SUMMARY:  Back in Anaconda, we were eating lunch with Shepherd, the CDT hiker from Australia, and he was checking the weather forecast on his iPhone. “Looks like some weather coming in a week, maybe,” he said. Well, the “weather” arrived today. There was sun for awhile in the morning, but the clouds finally took over, and eventually it began to drip. It’s really cold, too—we wore our raingear—partly just to stay warm.

The mountaintops are hidden in cloud, and since the trail often goes up there, we were in the cloud, as well. Had to carry a lot of water, since the water sources are so far apart. Once again, we saw a lot of hunters. We’re camped now on a low saddle below the cloud, and it’s raining. But we’re warm and comfortable, and over halfway to Benchmark Ranch!

DETAILS:  Last night when Fixit and I went to bed, we were both a wreck–so tired.  But it’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do!  This morning we did our usual “halfway get up” and ate breakfast in our tent while it was still dark enough outside to see the stars.  There were some clouds, too, and it was very cold.

For the next few hours, it was like the sun and the clouds were having a battle, and in the end, the clouds won.  Back as we were leaving Anaconda, we ate lunch with Shepherd, and he was checking the weather forecast on his phone.  “Looks like there’s some weather headed here in a week,” he said.  Well, exactly one week later, “the weather” has arrived.  It didn’t actually rain this morning, which was a good thing, because we needed water, and getting to that water was going to be tricky.

It was about 8:15-ish when we got to a road where the Ley map said we could walk down the road a bit, then bushwhack down to a reliable creek.  Our technique for this sort of adventure is that Fixit takes everything out of his pack, then he takes all the platypuses and water bottles and does the bushwhacking to the water source, while I stand guard on all the food & stuff.  So Fixit disappeared into the bushes while I waited.

The sun was still shining at that point, but the wind was blowing, and it was very cold.  A hunter went by in his pickup truck and I talked to him briefly.  He said that yes, there should be water in the creek.  Fixit was gone for quite awhile, to the point where I started getting a bit worried.  Wow, was I glad to see him coming back up the hill!  We loaded the water into our packs, had a snack, and walked back to the CDT.

At Semple Pass, we found a very nice water cache!   If we had known it would be there, we would not have needed to go down to the creek.  Oh well.  We did stop and put on our raingear, not because it was actually raining (just an occasional little drip), but because it was so cold and windy.  At lunchtime, I did cook us a hot lunch, and that helped!  And the trail was nice, too–no killer climbs.

In the afternoon, the rain increased to the point where it was sort of a light rain, not just a drip, and continued very cold.  Finally we reached Flesher Pass, and there was an RV parked there, owned by another hunter guy, who came out to say hello when he saw us.  He said that having this cold, rainy weather was unusual, and that bowhunting season, it’s usually nice and warm in the daytime and chilly only at night.  Apparently all the bowhunters are very frustrated by the crummy weather right now.  We had fun talking to him, and he even told us an easier way down to the highway than taking the CDT trail.  So we followed his advice, and reconnected with the CDT at the road.

Then it was “killer climb time” again as we headed up from there.  Well, maybe not totally “killer”–the trail did have some switchbacks!  At that point, we were way up high, and in the clouds.  It wasn’t exactly raining, but it was very misty and wet.  The trail went up and down, and in one of the “downs”, there was a flat place in the trees, below the cloud line.   It was a little bit early to be stopping, but we looked at the maps and realized that up ahead, we’d just be going higher and higher, which would mean camping in the cloud–and that means all our stuff would get wet.  Yuck.  So we stopped and camped right there.

Just after we got “stowed” in our tent, real rain began.  Good thing we decided to stop!  We were warm and dry, and ate a good dinner in the tent.  After that, Fixit went to sleep, while I did my usual routine of studying the maps for tomorrow to figure out where we would get water, and to see what to expect.  Then I wrote my “photo log” and journal.  It is so cold right now that I am burrowed into my sleeping bag as I write, trying to keep my hands warm.  The rain is coming down steadily, with occasional wind.  And hooray, the maps say we have only 60 more miles to Benchmark Ranch!