SUMMARY:  Brr! We needed all our layers this morning—it was 15 degrees. But it was another clear, sunny day except for forest fire smoke in the morning. It cleared up finally, to our great relief! We spent the day today literally walking on top of the Divide, and the trail did not contour like the PCT does—it made like  rollercoaster—first way up, then way down, over and over again.

Views were few—we were mostly in forest—but what views we had were spectacular, with snowy mountains on the horizon, and deep green valleys way down below.

The trail itself was unbelievably rocky, and we had to step over a lot of little trees that had fallen across the trail from the weight of winter snow. Found a flat place to camp, but it’s very rocky, too.

DETAILS:  I think this may have been our coldest morning yet on the CDT–15 degrees, according to Fixit’s little thermometer.  Instead of condensation inside our tent, we had ICE, and our shoes were again semi-frozen.  Poor Fixit has a really hard time on cold mornings–he says it’s like a race against time, because when his hands get too cold, they don’t work very well.  So once he gets out of his warm sleeping bag, he works as fast as possible to get packed up, before his fingers are too cold and stiff.  This morning was so cold that he lost the “race” and his hands became virtually useless.  I had to finish his packup for him, and even fasten his hip belt and sternum strap, because he couldn’t do it.  You might say, “‘Why not wear gloves?”  The problem is, the gloves make it impossible to do the “fine work” involved in packup.

We were both glad to get moving along the trail!  And we were especially glad, because to the south of us, the sky is a haze of forest fire smoke, and we could smell it, too.  We were sorry to see the smoke, but grateful that it was BEHIND us and not in front of us!  So between the smoke behind us and the cold around us, we hiked as fast as we could through a very pretty, very green valley, till we reached the highway, where a short walk along the shoulder of the road took us to another dirt road that followed a little creek up a canyon, back up into the hills.

At last we reached the point where the CDT turned off the road and became a trail again, hooray–but whoa!  What a trail!  It headed straight up to the Divide, and from that point on, for the whole rest of the day, it made like a rollercoaster–waaaaay up, then waaaaaay down, over and over again.  And we’re not talking nice easy rollercoaster.  The ups and downs were very steep, and very rocky.  To add to the fun, there were a lot of little trees that had collapsed over the trail from the weight of winter snow.

At the top of the “ups”, we were at around 12,800 feet, which made the climbs really tough for us older folks, and really slowed us down.  But at least, even at 12,800 feet, the snow was minimal and gave us no problems.  By lunchtime, though, we were almost out of water, and I was getting worried.  But by early afternoon, we reached a creek, where we made a serious “water stop”–not only did we drink a lot (we were so thirsty) but we took on full loads of water that we hope will last us well into tomorrow.  Ouch, our packs were heavy, but it was worth it to have no more water worries for awhile.

We continued on the rollercoaster of the Divide–the disappointment was that there were hardly any views.  Basically we were walking through the trees on a horrendously steep and rocky trail.  At the top of a couple of the “ups” we did get a glimpse through the trees of snowy mountains on the horizon, and deep green valleys far below.  Nice!  But it seems that the mosquitoes have hatched out here, because whenever we stopped for a break, there were so many of them that I had to put on my raingear, and I got a number of bites while I was hiking.

But I am very grateful to the Lord for His help to me on negotiating this rocky, steep trail!  Though I haven’t been able to move at full speed, I have been able to move right along, and I have not done any faceplants!

At 7:00 we were “up top” on a very rocky ridge.  Finding a flat place was not too hard, but finding a flat place that was not full of rocks….hmmmmm!  The wind was blowing, too, and we were glad to finally find a spot in the lee of some trees, where the ground was relatively rock-free.  Sort of.  It was still kind of lumpy.  But we are so tired that I think a few lumps under us will not make any difference!  As best I can figure it, we have a couple more days of this before we reach Monarch Pass.