Another day that turned out quite unlike how I expected. I woke about an hour earlier than I have been getting up, that might have something to do with me pondering setting an alarm to get a jump start on the day…I wanted to camp as close to the highway as possible to get an early hitch into Darby…but ultimately I decided to let my body be the judge. And low and behold I woke up early!

I was in thick smoke again; the rocks and meadows appeared slowly as I moved forward, but once I began a long descent into the forest I couldn’t see the mountains for the trees anyway.

A new forest!

I scared a bunch of elk to start off the day, and little did I know that would portend some more wildlife encounters!

The afternoon contained some rIdiculously steep sections of trail…right after some brand new trail so fresh it wasn’t on my maps or app, I think the juxtaposition of the two made the difference even more stark. It was so steep I had to climb on my toes, frequently stopping to yell in frustration. The downhills were just as bad. Embrace the brutalIty!

WhIle I was on a flatter ridged section I spotted something carmel colored in the bushes on the side of the trail. I made a noise and watched as a cat, about 2-3 feet long, dart up the hill to my right. Startled myself, I started to talk loud and in a deep voice while waving my hiking poles over my head to appear bigger. I saw a little feline head poke up and watch me go before darting off again, a cougar! A young one at that! Wow! I nervously kept hiking trying to bellow as loud as I could, and snuck looks over my shoulder to make sure I wasn’t being stalked.

The next few miles passed without incident, and I was able to relax into the pace of the day. More steep climbs, more cursing, but finally I made it to the last 5 or so miles before the highway, and instead of taking a break and thinking about making camp, I realized I could make it to the highway during daylight hours, and then…should I try and go to town?

No…I would just spend money I don’t need to, and besides, I still have a ramen to eat for dinner, and maybe enough fuel to heat it up? I could cold soak it if not. Hmmmm, cold ramen, or a hot delicious pizza? Hmmm, what if I just hiked as far as I could, if I get to the highway while it’s still light and happen to get a hitch maybe I’ll go into town, if not I’ll just camp by the road and go in the morning.

As I was walking down the road I was noticing very very large paw prints. Did someone go walking on the road with their dog? Surely it isn’t a wolf or something. Hmmmm, so many prints going back and forth, this must be this animal’s territory. I just put the thought out of my mind and started playing a podcast outloud just in case something needed to be scared away.

And what do you know, I made it to the road by about 7:30, still light! I stood on the shoulder with my thumb out and just down the road noticed a big something crossing the road. A freaking wolf! Dude it was huge! That had to be the animal I was following! Wow, now I really didn’t want to camp there if I didn’t have to…and as luck would have it the first car that passed me stopped and gave me a ride the 30 miles to Darby. Yes!

I hopped out at the sign of an open restaurant, and a large supreme pizza later, was completely elated that I choose gooey cheese over cold ramen. When Mike, the owner, offered to see if there was an open hotel room at the place down the street, I said OK. I didn’t tell him I had been planning to camp at the RV park, I just went with the flow…Guess I’m spending some money in town tonight!

Dinner, and lunch, and dinner

I got a room, took a shower and collapsed in bed. This was my first 34 mile day since I was with Lint in the Great Divide Basin, and was in much more difficult terrain. I think I’ve earned a day off.

Today is my dear friend Rachel’s wedding! She is getting married to a stellar guy, Paul, and while I’m sad to miss the festivities, I’ll do my best to celebrate with them when I get home.

So I saw my first bear today! I was hiking up a rocky little hill and suddenly heard a crash and saw a baby bear tearing off into the distance. I looked around and made some noise in case mom was nearby, but didn’t hear anything else. Hard to believe this is my first bear.

After another morning of trees I entered the high country once again. The alpine meadows were taking on the golden and maroon colors of Fall, and even though the past week has been fairly warm, I can tell we aren’t far away from some colder weather. In fact with all the smoke in the sky today, the sun was barely able to break through, and I wore my longer layers the entire day.

I met a family up in the high country with a 2 & 4 year old! Wow, that is young for backcountry adventures, and they looked like they were having a ball. I also met 2 women from Butte out for the weekend as well, so good to see people enjoying their wilderness….this is a really stunning area and I would be up here all the time if I lived nearby.

Ah, my legs are aching a bit and my feet have been feeling the pounding. I’ll make over 2,200 miles tomorrow, the milage has just been flying. I’ll hit Darby on Monday morning, hope I can make it in for breakfast!

Ok starting this day out right with some Beasty Boys, if that’s doesn’t get me going, I don’t know what will!

