 102.    Birthday Day – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking the Continental Divide Trail

Mark Trail CDT 2015

Jan’s has a reputation for great breakfasts. We all got the #2, 2 with ham, 1 with sausage. It was a special time, first it’s my birthday and second Smurf was leaving for Lander, Wyoming at 8:30 AM. Joe decided to drive Smurf six hours south to get his car and medical attention. I think it was to get away from Flop and me.

Joe drove up on time and off they went, Hugs and Waves.  Now it was Flop and me, the North-bounders.

We went to the Post Office for our food boxes filled with five days of food. The schedule is tight with 100 miles in five days….. We will see.

Mike was driving to Dillon to get some supplies so we asked to tag along. First stop Sharkey’s for a Birthday lunch. Flop found his fried onion rings and I had a steak sandwich. Thanks Flop for treating me like a king. It was perfect. Mike dropped us off downtown to walk around while he ran some errands. We stopped by the grocery store to get some salad and fruit to carry out of town.     Flop and I drank Moose Drool and ate salad with brownies for desert. A wonderful Birthday indeed….

Lima, MT.  0 Miles

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15-07-21.    Day 101.  Smurf – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking the Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

We knew there would not be any water till we were able to reach I-15 where we were going to go to the Mountain View Motel in Lima Montana. Mike and Connie are very nice to CDT hikers and GDT bikers. Both trails cross near Lima. We were hiking along the actual Continental Divide which is rare. We criss-cross it multiple times but not along it very often.

We met Beads, Machine Gun, Hand Stand, and Kramers hiking out of town, hiking south. They spoke very highly of Mike and Connie.  I met Beads in Ashland, while hiking the PCT in 2012. It is a small world and was nice seeing her and the happy group of hikers. They gave us lots of tips. We shared smiles and hiked on…. See you down the trail of life.

We were dropping in elevation and I was watching Poppa Smurf dropping his left shoulder.  “What’s up Snurf? My side is really painful” was his reply…. “Can I help? No thank you” . The standard responce….as expected…

The ultra light packs have hip belts incorporated into the packs. They pinch and for me…uncomfortable. For a weekend, Maybe ok… You hurt all over anyway, but for a long distance hike….I question. The full separate hip belts are my choice. Another lesson learned.

We were carrying over two liters of water so we were heavy. The weight of the water and belt configuration dug into Smurfs side irritating something on his side.. Maybe a hernia. The pain grew and was painful to watch. We traded packs to see if my hip belt might fit better. The Osprey Atmos also has a pinch belt and hurts. Flops ULA Catalyst has hip belt is separate from the pack and removable. That will be my next pack in the never ending quest for the best gear.

We reached the service road and called Mike to come and get us. The rain clouds caught up to us, gave us a washing as we danced to the sounds of the Rolling Stones on the short two mile road walk. Mike pulled up and we were off to a much needed break.

   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.

Back at the room Smurf packed up and we were sad and happy at the same time…

Lima, Mt. 15 miles

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