15-07-13.  Day 93.   Grants Village – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

 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.

We followed the contour of Heart Lake for miles. The trail then veered north we looked for where the boiling hot springs mixed with the cool river water. We couldn’t find the magic spot so we hiked on. After many hours, we came to the road and we said our goodbyes and hitched to Grants Village. After a short wait, we got a great ride. I asked at the store as to where the post office is and got a Gatorade and some bland crackers, and some bananas.I ate two pieces of bread hiking to the road and everything seemed to be getting better. I ate a banana and some pretzel. Maybe I am getting better and Don ‘t need to see a DR. We packed up two boxes of foods to forward, one to Lima and the other to Leador.

We stopped in the store one last time and picked up a sandwich and salad for Moonwalker . I bought a Gatorade and a pack of turkey meat. We hiked back to main highway and the hitched along the way. Greg, Tamara, and Jose made room for us in the van and as we got close the the trail head, asked if we wanted a shower and dinner……Hard choices. A Hot Shower, Pork Chops, Corn, Rice and Salad. Moonwalker had to eat my S’more which topped off a amazing day.  Nice Trail Magic.

Flagg Ranch Campground.  12 miles

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15-07-12.      Day 92.    Yellowstone – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

Another early start. I was feeling better but only oatmeal for breakfast. We started at 6:15 because we didn’t want to have to wait for the Backcountry office to open. Well we were going to an outpost and the Ranger was more interested in getting set up to clear the Shake River Trail. Too bad we were a day early.

Yea! We are in Yellowstone National Park. We followed the trail crew for a few miles and then followed the Snake River most of the day, then switched to the Heart River. The campsite 8J4, was off near the river with bear logs 20 ft high. Humm… Big Bears.

I was again sick all afternoon so I didn’t eat any dinner. I am very hungry and sick….

Poppa Smurf Relaxing in his Zpacks Heximid

SE Heart Lake.  17.5 Miles

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15-07-11.   Day 91.     Two Ocean Pass – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail                                                                      Mark Trail CDT 2015

Since we were starting at 6:00 am, We got up at 4:30 to allow for enough time to have Oatmeal and Coffee.

We started climbing right away along Trail Creek Trail. Where do they find these names? We then came upon Two Ocean Pass. Two ocean Creek splits. One way goes to the Atlantic, the other goes to the Pacific… Very Informative.

We continued to climb from 8,200 ft to 10,047 ft to the top of an unnamed peak. I’ll call it Two Ocean Peak since we are hiking the Two Ocean Plateau.  We met Banjo and Stabby, CDT hikers hiking south from Helena MT. I met them in Chama when we were trying to figure out what to do with all the snow. We will be seeing more south-bounders as we hike north.

As we hiked to Fox Creek Outpost, my intestinal problem returned. I am back on Imodium and hopefully I will be feeling better soon.

Near The Snake River 14.5 Miles

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15-07-10. Day 90 Mud, Rain and Packers – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

The sky was filled with Red and Pink wisps. Humm. Red sky in the morning, sailor takes warning. …….

We camped in an open overlook. The view was spectacular, the tent was wet. We packed up and hiked to Nowlin Meadow Patrol Cabin. The snacking and second breakfast was in full swing when I arrived . The sky was darkening and the wind was building. Soon it was raining. Raining hard. I had my Go Lite umbrella up and had to tilt it to the west to keep it from turning inside out. Since it was raining so hard, we found a spot under a group of pine trees to shed the rain while we ate lunch.

When we arrived to ford the North Buffalo Fork, the rain had filled the creek. Flop and I forded it. Moonwalker found a log to cross and led the way for Pops and Wait. We soon came to the ” Horse Super Highway” . It was a sea of mud. No matter which channel you hiked you were in mud. The trail was a main  thorofare from Cody to Jackson. Packers hauled all kinds of paying riders and all kinds of comfort crap to earn their fees.