While my walking started in the forest again: a uniform smattering of young trees (former burn area or logged?), I would enter the land of rock soon. But first I met another southbounder, Patrick. They keep coming! It’s so late in the season for me to still be meeting southbounders, they will be sure to have an interesting time of it in the high country of Colorado.

Then I was climbing up shale talus to a few peaks and to meet the Divide. Mountains! I could see a horizon line again, and there were mountains! The smoke was still lingering in the air, but much of it had dissapaited, and it was wonderful to see my surroundings once again.

There were dramatic cliffs and ridgelines all over the place. For most of the morning I wound in and around these rocky outcroppings, and met a few more hikers: Three Trees who was sectioning the CDT, and Voyager, a very seasoned hiker who’s CDT blog I had been reading last year. He hiked north to the Winds, and this year was hiking south to his finish spot last year…which would make his second thru-hike of the CDT. Cool guy.

Voyager

The afternoon was spent back in the trees and at lower elevations, Three Trees said he was dissapointed to have to leave the Divide and walk these lower miles, but I really don’t mind that much, it gives much more water, and I like the diversity.

I saw some clouds building as I was about to make camp, so pitched my tarp for the first time in a long time (I’ve really enjoyed sleeping out this past week), but now, a few hours later, the clouds are gone and it looks to be another clear night. This section has been nice and dry, which is a huge change from the rest of the trail, and I’m really enjoying it!

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get another air mattress. The difference is just night and day. I had been putting my down jacket under my hips to provide a bit of padding since most of my natural padding is gone…but sleeping on the new Gossamer pad last night was wonderful!

Another smokey day, another day without the views I knew were lurking beneath the layers of surrounding forest fires. That’s really ok though, it’s a small price to pay to have a muted horizon and not have to be threatened by all the destruction that’s currently sweeping the west. I hear big portions of the PCT are closed, and some fire fighters even lost their lives this week. Heart breaking.

I made it to Lemhi Pass for lunch, and got water from a spring that is the headwaters of the Missouri River, a spot that Sacajwea took Lewis in his search for the Columbia river in 1805. I’ve enjoyed visiting all the historical spots the trail passes through. While I was there I met Renee, Laura, and Beau. We chatted for a few minutes and Renee (a former nuclear engineer!) got me thinking about working down at the South Pole, she had done a number of seasons at the big base down there. Oh you know, there are so many adventures to be had!

Straddling the headwaters

Renee, Laura & Beau

I downloaded a new audiobook, another Stephen King novel, The Long Walk…you know, the title grabbed me, but after listening for a few hours I became disconcerted with the dark story where those who stopped walking would die. I found I wanted to walk less and less, the story must have hit a nerve. I took a long afternoon break complete with nap, and even when I switched from the dying walkers to some podcasts and music, the afternoon dragged on and I just wanted to be done.

I had set a goal of 25 miles today, and the minute I reached that mileage, I found a flat spot in the woods to plop down.

Not sure what this is about, but some animal didn't approve.

Man, oh man, I had a some awesome pasta from Backpackers Pantry…ever since connecting with them at the OR Show and getting some meals (with more coming to my town stops up ahead) I’ve been eating well. I can’t tell you how much better they are than ramen and mac & cheese. I’m so stoked to have their support.

So camp was earlish tonight, but I’ll read and just relax, it doesn’t do to force more walking if you want to be done for the day. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll be in a more walkable mood.

I was successful in not doing much of anything yesterday, so today had to resupply, mail some stuff, patch my tarp, and manage a few other odds and ends.

The morning passed quickly and soon it was check out time and we were on the porch hanging out for a few more hours. Delightful had texted, they were going to get to the pass about 2pm, and to save Sam a few trips we decided to wait to leave until then.

We had lunch at the restaurant, I did regret the greasy fried food soon after as it sat REALLY heavy in my stomach. I knew some hiking would help that out though.

Dan, G Funk, and I got back on trail at 2pm, and I spent the afternoon walking some very pleasent tread through trees and a few open balds. As I tend to do, I made camp earlyish (well, earlier than the guys like to) and enjoyed some down time to drink a beer I packed out, eat some dinner, and just putz around with my camp.

So looking forward to sleeping on my new pad! Air is where it’s at. None of this ridgerest stuff for me anymore!

Oh blessed air!

I had picked a nice flat campsite, and the night was filled with crazy dreams…some all too real. A few hours before dawn I woke to go to the bathroom and saw an orange light flickering in the distance, shit! Was that a fire!!!!! I stared at it, it was only one small spot, and then it moved, and I realized I was looking at car lights on the near-by road filtered through the smokey air. Phew, so much smoke still makes me on edge.

