Why can’t I sleep on this trail? It’s maddening! I spent half the night trying to get comfortable and tried some focused breathing and even a bit of meditation, but it wasn’t until the wee hours of the morning that I found relief.

After coffee, we packed up and hit the trail. The sunrise was spectacular, and we glimpsed what would be the constant during the day, large rock outcroppings called reefs. I need to look up more about reefs, but what I can tell you is they look spectacular with a bit of snow on them.

We walked a few drainages, climbed a few passes, and by the end of the day were faced with the incredible Hoadley Reef. Wow. We were on an alternate because we didn’t need to go into Benchmark Ranch (a stop some thru-hikers make if they sent a resupply box there), and were happy for the sight. The other side of the pass however (now officially in the Bob Marshall Wilderness!!) was a mish-mash of burned out trail complete with rocky, rutted, unmaintained trail. Ugg. It took us a while to pick the 4 miles down to the valley bottom where we tried to find a flat place to camp that avoided the burned out area (no trees falling on us in the middle of the night please!). Its really not something I like to do, but without any other options, we set up camp on the trail. It was going on 7:30pm, and from the state of the trail, could tell primarily animals use this section, not horses or humans (I promise I try not to ever sleep on the trail…it’s often a wildlife superhighway anyway). To “protect” ourselves we put out branches on either side of our shelters so we would hear any snapping of twigs if something were to walk over it, and I marked my territory with my full bladder (what!? maybe it will have an effect!).

I sure hope for some sleep tonight, we still have 4 1/2 days of 25+ mile days to get to East Glacier…that’s a lot of terrain to cover even with a good nights sleep.

Since we hiked until almost 9pm last night, we decided to forgoe setting an alarm…but as luck or body rythums would have it, we were by about 6:30 anyway.

The morning was COLD the wind even colder, but all that was countered by some of the best views I have had in a long time, made all the more dramatic for the snow that still clung to the rocky peaks.

As beautiful as the misty morning over white crusted mountains was, it made the hiking slower than usual. You have to pay a bit more attention to where you are stepping, some of the steps from the others before us were now icy, and it was easy to slip in their footprints. But all in all, well worth the toil and twisted ankles.

Just before lunch we left the lofty heights for the greener valleys and the trend for the next few days will be a lot of valley walking.

We walked about 10 miles along water this afternoon, it will be great to not have to carry much water as we still have 6 days of food in our packs. Its possible if we do some big days that we can make it to Glacier in 5 days, and then we’ll be able to eat more! Mountain Spice is already regretting not bringing more snacks. I’m feeling ok about my snack quotient thanks to an awesome care package from Big John, my old Peace Corps friend Jim, and fellow artist and creative in Bend, Lisa. Thanks all! You are helping me stomach this stretch in the most delightful way.

The day ended by a stand of aspen that have almost completely changed to a deep yellow, the first pop of fall that I’ve seen so far. There have been hints here and there, but this stand of trees is ready for the change of the seasons. I love it.

I woke up at 6, but turned over and went back to bed for another hour…who gets up at 6am any more? It’s not light out!

After a morning spent resupplying and trying to shove 7+days of food (my longest carry to date on this trail), Mountain Spice and I hit the road.

Since we had walked to Lincoln, we would walk out in order to “connect our steps” from Mexico to Canada. We found a route up the highway a bit then on a dirt road to a trail to the CDT. We were walking along when a car pulls over…is it? It is! Andy Martin’s dad! I hadn’t seen him since Pagosa Springs where he had met Andy (also known as Pimp Limp) for a day off, and before that I had hung out with him in Ghost Ranch. He was going to go meet him at Stemple Pass that evening with a burger (lucky guy!). So that puts Andy about 2 days behind us…but it sounds like I might see him again in East Glacier for the Hiker Hoopla (an end of the season party for lovers of the CDT) in just over a week.

The road is hard on feet, and we took a few breaks to rest the poor suckers. Finally we made it to the trail head after a walk through a beautiful valley, thinking our trail up to the divide would be about 2 miles. 5 miles later and in the dark, we finally make it up. Phew. We found the first flatish spot and set up camp.

