CDT119
21st August Monday
23 miles
Going to be a hard morning with the next 15 or so miles it’s all uphill.
The sun didn’t show itself untill mid morning and with wet boots that were cold and wearing my extra special down jacket that keeped my upper body warm, it was a pleasant enough walk through the thick forest, once again climbing
One of the many switchbacks alone the way
Made it to Switchback Pass (spotted bear pass) where we stopped for second breakfast, from a distance we could see bush fires and fortunately it’s on the other side of the valley and the wind is blowing away from us. We left our gear on the ground and went for a short walk to an vantage point overlooking where we had come from, from here I could see the Chinese Wall and just behind that were mountains that have snow caps. Thankfully we shouldn’t see snow again but it’s defiantly getting cold enough during the night and I bet the other through hikers that are follow behind will get snow.
Feet, hips and knees were sore as I worked my way up the pass, looking forward to finishing this trail and it’s been a long time pushing myself everyday climbing up to the many passes and peaks, I’m just tired now and in need of a rest.
Passed Gooseberry guard station, everything locked up do we couldn’t see inside the hut.
Gooseberry guard station
Came accross a through-hiker, well thats not entirety correct. This one is an old timer that carried 21 days of food with the goal of living out in the bush for much longer periods than i tbought possible.
Jim Murphy, carries his backpack for 6-7 miles per day and when he runs out of food, he returns. On his last trip he was telling us, he had 21 days worth of food but stretched it out to 31 days. I find that incredible and at an age of 70 years old he’s still going strong. He’s the oldest person I’ve meet on the trail so far, and what’s incredible also is the weight of his backpack, I had difficulty lifting it off the ground and you can see the size difference between ours and his bag.
Jim with his heavy backpack , look at the size difference
Counting our miles this evening of what needed to get to our resupply town (East Glacier Park) basically two more days and I’ve got plenty of food, not the best food but it will do before I seek out the Inn that has a buffet breakfast which is my main goal. But for now, I just have to enjoy mashed potatoes with vegetables, cold.
ThaiStick