Smokey morning

I only had a few miles to walk this morning, and by 8am I was at the gravel “highway.” Thankfully I had arranged a ride with Sam, the owner of the Leadore Inn, because only one car passed in the 2 hours I was there…going the wrong direction. I wasn’t sure how soon I would make it to the road, so told him 10am for a pick up.

G Funk arrived shortly after I did, and we drank coffee and chatted while waiting. Once Sam rolled up, we piled into his pickup and headed towards town. He is a stellar dude, having just purchased the motel a year ago, and once we arrived, found it to be one of the coziest, nicest places I’ve stayed on the whole trail. Leadore doesn’t even have a stop sign, but it has everything a hiker could need. Post office, gas station/convenience store, bar/restaurant, and motel. Perfect.

I showered and spent the rest of the day laying in bed watching a mixture of cable and netflix on my phone. Thankfully my credit and debit cards arrived, and I also got my new sleeping pad from Gossamer Gear and a big cuben patch for my tarp where I melted it in my fire accident a while back. It’s been holding up ok, but Ron and Brandon wanted to send me a patch so it would pitch better.

Dan, G Funk, and I went to dinner at the bar, met some hilarious locals, and devoured some cheesesteak sandwiches.

When I returned to the room I found the movie The Matrix on TV and soon after fell asleep.

Good nero!

I didn’t end up picking the flattest spot last night, so spent most of the time sliding into a bush. I have a tendency at the end of the day to say “I’m done, this is good enough,” and throw down where I am and make it work. Tonight, camped in a very small flat section close to where a ridge drops off, is much better. I feel much more successful.

Coffee always makes a bad campsite better...or maybe it's the morning that makes the site better

Ahhh, another day of high ridges, smoke from nearby fires, and vast distances of space. I have to say, after the Wind River Range, I think this week has been one of my favorites. It’s hard to put into words, but maybe it’s my love of walking ridges, or being able to see trail ahead and behind, or the huge rocky mountains around…it could be the remoteness or the pleasent temperatures, but I’ve totally dug it all (minus the fire scare). I am, however, ready for a nero. I have just a few miles to go in the morning to Bannock Pass where Sam from the Leadore Inn will pick me up and take me to town. I have a room reserved at his hotel, my credit card is there, and I’m going to buy lots of food and watch lots of cable while eating pizza, drinking beer, and laying in bed (I HOPE there’s a TV, some of these small towns don’t have them…)

Look! That's where I came from!

I’m missing home. I’m loving the days out here, but still missing home. You can want to be in two places at the same time, can’t you?

This has encompassed so much of my life, heck it IS my life right now…it’s hard to remember what it was like to go to an office every day, and come home to a hot dinner and a bed and a loving boyfriend…I know all those things are there, but as I lay down for yet another night sleeping in the dirt and listening to distant cows mooing, it’s hard to visulize, just as in a few months tonight will seem like a blurry dream.

So while I’m missing home, I’m doing my darndest to be present….who the heck knows when I’ll be on another 5 month adventure. But at least pizza and beer are amazing both on the couch and on the trail.

I woke up about 4am, and seeing ash in the beam of my headlamp made me freak out. I started trembling and couldn’t stop, so I decided to pack up and move up to the top of the saddle where I had gotten a tad of reception…I had to do what I could to figure out if this was a fire I needed to worry about or not.

I was slowly able to bring up a fire incident map and was 90% sure the smoke was coming from a fire between Lima and Dillion, on the other side of the highway I crossed a few days ago. That put me at enough ease to where I was able to lay down and get a little bit of more sleep.

Smoky sunrise

When I woke at 6:30 I tried to check the sites again, but just couldn’t connect to the internet. I spent the morning playing the game: Where will you run if the fire comes? Not one of the more fun games on the trail. I spied rocky outcroppings that would work well, and also thought I could wade a lake.

I could stand in the middle of that if I had to

I finally stopped obsessing over the fire, that takes a lot of energy! I kept trying my phone for reception all day, but didn’t get anything until the evening. I learned we were in the clear for this section, but there are a few closures up ahead. Phew, I just wanted to know that I would be ok for this section, and relief felt amazing.

The hiking today was wonderful, although full of smoke. When I reached the divide again this evening, the mountains and cliffs towered over the grassy ridges, just awesome, awesome hiking.

I made camp above Tex Creek and just have 30 miles left to the pass where I’ll go into Leadore. I will wait and spend one more night on the trail to have as close to a full day off as possible.