We are officially in one of the last stretches of the trail! Can’t wait to see what is up ahead and lighten the crazy load of food in my pack.

I turn off my alarm that sounds at 6am, it’s too cold to get up at 6am. I shake the snow off my tent and roll over.

About half an hour later I hear Mountain Spice stir and slowly rouse myself to make some coffee. Packing up is going to suck, and it does, but soon we are hiking and the storm from the day before has turned the world white and glorious.

The sun and light does things to the terrain I haven’t seen before, and once our hands and feet get the feeling back from the cold we actually enjoy the snowy walk, we revel in it! The world is beautiful! The cold makes for fantastic hiking!

As most of our gear is still wet, we decided to walk an alternate into Lincoln and pass near by where the unibomber had his cabin…is there something special about these mountains that drive people to madness?

Regardless we are flying down the dirt road and ignoring the pain and pounding in our feet, make it to Lincoln in the late afternoon, just in time to grab a second lunch at the Bootlegger, and check into the Lincoln Hotel for what may be the last night in a hotel on this trail!

We are so close I can taste it!

We hang out with Delightful, G, Funk, OD, Picker & Sam, drinking beers and talking about what we will do when we get home…so close!!

We had intended to hike 30 miles today. Hike 30 miles and have a quick half day into Lincoln, the second to last resupply point of the trail! However as with most plans on this trail, the CDT had to show us who was boss.

We had gotten our shelters set up right before another deluge of rain last night, and then the lightening and thunder started. Oh it was close, about 5-6 miles away. It passed, followed by heavy rain, and repeat all night long. All this rain was surely making up for the dry month of August for it rained unlike I’ve seen on much of this trail. About 4:30 in the morning I woke to go to the bathroom right before another huge storm let loose, this one much closer with strikes just 3 miles away. The thunder echoed off the valley walls and seemed to reverbrate much longer than normal. Damn! This would not be fun to hike through!

When we finally emerged from our shelters we had a break in the rain and began hiking again. We were soon drenched and were able to laugh it off for the first few hours, but then we gained the more exposed divide and the rain turned to snow. Snow! We laughed, but soon those chuckles turned to wimpers.

I had hiked ahead of Mountain Spice, and the snow was getting thicker and the wind stronger and soon I was fighting to keep warm, any hopes of staying dry nil…my gortox socks arn’t so waterproof any more and my feet by this point were cold and wet. My mittens and cuben fiber overmits had my hands warm, and hat was good, but I didn’t have my down jacket on under my rain coat, and didn’t want to stop to put it on. I knew Mountain Spice didn’t have any way to keep her feet dry, no overmits, and no umbrella to help keep the rain/snow off. When I started longing to put up my shelter and get in my sleeping bag for a few hours, I stopped at waited for her to catch up. On top of it all she was getting over a nasty cold.

Man, she was soaked when she hiked up, and we both agreed we needed to get in our shelters pronto. We hiked about another mile to a saddle a bit out of the driving wind and quickly got in our still wet shelters from the night before. Both of us had enough food to sit out the weather, and as I had service, checked in with the weather report – the 100% rain today and 90% tonight had us all but certain that we had set up our shelters for the day.

The forcast looks to improve tomorrow with only a 40% chance of rain, and we’ve identified an alternate to walk into Lincoln if it’s too much to keep on the trail. With wet gear, shoes and socks and freezing temperatures, the best bet may be getting to town the quickest we can.

There is sun up ahead in the weather report, and this half day will definitly impact my mileage. The next section will be a LONG one, 7-8 days, which will be a crazy heavy pack, but the upside is that with all this rain the Bob Marshall Wilderness has reopened from the fires, and those 7-8 days will be spent in a beautiful highlight of the trail. From there I’ll only have about 100 miles to Canada! I should just have enough time to make it to the border to meet Kirk for my finish date. Woooo, so close! But I can’t afford any more of these half days…

Snow!

