SUMMARY:  What fun! We’ve reached the part of the Divide here in the Centennial Mountains, where we are walking above timberline on a narrow ridge. If we walk the north side of the ridge, we’re in Montana—if the south side, we’re in Idaho. So the hikers just say “Whatever! We’re hiking in Montanaho!”

The views from the trail today were spectacular, and until after Aldous Lake, the trail itself was cared for and had signs. All that ended abruptly after the lake, and we were back to climbing over blowdowns and huffing up killer long steep uphills. But the forest here is green and pretty with lots of plants and even ponds. We’ve camped by one of those tonight.

DETAILS:  Brrr, it was 32 degrees this morning!  We started hiking all bundled up, after pulling plant stickers/seedheads off our gear.  It’s that time of year–the plants are all going to seed.  We moved right along and soon finished the big switchbacks that took us up to the top of the Divide, where a strong, cold wind was waiting for us.  There were a lot of plants along the trail and overhanging the trail, which kept snagging on our trek poles, making for slower going.  We ate breakfast in a sunny, protected spot near the edge of a big dropoff where there used to be an open pit mine.

Back to the trail–the Divide is very narrow here, and the trail meanders a bit along the ridge, so sometimes we are in Montana and sometimes Idaho.  Far below us are golden valleys with large lakes and few roads.  There is not a sign of a ranch or a cow or anything–it’s just open and unoccupied.  Up on the mountain, where there are forests, they are much greener than those in Wyoming or Colorado.  There are very few dead trees.  We spent the morning up high above timberline, among the wildflowers and grasses.

Finally the trail dropped way down, back into forest again, to the trailhead camp for Aldous Lake.  It was very nice, and  had some brand new campsites with tables and bear boxes.  After that came a 1 1/4 mile climb up to the lake itself.  We didn’t think much of it–it turned out to be basically a green, algae laden large pond.  The trail up to the lake, though, was fine–blowdowns all cleared, nice trail and plenty of signs.  But after the lake, all that changed.  We were back to climbing over blowdowns, negotiating “trail” that was in dire need of some maintenance, and no signs or indications that we were on the CDT.

Then came a very long and very steep “killer” uphill where our speed dropped to a crawl.  We were really tired when we stopped at the top of it to eat some dinner and rest a bit.  Then came MORE steep uphill, and we reached a forest fire zone with lots of blackened trees and blowdowns and messed up trail.  It was so sad to see the burned forest, knowing how pretty it must have been before the fire.  We passed a pond and finally stopped to camp near the next one.  I had hoped for at least 25 miles today, but with the uphill slowdown, I don’t think we made that much.  But we did OK, and hopefully we can make it into Lima tomorrow!