SUMMARY:  We had 22 miles to do today in order to reach I-15 and a ride to Lima, Montana. We figured “no problem.” But the trail had other ideas. In the morning and afternoon, we faced very long and quite frankly, insanely steep hill climbs, where our speed reduced to a crawl. We toughed it out, though.

The rest of the time was lovely walking way up high, through open meadows and green forest groves. Once we got the afternoon killer climb done, we really pushed it, with the goal of reaching Lima as soon as we could. Dark clouds were building and thunder rumbling, to speed us on our way.

At first we could not get any cell service to call the motel in Lima, but all of a sudden it worked, and 20 minutes later, the guy from the motel picked us up as we waited on the shoulder of the freeway. Tonight it’s late, but I am still doing our laundry. We hope to be back on the trail tomorrow.

DETAILS:  After we’d been hiking for awhile this morning, we realized it was a VERY good thing that we stopped when we did last night–after our nice campsite, it was mile after mile of hip-high, overgrown plants with not a campsite possibility anywhere.  I’m glad to see plants all green and thriving, but they also make for tougher hiking–my trek poles kept getting tangled in the plants, and I had to yank them loose.

Then we went through an area where the trees were pretty much all dead.  There was no sign of a fire and the trees were far apart.  Bummer.  Then we came to what I can only describe as an INSANELY steep, long climb up a mountain.  Man, was I glad we were going UP it, not down!  I kept thinking, “This is crazy!  Do they seriously call this a trail?”  Fixit and I were both totally wasted by the time we reached the top.  But I was glad to see that the going down part was not as bad.  I feel sorry for the SOBO’s who had to deal with this.  We were just glad that the insane climb was in nice cool forest, not out in the hot sun!  Other than that climb, though, we were out on top of the Divide, with great, sweeping views.  Nice!  Up ahead, on the horizon, were what looked like a lot of very impressive rocks–we speculated about whether we’d be going through them.

In the morning, we also came to several junctions where it was not clear which way to go, but again, the Garmin + Bear maps came to our rescue.  The Garmin sure is saving us a lot of “lost” time!  Two of the junctions did have stick-in-the-dirt signs made by hikers, consisting of an arrow made of sticks, pointing to the CDT trail.  But since there was no clear indication that the arrow was pointing to the CDT, we still checked with the Garmin.

After lunch, we were resolved to do the remaining 12 miles and get in to Lima by tonight, but in the afternoon we came to another insanely steep, long climb.  Again, we had to slow to a crawl, and almost gave up hope of making Lima.  But then it turned out that the last 5 miles of the CDT route before I-15 were on ranch roads, and mostly downhill.  We turned on the afterburners and hiked as fast as we could!  Overhead, black clouds were building and thunder was rumbling.  About 3 miles before the highway, we were suddenly hit with a very fierce, cold wind, accompanied by splatters of rain.  It was crazy wild for about 15 minutes.

Finally we reached I-15 and tried to call the motel in Lima…but oh bummer, no service for our phone.  On the south side of the highway, where we were, there were no houses, but it looked like on the other side, we might be able to get to a ranch house and see if we could call from there.  So we went under the freeway and walked along the “frontage road” till we came to a side road where we could see what looked like a ranch.  Fixit is not at all fond of asking for things, so he said he’d wait while I walked down the road to see if anybody was home at the ranch.  But on an impulse, I decided to give our phone another try.  We had heard that cell phone service out here was “spotty”.  And hooray!   It WORKED!  I was able to call the motel, and the guy said, “OK, I’ll come get you.”  “Where do we meet you?” I asked.  “Oh, just jump the fence and stand by the side of the freeway.  I’ll see you,”  he said.

Um…OK….we felt really weird doing that, but we did “jump the fence” and stood along the highway.  Twenty minutes later, and we were in the motel guy’s car (along with his very friendly dog), headed for Lima.  Then it was showers and dinner, and even though now it was late, I had to do the laundry, because the motel laundry is being used by the owners till noon tomorrow.  I don’t want to wait till noon, just to start doing laundry.  So now it’s 9:00 pm and I am sitting in the laundry room.  Oh well!  What a day!

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!

SUMMARY:  Today we knew we’d face the hard part of the Mack’s Inn alternate route: 5 miles of no trail, following a creek westward until it reached Lillian Lake and the official CDT. We could not locate the beginning of the 5 miles, so we had to improvise.

The map said to closely follow the creek, but we soon discovered that was a bad idea—thick strands of plants, fallen trees, multiple creek crossings—yuck! So we went up the hill above the creek and followed along that way. Just before Lillian Lake, we came to a large area of swamp and bushes, but marched through (yelling, in case of bears) and made it back to the CDT.

Now we are high up on the Divide, with incredible views and a very strong wind. We are camped behind a grove of trees with the wind roaring.

