These three days we traversed high ridges on the border of Montana and Idaho. There was often little vegetation beyond grass. Smoke obscured the vistas, but even so we could see that we were surrounded by imposing mountain peaks in all directions.
Day 104 – Mile 2160.9 – What does “CDT” stand for?
We rewarded ourselves for getting in and out of town so efficiently yesterday by sleeping in today. We took our time waking up, drinking coffee, and making breakfast. We didn’t start hiking until well after 8. That’s still hours earlier than we would have started if we had spent last night in town. Shortly after starting we watched a pronghorn try to escape from some fencing that surrounded him (pronghorn don’t like to jump). It was like watching a lobster stuck in a lobster trap! Eventually he found the way out under a high fence (which was probably how he got in) and pranced away from us. As the morning got hot and we started climbing, we entertained ourselves by playing a game inspired by our PCT friend Birdman. We came up with fitting acronyms for the CDT other than “Continental Divide Trail”. Birdman commented months ago that the CDT is the “continuously disappearing trail”… Today we realized it is also the “constantly difficult trail”, the “cow dung trail”, the “cattle diverted trail”, and the “climbing and descending torture”. The trail was hard for much of today. For a long stretch it followed exactly along the continental divide (and Montana/Idaho border) on a ridge with a lot of climbing and descending but not a very well-defined path. At the top of one mountains we had cell service so we tried to pause to call Renee’s mom to wish her a happy birthday. We were attacked by a swarm of flying ants so it was a very short call. Later in the day we lost the trail repeatedly because the numerous cattle in the area have created their own paths that are sometimes more well defined than the CDT. At around 9 we made it to camp partway up a climb. Despite the difficult hiking, we had a very nice day and enjoyed the extra energy we gained from sleeping in. -T
Day 105 – Mile 2188.8 – Smoke
Today turned out to be our smokiest day so far. It was also pretty hot. The landscape was mostly rolling mountains covered in sagebrush and dead grass with few trees, so there wasn’t any shade. When we did have some tree cover in the morning, we came up with another CDT acronym meaning: “Course of Down Trees”. The heat and smoke made us a bit sleepy. The highlight of today was jumping into a cold lake late afternoon. It was super refreshing and woke us up before our final climb of the day. At the lake we saw a buck deer with nice big antlers. Later in the evening we saw seven buck elk with nice big antlers munching near a stream. -R
Day 106 – Mile 2219.1 – Bedtime wind
This morning we witnessed a cattle drive! There were 5+ cowboys & cowgirls on horses moving hundreds of cattle across an endless area that the trail went right through. Each cowboy/girl had one or more dogs helping them scoot the cattle along. It was really neat! As we walked up the dirt road that was the trail two trucks drove by. The first gave us bottled water (yay, less filtering!) and the second gave us Chex Mix. We had a lot of climbing and descending today so we didn’t move very fast, but we took few breaks so we still got plenty of miles in. It rained on us a bit in the afternoon but it stopped shortly after starting. When we got to camp it was calm and comfortable. We enjoyed dinner and then noticed clouds moving in so we headed toward the tent. After we got in a massive gust came out of nowhere and blew like crazy! It must have been 60 miles per hour! It ripped two stakes out of the ground and just about collapsed the tent, but Renee held it up. Fortunately the gust wasn’t accompanied by too much rain, so we went outside and tightened all the stakes and lines. Hopefully no more gusts like that come overnight! -T
Cash Deficit Trail (aka Colorado) or the Cutting Distance Trail 😜