SUMMARY:  This morning was much more pleasant—not so cold, and a mix of sun and big clouds. We enjoyed eating breakfast with Elusive. Wow, when he finishes the CDT, he’s going off to kayak down the Missouri River!

We got a ride back to the road junction we hitched from, and walked back to the CDT. It was a chilly day with clouds and lots of wind. Once we were back up on the Divide, the wind was so fierce that it was hard for me to walk. And cold-brrr! We wore raingear just to stay warm, though it did rain a bit, too. There are cliffs and rock formations up here and trees that obviously have a battle to survive. We are camped among them, protected from the wind, but we can hear it roaring up above us, and it’s very cold. Double-brrr!

DETAILS:  We found this morning to be very different from yesterday morning–not so cold, and only  a partly cloudy sky.  We met with Elusive for breakfast, and he told us about his CDT adventures, which included a 3 day hiatus from the trail feeling desperately sick–turned out it was food poisoning.  But he is an amazing adventurer!  He and Fixit are the two oldest guys doing the CDT this year, and he’s not just doing the CDT–he’s been “weaving” his way across the USA, doing all sorts of trails and bike runs, AND when he’s done with the CDT, he plans to kayak the Missouri River!   Whew!  When we finish, all we want to do is go home–no other ambitions.

We all got rides back to the trail from a guy named Mountain Bear.  He’s temporarily out of work, and decided to spend his time doing good deeds to help people.  He dropped us off at the junction we hitched from day before yesterday, and then headed up to drop Elusive off at Rodgers Pass.

We had a nice walk up the Rodgers Pass road; the weather was cool and windy, but there was plenty of sunshine. We noticed a lot of trucks going UP the mountain empty and coming back FULL of dirt.  “Must be some big construction project” we thought.  When we got there, it turned out to be a mine reclamation project, where they were removing a lot of polluted dirt.  Eventually it will be replaced with “clean” dirt.  (Strange irony there!!).

By 11:00 we were at Rodgers Pass.  Just before the pass, we came to a sign that said “Near this spot was recorded the COLDEST temperature on record in the USA, in January 1954: 70 degrees below zero.”   That is mindboggling.  Who recorded it, and how did they ever survive?

Well, of course, from Rodgers Pass, up we went, a big climb in wind that often was so strong that I could hardly walk.  It was very cold, too, but I didn’t want to put on my down jacket, because dark clouds were rolling in, and I could see rain off to the west.  So I managed with my “polypew” (long underwear top), with my bandana on my neck to keep my neck warm, plus fleece gloves and headband.

We were doing another big climb up Green Mountain when we were passed by some young guy CDT hikers.  One of them was another Aussie, but quite different from Shepherd!  This guy had lots of piercings and tattoos and dreadlocks.  He and his hiking buddy are strong, fast, and very cheerful.  It was fun to meet them.  Then we met up with “Boston” another young CDT hiker guy, but very different yet again.  Boston is….just angry…all the time, about all sorts of things.  This time he was angry about having lost one of his base layers in the wind.  It blew off his pack, apparently.  When he described it, we immediately knew we had seen it, caught on a tree by the trail.  Elusive had seen it too, and told him, so he was on his way back to get it.  Having to go back made him angry, too.  Poor Boston.  What a way to live!

We finally caught up with Elusive at a very interesting round hut, out in the middle of nowhere on the side of the mountain.  It was well built and looked like a great place to stay, but who it belonged to???  We have no idea.  The CDT here just follows along the top of the Divide, up and down, over and over.  On one of the “ups” we were at Lewis and Clark Pass, complete with a sign that told how they had gone through here.  Again, it was a great feeling to know we are walking in the footsteps of history!

The wind continued all day, and it was obvious that’s standard weather up here, because all the trees are stunted and bent over.  There are more and more rocky cliffs and rock formations, too, not just rounded forested hills.  It did finally rain a bit, and it felt good to put the raingear on–WARM!  There were still bits of fresh snow left from the storm, and as the afternoon went on, it got colder and colder.

So instead of eating supper by the trail, we pushed on till at 6:30 we found a campsite in a protected spot, set up the tent, and ate inside the tent.  We could sure hear the wind, rushing and roaring above us.  We looked at the maps and figure on reaching Benchmark Ranch day after tomorrow.  Then it was time to get horizontal!