I connected with Mountain Spice, another thru-hiker who took a zero day in Helena, this morning about getting a ridge back to the trail, we agreed to meet about 12:30, so I had the morning to chill, and chill was all I wanted to do. In fact I was feeling very very tired. Maybe it was the gray day and incessent rain that was falling, maybe the cushions and pillows on the couch, or maybe it was the fact that I just have about 2 weeks left and I’m tired.

Lauren, Shaggy and me

I ate some cookies and finished off the rest of my dinner from last night and put a big dent into my ebook. Did I have to hike today, or tomorrow, or the next day? Yes, I did.

I left the house and went downtown to a coffee shop, and what do you know, I run into another thru-hiker! Sterling was there (one of the Warrior Hike gang) and we chatted over several cups of coffee. We had been in touch over the hike, but had never hiked together. He wasn’t doing a traditional thru hike anymore, but was hoping the Bob Marshall wilderness would open up from the fires so he could hike that section as well as Glacier.

After coffee I headed over to meet Mountain Spice and her friend who was giving us a ride, and before long we were standing at McDonald Pass in the rain.

I guess it was time to hike. And once I was moving I felt a lot better. Probably the fresh air, maybe the cold rain too.

We hiked up a road and then in and out of patchy forest and then into rolling pasture land. Cow dung was everywhere, as well as the dung machines.

A misty day

It rained off and on, a good soaking rain, one that will surely help put out some fires up ahead, who knows, maybe we would be hiking through the Bob afterall!

We set up camp just before it started to sprinkle again, success!!

This was supposed to be a long dry section, but man, we’ve found a ton of water.

Another zero day…am I hiking something? It’s hard to remember…

Shaggy and I went out to breakfast at a cute little cafe downtown before he had to go to work. I had a whole lot of nothing planned for the day, and after returning to his house for a little nap, walked a few blocks over to Safeway for my resupply and some food for the day.

Back at the house I watched netflix and ate away most of the afternoon. Ahhh, there is rain in the forecast and it made the day that much sleepier.

When Lauren and Shaggy got home we decided to go out to dinner at a mexican place, and after achieving true food coma all I could do was lay on the couch. It was a chill day, and now it’s time to go to Canada.

(The CDTC needs your help! See this link for more info…thanks Wired for setting this page up!
http://www.walkingwithwired.com/2015/09/weve-got-to-help-cdt.html?m=1)

I set my alarm last night in hopes of getting up early and hiking the 26 miles to McDonald Pass early enough to get into Helena at a decent time…this is the first time I’ve woken up to an alarm in a long, long time. The days are getting shorter and the sun rising later and later each day…where once a 5am wakeup would find me at daybreak, now translates to a 6:30ish start.

I walked into the early morning and soon came upon another tent…Medicare (Mary??? again, so bad at remembering trail names) a 74 year old section hiker out to do a big chunk of the CDT, having already hiked NM, CO & WY…no excuses people! If 74 year-old Mary can do it, you can do it!

I hiked in the glow of the early morning and took just a few breaks, fueled by my desire to make it to the highway in decent time.

A lot of the late morning and early afternoon were along dirt roads. I passed a bunch of new housing developments, while the developments were nestled deep in the surrounding wilderness, with all the recent fires I knew such places were ripe for destruction the minute something in the area gets struck by lightning. I would love to live in such a place, but the vulnerability seems so great…

I was back in the trees and on the trail this afternoon, and felt tired. My feet ached and my body was slowly dragged through the trees by those puffy feet. Tired.

I made it to the highway before 4pm and made myself a sign in hopes it would help my chances of getting to town. (Signs seem to always help)

I was picked up my a lifetime local and even though it was out of his way, he dropped me off downtown. I was going to stay with Shaggy, a PCT friend from 2006, and knew he lived near downtown, but first, I saw a brewery, and what do you know, a hiker in front! I went over and found 5 thru hikers inside, having arrived just before I did. I shared a pint and walked over to Shaggy’s place where he was preparing the grill for a brat and salmon dinner…YUM!

We reminisced over trail tails, and talked a lot about the changes on the CDT. He had hiked in 2007 with a bunch of 2006 PCT friends, and it was awesome to tell stories and reconnect.