As we turned the corner of North Fork Meadow, a mirage of a packers tent with a hot warm fire appeared. “Want some soup and coffee?”.    Poppa and I responded…”Oh yes, Thank you”…I love packers and horses….

Ron Lineberger of Butt Creek Outfitters, Cody Wy made the best chicken vegetable soup. Thank you Ron and company.

Soon it was time to go. As we were hiking away we were all cold and wet. We made a wise decision to stop, set up tents, and get out of the rain. An few hours later, the sun returned and we laid everything out to dry. Crazy day…..

North Fork Meadow. 13 Miles

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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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15-07-07.     Day 87.    Town Day – Mark Trail CDT

The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

Town is a real motivator. We were up at 4:00 am and hiking at 5:15 am. The rain was still clinging and freezing cold. We found an old Forest Service road that had knee high grass covering it. Out feet were freezing and wet.

We hiked down to the South Fork of the Fish River. Then turned North East and climbed back to the Divide before reaching Hwy 26/287.

We were not having any luck finding a ride. I think it was my beard and glasses. After 45 minutes and just before we were going to quit, Ollie stopped and picked us up. We called the Stagecoach Motel and booked a room. I needed rest. We did our town stuff and went out to dinner at the cobbler. I had a ruben sandwich that was delicious. We went back to the room and the gang of six were going out. Dan and Mary, Poppa Smurf, Flop, Why Wait, and Jellybean. By the time I finished my salad my stomach was in a knot. By the time I made it to the restroom, I was in trouble. I want back to our room and took an Imodium. Every fifteen minutes till 2:00 am. Oh boy…

Duboise  12.5 Miles

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15-07-06 Day 86 Shortcut???  – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking the Continental Divide Trail

Mark Trail CDT 2015

As I was visiting the outdoor potty I could hear Moonwalker talking.. Jellybean came walking up. We haven’t seen any CDT hikers since South Pass.. Wow..

We finished packing up and caught up to Poppa Smurf, Why Wait, Flop, and JellyBean. They were all section hiking that started on June 20th the same day we had. They were friends that met on various previous hikes. I collected their emails and hiked on.

We would stop, they would pass. They would stop, We would pass.

We found a beautiful spring gushing cold, clear, delicious water… Do we filter… No…  Hummm…..

After we ate lunch, we looked on the map and there were two ways to go. One way had a cross country shortcut… What do you think? The group went one way, we took the “Short Cut”.. After a half mile I was thinking…. What was I thinking?… It was a hard traverse but we made it. It looked like we were the only hikers that took the route for years… The trail was overgrown easily lost. To make it more interesting the black clouds started to roll in. We filtered some water even though there were beaver dams along the creek. Not my idea of the best source but we needed water…

We crossed the creek and found a spot to eat. The wind picked up as the storm approached. We rushed to set up the tent just in time to escape the downpour…. YES!!

Above Squaw Creek.   18 miles

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15-06-29.    Day 79.     Big Sandy Lodge – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

The food was still hanging in the tree since Moonwalker’s great hanging abilities. We started hiking the earliest yet at 6:15. I wonder if it was because we were planning to hike to Big Sandy Lodge.

The trail was up, down, and across. The trail was overgrown and sometimes hard to find. We were following the official CDT because it was a direct route closer to our destination. We have Jonathan Lay’s paper maps and Bear Creek way-points on our GPS. The route we are hiking is not on Lay’s maps so we are following the trail totally by GPS. It worked but was challenging and uncomfortable not having paper maps.

For the second day the mosquitoes have been relentless. Hopefully the season is short and we will survive.

The lightning cracked as we completed the thirteen mile hike to the lodge. Wes and  Natasha greeted us with welcoming smiles and showed us our cabin and where the bath house was. There is no phone, internet, or electricity but the shower was perfect. We did laundry

Big Sandy Lodge.  13 Miles

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15-06-28.    Day 78.     Wind River Range – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

As we slept, there was a little thunder and the wind blew but no rain and no dew. The goal was to get a earlier start so the alarm woke us at 5:00 am and at 6:29 we were off to a great start.

