Right after I went to bed last night, my tent got blown over by a large gust of wind, soaking a bunch of my stuff. Then I got soaked fixing the stakes to be more storm-worthy. I didn’t sleep very well after that. At 6am we were both up, so we headed out in the cold. Weather finally cleared up though, so the whole day was a lot more fun.

We hiked mostly on Forest Service roads, with a bit of trail near the end. We had our first (of likely maaaaany) encounters with cows. In this case, big black evil looking ones that didn’t want to get out of the way. I made up cow songs to sing to them while walking by, as it seems they get less spooked if they hear your voice. Otherwise they tend to get in a moo-y panic and run away.

At lunch we met Bob, an older gentleman who is bouncing around Montana, trying to stitch together all of the state’s CDT. He had a rather heavy looking pack, but was in good spirits. It sounded like we will cross pathes again later. He offered us his wife’s phone number in Helena, where we are staying tonight… Very generous.

On that topic, we got a hitch from a nice lady, an she dropped us at the door of a trail angel who I had found on the Internet. He offered us a place to stay and he isn’t even going to be here! He basically gave us a tour of his house then handed me the keys and headed out for a weekend hike.

His girlfriend just dropped by and said her family is making us dinner. Time to go!

Later: dinner was great, then the new Harry Potter movie, then off to bed.

Daily Summary
Date: July 15, 2011
Day 21
Daily Distance: 22.9 miles
Trip Distance: 342.5 miles

Woke up to more rain but the thunder and lightning show was done… Got on my damp clothes and was out of camp like a rocket. A very chilly rocket. The rain finally stopped around lunch, so we had a semi-successful drying out session. Eventually we just had to move on, climbing on the divide some more. The divide around here is pretty subdued, but we still had to do a ton of little climbs all day.

Later in the day we ran into a guy who is going north on the CDT, started in Butte, then he is going east on the Pacific Northwest Trail, then south on the PCT to Bend, OR. Sounds like a very fun journey. After we met him we started a series of bigger climbs.

By dinner we were both done, but wanted to push on. It started raining again so we quickly packed up and got moving. After another hour the rain let up so we decided to camp. Of course, it started hailing as I put up my tarp.

Now I am snug in bed and we have 21 miles to Helena. There is tons of thunder and lightning around us but I think it will pass soon.

Daily Summary
Date: July 14, 2011
Day 20
Daily Distance: 24.5 miles
Trip Distance: 319.6 miles

Had 4 coffees today, including a very tasty americano at Roasted, a place that sells art and espresso in Lincoln. The lady that runs it also has a very cute bull terrier (?). Sent 5 packages from the PO, which included getting rid of my ice axe, crampons, and rain jacket.

We eventually left town mid-afternoon in the bed of a pickup. As soon as we started hiking, rain started, but it was a steep climb so it was nice. We got up to the divide and walked a bit and then big thundershowers started. It was quite unnerving because we were exposed on top of a ridge with nowhere to go but up. So we climbed while thunder rumbled and rain came down in buckets…. Actually, the rain reminded me of home.

Chance eventually decided he was seeing too much lightning coming down near us, so we threw up his tarp under some trees for an hour while the worst of it went by.

The rain stopped as we were reaching the end of the day, so we quickly setup camp. Both our sleeping bags got a bit damp in spite of being in dry bags, so hopefully the night isn’t too cold.

Back to what I said first, perhaps sending my rain jacket off wasn’t my brightest idea. My windshirt and merino wool hoodie did a reasonable job of keeping me warm though, but once we camped I needed to be in my bag fast!

Daily Summary
Date: July 13, 2011
Day 19
Daily Distance: 12.1 miles
Trip Distance: 295.1 miles

We had a lazy morning wake up, weren’t walking til 8am. It was another freezing/sweating night for Chance and I. Still no idea why.

Our excitements for the day were simple things. We shared a big thing of vanilla pudding, sitting on the porch of a ranger cabin. I went for a little swim, fully clothed (my own stench was starting to get to me). We chatted with a ranger on horseback.

Things I’ve learned on the CDT (incomplete):
-how to walk on steep snow
-that I can self-arrest with an ice axe outside of a class I took
-how to cross streams semi-safely
-what a pain walking on soft snow is
-people really say “howdy” as a greeting outside of Western movies

Things I am remembering from the PCT:
-how exciting outhouses are when you’re used to digging holes
-lying down across the trail is surprisingly comfortable if the trail is on a side hill
-obsessing about food I’m going to eat in town

Good times

Daily Summary
Date: July 10, 2011
Day 16
Daily Distance: 24.3 miles
Trip Distance: 255.1 miles

Last night was very weird, I thought I was sick/feverish for sure. I fell asleep to the roaring creek we were beside. It sounded like opera singers belting out arias. That was the first clue I wasn’t doing well. I was also abnormally cold. I woke up throughout the night sweating and cold. In the morning, Chance said he had felt the same and it was just really cold ground, freezing us from the bottom.

The hike itself was really easy downhill all the way… We dropped into new terrain, very sandy and dry. It reminded me of the PCT a lot, we just flew through the miles. We passed a trail crew and a bunch of horse packers. Eventually, we reached Benchmark Ranch our resupply point after the end of the Bob. Our first road in 115 miles.

The ranch itself was a hot 2 miles of road off trail, and was totally deserted. We picked up our food, which we absolutely didn’t need – we had packed 8 days of food and only used 5. So now I have 6 days of food for a 2.5 day stretch to Lincoln.

The story behind the extra food is that there is a group ahead of us on the CDT, and they are blogging as they hike. We’ve been relying on their reports of trail conditions up until now, but they haven’t turned out to match what we’ve found in the wilderness. It’s probably a combination of factors that have made the difference: we are more risk taking, younger by 20+ years, and they are 10 days ahead (which affects stream and snow levels). Point is, I will be reading their journals for entertainment value in the future, not trail beta.

Daily Summary
Date: July 9, 2011
Day 15
Daily Distance: 19.7 miles
Trip Distance: 230.8 miles

This morning we crossed Spotted Bear River twice, and it was a tough cross. Chance tried the first time himself, but quickly came back. Then we went together, with him upstream of me to break the current, and my job was to help stabilize him so he could move. It almost worked, but with the river breaking around his chest, he got pushed over and I barely was able to keep him from being dragged off. He ended up being just short of dunked before we got him standing again. We got to the other side and had a drying out in the sun, and decided the next time, I would get to go first. Second crossing went fine, further upstream so it had a bit less force, but we were very careful 🙂

Anyways, apart from the crossings, the morning was uneventful. Chance told me what each flavor of Skittles reminded him of…

After lunch we slogged our way through snow to the Chinese Wall! It was absolutely breathtaking.

The trail follows the wall for about 5 miles, so normally you’d just zip by it. Our trail was buried in snow, so we spent a good 4 hours walking by… Mostly with heads down as we tried to stay on balance in endless snow cups.

Today felt very hard. My feet have been continuously wet from snow or stream crossings since we entered The Bob, and I’m finally starting to see some ill effects. Blisters are forming under a couple toe nails, and I’m losing two more soon. Overall I can’t complain too much though… 2 weeks without any real issues in these conditions seems like a miracle 🙂

Daily Summary
Date: July 8, 2011
Day 14
Daily Distance: 21.4 miles
Trip Distance: 211.1 miles