CDT120
22ed August Tuesday
41miles, (But we took alternatives)
Going was good this morning, up and down but I’m feeling tired from all the walking in the last five days.
Bees sleeping on the plant in the cold morning
After second breakfast, which I ate twice my normal amount, I felt really good and now full of energy. I guess food has a lot to do with it and now my backpack is getting really light with only food for one more day, tomorrow is town day but unfortunately I don’t think we will make it in time for the buffet breakfast for 16 dollars.
Breakfast on the trail
We didn’t get the sun untill mid morning at about 9am, untill then I was wearing my jacket and ice breaker jumper but since I’d lost my possum gloves, my hands were a bit cold.
The days walk was really nice, generally easy going and the vegetation was very green for a change from the burnt forest.
We meet a South bound hiker who is travelling alone, she told us about two alternatives that we could take and this would shorten the walk by 5-7 miles.
One in particular we knew about anyway as it was on our maps, at this point we had two options, up and over the mountain that involved climbing 1,500 feet or just walk around it and save yourself the climb and it was 5 miles shorter. no brainer on that one. The southbound hiker went up, only because It was time to camp last night and she felt it much safer from bears high up on the ridge than in a campsite next to a stream.
The next one was an existing trail that gets used going by the foot prints and the worn trail, in periods of high rain fall it wouldn’t be possible to use this trail as we crossed the river seven times, 6 of them we were able to rock hop across the river but one I took my shoes off to keep them dry and walked barefoot.
Following the trail which crossed the river many times, we found bear prints, we think they were black bear prints which is better than the grizzly as black bears don’t attack in this area, one sight of a human and they are gone.
Sharing the trail with a grizzly or black bear, I’m not sure but we started to make a lot of noise
Walking late at night was a little worrying with not seeing far ahead, we made a lot of noise along the way by yelling out and playing the music on my phone as loud as possible to warn any bear of us coming.
We were making for the campgrounds next to the highway, these are usually paid ones but offer nothing such as services, finally got there after having to cut through bush land and forest as we missed our turnoff. Not easy walking when in total darkness with a small headlamp to shine the way.
NOT bad setup after all, park benches at each numbered camp site so we took the first one that was empty with the plan to getup really early tomorrow and hitching a ride into East Glacier Park for a buffet breakfast. This all relies on the fact that someone is willing to pick up a couple of smelly hikers.
Started at 6am and set up the tent at 10:30pm. Long day.
ThaiStick