For much of these three days we hiked on a segment of the CDT that is just being built. It took us closer to the continental divide than the old trail would have, and it also treated us to a few amazing wildlife sightings!
Day 92 – Mile 1884.0 – Grizzly Bears!
Today was very pleasant and ended with excitement! I’ll start at the beginning: we woke up on time and enjoyed our two coffees but I made them stronger than usual. While walking we stuck precisely to our eating schedule so we wouldn’t bonk like we did yesterday. It worked: we were energized all day. In the morning we scared up several groups of 3-7 elk (including babies!) that were bedded down together. Perhaps the big herd from yesterday split up into smaller groups at bedtime…? Half way through the day we hit a split in the trail where the official CDT has been rerouted to go down a valley and up another. The re-route is four miles longer than the old route. Most hikers seem to take the old route, but we stuck to the official CDT which proved to be a good decision. As we weaved down the first valley we saw lots of wildlife signs including mountain lion tracks and moose prints. At the bottom the terrain became very much like a sagebrush desert — it felt like we were back in the Red Desert again! At the bottom we also started seeing wolf tracks and scat. They were huge! Then we started climbing back up to the elevation where we started the day (about 9500 feet). After we got to the top we were descending into a river valley and I spotted three dots in the distance. As we got closer we could tell they were a mom and two cub grizzly bears! They were right on the trail and weren’t very interested in moving, so we made plenty of noise as we approached and they eventually moseyed up a hill and out of our way. After we passed they went right back to the place where they had been foraging. It was nice of them to yield the right of way to us! We walked on about a mile and set up camp. Hopefully that’s far enough… For dinner we had Ethiopian lentils and rice. Yum!! -T
Day 93 – Mile 1888.2 – Food!
It was raining when we woke up. We only had just over 4 miles to the highway though, so our thoughts were on food. The rain stopped by the time we started hiking, but the vegetation was soaked and it was super foggy. We wore our rain gear, but our feet got really wet. The trail was a bit strange. It was built for about 200-400 ft and then it would disappear and then come back and then disappear again. I guess it must still be under construction. When we got to the highway, we had no food left. We got a ride into the town of Dubois pretty quick. We got dropped off at the Cowboy Cafe where we order breakfast three times. I ate so much food that I got a terrible stomach ache. We spent the rest of the day doing chores… grocery shopping, showers, laundry. We spent the night in our tent at a nice KOA in the middle of town. -R
Day 94 – Mile 1901.0 – Learning how trails get built!
As always, leaving town this morning was more difficult than planned. Among other morning chores we called Yellowstone National Park to reserve Backcountry camping permits because we will enter the park in a few days. Then we went out for breakfast at a coffee shop followed by breakfast number two at a taco/burrito restaurant. Yummy! We finally got back to the trail at around 1:30 pm. The trail was beautiful today — it weaved past high buttes along with low lakes and meadows. We encountered three workers out building new trail — they seemed almost as excited to chat with trail users as we were to chat with trail builders! One was operating a small backhoe and the other two were using hand tools. After hiking on we took a break at a gorgeous lake and I went swimming. We met a new hiker after that — Tex. Based on his name and accent I’m guessing he’s from Texas, but we didn’t ask. We had peanut butter pasta with sundried tomatoes for dinner — yum! -T
