Day 9-10: SOBO

June 30 – July 1; Mile 112-141

Day 9

We all stopped at the post office Monday morning to ship home our snow gear; depending how quickly we hiked, we might not see snow for the rest of the trail. I also mailed a box for another hiker named Meemaw who had left the day before. 

Then it was a short drive to the road crossing where Handy and I had started a week ago. Sprinkles would not be hiking with us since her foot was still healing, and so it was just Strix, Handy, and I who donned our heavy packs and walked past the Summit Campground onto the CDT. 

We had over 100 miles until the next town stop and had budgeted about 5 days of food. We would actually be hiking for 6 days, but today and the last day were both half days food-wise. 

The sun was hot overhead at 10:30 when we started hiking. The trail led through an old burn scar with new trees maybe 10-15 years old growing back. The track was wide but occasionally steep. Hikers at Luna’s had said the first eight miles were full of bushwhacking and blowdowns, but we only stepped over a handful of trees in the first 3 miles. There was some bushwhacking, but we’d already been broken in by the wet walls of greenery crowding the trails in Glacier. 

There were some more blowdowns to climb under, but mostly they were easy step-overs. I was impressed by all the maintenance that had been done on the trail since it burned. 

We stopped for lunch beside a creek in the full sun, and I soaked my shirt in the icy water for a short reprieve from the blazing sun. I was already missing the occasional bouts of rain from the past week. The clear azure sky was more reminiscent of the PCT, where it had rained only five times in five months. So far on the CDT, six days in the first week had delivered rain, with some snow and hail mixed in. And the week’s forecast promised afternoon thunderstorms starting on Wednesday. By then I’d probably be missing the clear skies. 

After lunch we only had five miles to go. We had opted for a short day – just eleven miles – to give Strix a bit of a break. When we crossed into shaded forest at last, all three of us audibly sighed in relief. The temperature dropped, and I didn’t feel like I was being cooked. 

Just before camp was a river crossing, but the water was low enough that we were able to hop across without dunking our feet. A nice spot for three tents was nestled in the trees, and further along the trail was a spot for us to cook and hang our food. We hid in our tents to escape the biting flies, until our stomachs brought us back out. Dinner was fried noodles and a candy bar pretending to be a protein bar. 

Day 10

The sun was already bright when I woke up at 6:30 am. Strix and I discussed the owl calls from the night before; she said it had either been an Eastern Screech owl or a Boreal owl! We all ate breakfast and then started hiking along a wide, smooth path through the trees. It was quite pleasant. 

The trail soon turned into meadows before heading into a burn scar. Even early in the morning the sun beat down through the shadeless stretch. We began to climb in earnest, switchbacking between open meadows on one face of the mountain, and overgrown thimbleberry bushes on the other. 

The views opened up as we scaled the ridgeline, following cairns where the trail disappeared in a patch of sandy rock. The grade was steep, and I panted my way uphill, still adjusting to the altitude. Mountains flanked us on both sides, with little snow patches clinging to their tips. 

We paused halfway between water sources, all of us sweating and running low. I hadn’t needed to pee since the morning, and it was almost time for lunch. But the break gave me a chance to stretch my back, and soon we were descending toward the glittering creek that paralleled us far below. 

After lunch we climbed beside the running water until we reached a saddle with views toward the mountains to our south. The trail descended straight down, with nary a switchback in sight. Back in the trees we all sighed in relief from the pressing heat. 

We had one more saddle to climb before camp though, and Strix and I played more word games to pass the time on the interminable last 2 miles. One couple was set up nearby, and Strix and I started to set up closer to the trail. And suddenly there were ants everywhere. We grabbed our stuff and shuffled over to the other spots behind the couple. 

We all ate dinner together – Inge, Young Blood, and us – in a sandy stretch away from the tents. Young Blood had also done the PCT in 2022, although he had gone southbound. Another hiker – Jessica – showed up around 7pm, and we chatted about plans for getting to the next town of Augusta. It sounded like we all would be staying there Saturday night at the free camping in the city park. After seeing no one the previous day, it was nice to meet more hikers heading our way.