CDT Days 19-21 – Wide open spaces

This was another remote stretch of trail that included a lot of challenging cross country travel. We had amazing open views and saw lots of elk, deer, and antelope.

Day 19 – Mile 299.6 – Wide open spaces

Five miles into today’s hike, which was about 25 miles since our last water source, we encountered some unexpected trail magic! We crossed a dirt highway with a trail register, and inside the register somebody had left water and Gatorade. We each enjoyed a Gatorade. It was wonderful. We hiked on into a massive field/valley that we spent nearly the entire day walking across. It was absolutely beautiful. It was mostly grass and lava rocks, and mountains surrounded us in all directions. We saw many elk and pronghorns, and we spotted a fox. We had lunch at our intended water source, which was a huge water tank filled by a windmill-powered pump. After lunch we saw new footprints on the trail and we thought we must have missed our friend Lunar who was supposed to be walking this section in the opposite direction… But at around dinner time, he showed up! It was great to see another hiker for the first time in many days. The three of us had dinner together and then decided to camp together. For dinner we had Annie’s Mac and “cheese” instead of one of our homemade meals… It wasn’t very good. -T

Day 20 – Mile 321.4 – Relentless wind & rocks

This morning we said goodbye to Lunar as he headed east and we headed west. This was our first time camping with someone so far on the CDT. It was very nice! We started the day with a short climb with a nice view of a small herd of mule deer. The rest of the day was really hard. Today and yesterday we are back to cross country travel. We followed posts or fence lines or sometimes nothing at all for a bit. There was no path/tread between the posts at all, and the ground was uneven with volcanic rocks and dried bunches of grass. To make matters worse, it was super windy. We had a two hour ridge walk this morning, and we were zigzaging all over like we were drunk. The wind would push us to the right, then it would let up a bit and we’d fall a few steps to the left, all the while trying not to trip on all the rocks. -R

Day 21 – Mile 343.9 – Where’s the trail?

Like always today started out great. We had breakfast and two coffees. I’m always happy after coffee! We had a slow climb to start our hike, but it was on a nice trail. All of the way until lunch, we were walking on a relatively simple trail… In the afternoon though, things changed. There was no trail for many miles of today’s walk. Instead, there were occasional rock cairns and/or blazes on trees, but they were few and far between. The ground was a mix of lava rock and grass, so our feet were constantly wobbling around as we tried to get footing. It was remarkably difficult. For about four hours we were hiking at ~1 mile per hour. But, we stayed positive and enjoyed some beautiful views. We are about to eat Ethiopian lentils and rice for dinner. Yum! -T