What a week!

I’m at camp, The air started to get hazier towards evening, and I started to get nervous that yesterday’s thunder storms may have ignited some fires in the area…the valley to the south of where I’m camping is super socked in now, and I’m getting very faint whisps of smoke smell, but the valley to the north seems much more clear.

I walked up the hill to try and get service to see if I could find anything out, had just enough juice to leave a message for Teresa at the CDTC to see if there was anything to worry about, and was able to check the Montana Fire Incident website and saw yes, there are some fires, but I have no idea of how close they are or again if it’s something I have to worry about.

Forest fires are a huge source of anxiety for me, but talk about something that is out of my control…I only hope the smoke is traveling a long way and will not get close to the trail. Not sure I’ll be able to sleep tonight…

The winds last night kept me up…but I had a late night visitor, I heard some grunting and something was climbing up the tree near my shelter….a weasel looking thing was hanging to the side of the trunk and I had no idea what it was! It didn’t seem scared of me, but didn’t seem threatening, so I lay back down. I met another new hiker later, G Funk, who said it sounded like it was a Pine Martin…I’ll have to look it up when I get reception.

I woke late (finally falling asleep in the early hours of the morning) and got back on the divide for the last few miles of this section of ridgewalking before the trail dipped down to a creek.

The next bit wound in an out of cow land…poop and misleading trails were everywhere, but I made it through to the next big climb where half way up I met Trail Blazer, a southbounder. We chatted for a few minutes, and I continued another 1,000′ up the climb. On the other side I stopped at a creek for lunch and met G Funk, a northbounder from Austria.

I was confused at first when he introduced himself because I was just hiking with G and Funk, and now here was G Funk…sometimes trail name overlaps happen!

The afternoon hike was beautiful, these open ridges and mountains were lovely to walk through, and I throughly enjoyed myself.

After a long open section, I rounded a corner to find Dan and G Funk talking to some guys in an ATV. They could not believe what we were doing, and marveled at the idea of walking so many miles. They gave us a Mt Dew which we all happily split.

Then more walking. Dan and G Funk are taking an alternate and I’m on the official trail, up on a saddle just north of Bannock Pass, and am trying not to be too freaked out by the smoke in the air. The wind isn’t too crazy tonight, and I don’t see flames anywhere, so hopefully it’s far off. I’ll climb back up in the morning to get reception and see if there is any news…

Still, it’s going to be a long night….

Today marks not only my 4 month trailaversary, but I passed the 2,000 mile mark! Dude! Celebrate!

We started the day by sleeping in…turns out we stayed out till about midnight, a very rare occasion on this trail!

We all went to breakfast across the road and I had a huge ham steak with hash browns, eggs, toast, and lots and lots of coffee. Ahhh, this is the way to start the day.

Delightful, G, and Funk had decided to take a zero day, and since it hadn’t even been a week since I took my week off, I wanted to hike out.

Mike, the owner of the motel arranged to give me and a few other hikers a ride back to the trail at about 11:30, and by noon I was hiking again.

The forcast was for potential heavy thunder storms, and I could see the storms clouds brewing, but most of the afternoon remained quite pleasent.

2,000 mile mark!!

Again the trees were absent for the most part, and soon I was climbing up a ridge line that just kept going and going and going. Looking at my maps I saw that I’d be up high for many miles and soon realized that might pose a challenge when I wanted to camp tonight.

I climbed up one steep section to find Dan, another northbound hiker…his phone wasn’t working and the wind had just whipped his map out of his hands…that sucks! We hiked together the rest of the afternoon, and soon were walking into dark clouds, brutal wind, and fat raindrops. The rain was intermittent, and at about 5ish we found a spring down on the side of the ridgeline. It was just a trickle, so we tried to form little pools to make it easier to scoop.

I had decided to camp near as the nearby trees were the first I had seen in a long time, and I wanted the protection from the rain and potential storm. Dan hiked on, and as I was making my way to a clump of trees, rounded a corner to find a nice cow tank with spring water pouring in. Doh! Oh well.

I made my way up to find a little spot among some trees and had a bit of trouble setting up my tarp in the crazy strong wind. I was finally in and cozy, but twice the flapping tarp ripped my stakes out of the ground. Uggg, this would be a sucky night. At times I was worried the whole tarp would rip apart, but just a few minutes ago the wind died down, and now I might just have a still and pleasent night afterall.

Over 2,000 miles and 4 months on trail, celebrate!

I love cake, and I love my PCT hiking partner NEMO! Best of both worlds (other than having her on trail with me)