Shaggy and his wife Lauren hiked the PCT together in 2012, and we had lots of stories to tell. I love thru-hikers!!!!

As I was still in my sleeping bag and sipping my coffee I looked up to see two hikers on the trail, Day Man and La La (I had met them breifly a few weeks ago as they were going into Lima and I was returning to the trail). They were on a mission to get to Helena, so we chatted for just a minute and they took off.

Packed up and hiking, I soon came to the water source I had been counting on as I had finished the last dregs at breakfast. All I saw were scuzzy mud puddles. No matter, there was a spring in another mile or so, so I kept on hiking. When I realized I should have arrived at the spring I looked at my phone to see that I was apparently on a new section of trail that wasn’t reflected on Guthook’s app. The spring was back on what must be the old trail, or an old road. Since i had no idea if this new trail had any water sources I backtracked and started down the road. Shoot! The spring was another muddy puddle. I scooped up just a little bit of water to drink in an emergency, and set off for the next water source, three miles down the trail.

There was more new trail, but if the water was going to be this iffy I decided to follow the data on Guthook so I would be sure of my mileage and water sources. I’m sure it’s very nice trail, but I had also heard there was a bit of misleading signage in this area, so didn’t want to risk hiking it.

The next source was a spring fed water tank and I had some nice cool water at last. I would have to start being conservative again if some of the sources weren’t drinkable.

Most of the morning followed the old roads and I climbed and descended gentle grades. I took lunch in a shaded spot near the trail and while I was napping heard approaching steps for the second time today. Two new northbounders! Sam and Splint (???not sure I got his name right). They too looked like they were on a mission to get to Helena, and I wondered if I was the only one not really concerned with time or milage…maybe it’s just that I’ve had a lot of time off lately.

Smoked Salmon courtesy of my friend Allgood!

Crack Bars (chocolate and amazing) from the awesome Aimee

They continued on and I packed up for my afternoon of hiking. I didn’t end up seeing any of the 4 hikers again, so I guess they made some good progress today.

Lots of tree-bound hiking this afternoon, a few sub-par water sources, and when I passed a nice cold trickle I decided to fill up to capacity just in case of what I might find ahead. I listened to more of my audio book and just bumbled along at my own pace.

I walked until almost 7:30 tonight, which is later than usual for me, but I was not enamored with the camping options, so kept going. As it is I’m settled in a uniform forest of pine trees, what I must imagine is an old burn area, all the trees the same size and densly spaced, crowding out eachother and ensuring none will get big or thrive.

I ate a huge helping of dinner, washed down with some gummies. I’m full and getting sleepy. I’ll get in another chapter or two of my ebook, The Goldfinch, and then close my eyes to another day.

Another morning waking up in a bed…soon I would have countless mornings to wake up like this; I can’t help but be excited by the prospect.

I packed up my backpack, and went upstairs for some coffee and breakfast. Laurie would be taking me back to the trail, but not before stopping by the Oboz office, my shoe sponsor for the hike. Their designer/product developer, Derek, had actually worked with Tom for many years, and I had emailed with him, but this would be my first time meeting him. We found their office and had a great chat. I’ve really enjoyed working with Oboz this year, not just because they make a fantastic shoe (the best one I’ve worn on a thru-hike so far), but because they recognize thru hikers as their target market, something other shoe companies are reluctant to do. This small company is the real deal and I was stoked to visit their office.

Derek at Oboz

Then we were on the road; back in Butte I picked up one last package, a week of meals from my new sponsor Backpackers Pantry, mailed off a package to myself up the trail and one home, and before I could barely finish my fries and frosty (fast food attack), I was back on the trail and walking north.

The lovely Laurie

I walked dirt roads for the afternoon, dodging cows (at one point they started running towards me instead of away, what!?) and listening to my new audio book, an autobiography by Oliver Sacks, who had just passed away.

It was a pleasent day, a bit cooler than it had been, and with a view! The rain had washed a lot of the smoke away, and the air was deliciously clean.

Camp is back up on the divide, and dinner is devine.