As we hiked we were wondering what was the big deal about the Wind River Range. When we passed the Sweet river campground we saw Mt. Nystron which at 12,366 ft was a big deal. The mountains were majestic and best of all, little snow!!!

All along the trail we could see the work of trail maintainers and soon heard the sound of chain saws. Val, Cody, and Tammy were from the Pinedale and Lander chapters of the Backcountry Horseman. There were a lot of trees across the trail that they had sawed up.. Cody gave us his bear spray since ours was coming at Brooks Lake Lodge. Thanks so much.

Later we crossed paths with Straight Arrow and Iron Stomach, locals out on a fishing hike. They showed us their fish and gave us some cherries…Yea trail magic!

When we got to the top of Dutch Joe Larson Creek Trail, 10,120 ft. We realized the CDT turned left and off the maps we had. We hiked down past Little Sandy Lake and had dinner on an rock overlooking two unnamed high mountain lakes.

After dinner we followed Bear Creek way-points to Little Sandy Creek which wasn’t so little. We looked at the map and the trail shifted uphill before the crossing. We looked for the trail and decided to aim for a way point since we couldn’t find trail. After bushwhacking for a quarter of a mile we were back on the CDT.

We found a Campsite and after a heated discussion about hanging our food, Moonwalker demonstrated why she is considered the rock throwing, food hanging Queen from her days on the AT.. Up the food and smelly stuff went since we were sleeping in Grizzly country. Night Night

Past Little Sandy Lake 14 Miles

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15-06-27.    Day 77.    Trees – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

There is nothing like sleeping by a babbling brook. Although we got up at 6:00 am it took us a while to eat and pack up due to the heavy dew. An easy price to pay to sleep in downtown South Pass City.

As we hike down main street we imagined a bustling town a hundred years ago. With gold flowing out of the mine, there was a lot of money readily changing hands. I took a picture of Moonwalker, the only inhabitant at 7:30 am on a Saturday morning. Times change.

I carried two and a half liters of water not knowing what to expect the streams to be like. Willow, Slaughterhouse, and Little Pine Creeks were all flowing so I guess water was going to be plentiful. Yea!!!

As we hiked, trees showered cool refreshing shade we so appreciated. Several meandering creeks needed to be forded and again we enjoyed the cold water soaking our feet. We ate a 11:00 first lunch and a 2:00 second lunch.  We also hiked on a real trail through the woods you would imagine you would do on a traditional hike and the trail only lost us a few times. We stopped at Little Sweetwater River for tea and dinner and camped a mile further.

Past Little Sweetwater River,   17 miles.

We saw a family of Marmots, Pair of Ravens, and a few Antelope.

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15-06-26.   Day 76.   South Pass City – Mark Trail CDT

Hiking The Continental Divide Trail
Mark Trail CDT 2015

Flash, Crash, and Pitter Patter. It was the first time we were in the Zpacks Heximid Solo Plus in the rain. We both stayed dry and had a good night’s sleep. The tent was wet heavy, so Moonwalker volunteered to carry it. What a great backing partner.

We had nine miles to hike to South Pass City so we were in no hurry. Moonwalker practiced hiking cross country with GPS, map and compass. We came out right where we wanted to and realized that sometimes it may be faster to hike a dirt road a little out of the way then dodging the sage brush.

As we hiked into town we stepped back in time to the eighteen hundreds with gold mining the main economic activity. The buildings were preserved with a dirt main street and boardwalks along both sides. We rushed to the general store where Sandy served us two ice cold root beers. And Moonwalker borrowed her cell phone to call Sandy Lake Lodge to let them know we were coming…. NO ANSWER…..We picked up our food box and dived up our food for the next three days.

Katherine gave us a tour of the saloon and Sandy come to talk about long distance hiking. She invited us to her one room historic cabin for a beer and how could we resist. She offered us showers and afterwards we set up our tent in downtown South Pass City.

Trail Magic!! Thanks Both Sandys.

Downtown South Pass City.     9.2 Miles

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