DETAILS:  There was a beautiful sunrise this morning, but the clouds looked ??? so I lashed my raingear to the top of my pack where I could grab it easily if needed.  We continued our long walk up Sawtelle Mountain Road, admiring the awesome views, but then the “fun” began.  We could not tell from the map what we should be looking for at the place where the Ley route turned off the road.  Should we be looking for another little road?  Or a trail?  Or what?  We knew we needed to get to the Hell Roaring Creek canyon (what a name!)   We hunted and hunted for some indication, going up the road a bit, then back, very puzzled.  Finally we found it!  And it was a trail.  What had happened was the SIGN which had been set up to show the start of the trail had been knocked down and pretty much destroyed.  All that was left were a couple of fallen posts.

So we swung off along what turned out to be a VERY pretty trail, with lovely groves of trees, wildflowers and views.  Wow!  We were hiking along, enjoying it tremendously and thinking happily that eventually we would get to the end of it, where it would turn into the 5-mile bushwhack.  That’s what it looked like on our map, anyway.  But what we didn’t realize was that our “bushwhack route” turned OFF from the nice trail we were on, and we walked right by the turnoff.  I didn’t realize anything was wrong until the trail started dropping down quickly into a very pretty canyon….and a look at the map made me say, “Whoa!  We are going the wrong way, and this is the wrong side of the mountain!”

So we climbed back up onto the mountain shoulder and looked long and hard at the topography, trying to figure out what to do.  Finally we decided, “OK, let’s assume THAT canyon over THERE is the Hell Roaring canyon”, and we simply headed for it.  We knew we needed to be travelling west along Hell Roaring Creek, to reach Lillian Lake and the CDT.  At first we tried to stay high above the creek, but the mountainside was so steep and rough that it made for hard going.  And, the map showed the route being right down AT the creek.  So we scrambled down and started walking the creek.  It turned out to be a sort of mini-Gila , but WORSE.  There were thick stands of plants and bushes, fallen trees and multiple creek crossings.  It was slow and frustrating.  Finally we said, “Phooey on this!” and climbed back up the hill so we could parallel the creek, but higher up.  And hooray, up there, we even found some bits of “use trail”, so obviously other people had gone this way, too.

When we stopped for lunch, there was a very cold wind blowing–brrrrr!  So we didn’t take long to eat before pushing on.  Finally we got to the end of the creek, and it turned out to be a swamp zone with an awful lot of bushes.  Fixit hates swamps.  I hate swamps.  We stood there and looked at it.  There was a knoll up ahead, where we could go and maybe spot Lillian Lake, but to get there involved going through swamp.  Yuck.  Fixit didn’t want to do it, but I was very anxious to be able to get up and SEE what lay ahead of us, so I slogged through (yelling “Hey bear!  Hikers!”).

Hooray, I was able to spot Lillian Lake!   Fixit growled a bit and slogged through the swamp, too, and we hiked past the lake to the spring on the far end, where we were able to get some really good water AND best of all, there was the CDT!  Hooray!

It sure was good to be back on a real trail, and have the Garmin available.  And we did need it–there were several tricky places where we weren’t sure which way to go.   We met 3 more SOBO’s in the afternoon.  The CDT trail went up and down a lot, but the trail tread was fine, and there was a part going along a narrow ridge, where the views were awesome in both directions, but the wind was so fierce that it was hard to hike.   We are up very high, and there is a lot of open grassland with groupings of trees.  The wildflowers are lovely–all the “late summer” kind like asters, etc.

When it was time to camp, it was really hard to find a spot.  Everything was mountainside and the wind was cold & howling.  But finally we spotted a grove of trees on the hillside below the trail that looked like maybe there would be a way to tuck ourselves in on the “lee” side.  So that’s what we did–we squeezed between some bushes next to the trees.  I actually sort of like being able to camp in wind-protected spots where I can still HEAR the wind, and that’s exactly what this spot turned out to be.  I am so glad to be back on the CDT!

SUMMARY:  We were very careful about “minding our map” since we would be turning off the official CDT and taking the Mack’s Inn alternate, which is shorter. Somebody made a wonderful rock-and-stick “sign” at the point where the official trail turned off. Then it was a matter of walking many miles of gravel road, with some very nice views—we loved being able to see views instead of endless walking through forest.

We were worried for awhile because our route didn’t exactly match Ley’s map, but finally we started meeting more SOBOs (22 total now). We ate a bit of lunch, then it was 4 more miles to Mack’s Inn, a thriving little town by the Henrys River, where we discovered that there was a lot of new stuff not listed in Yogi’s handbook.

We ate lunch at a place with a river view, walked the “frontage trail” along the busy highway which was being repaved and traffic was a mess. Did some resupply at the grocery store in Sawtelle and headed up the Sawtelle Peak road, aiming to rejoin the CDT tomorrow.

DETAILS:  Sleeping with our food last night was no problem–no furry visitors came by!  We walked off into a very cold morning, along a ridgetop where the trail/fire road was lined with trees just tall enough that we still could not see a view.  We made sure to find a good “solid” sunpatch (no risk of tree shade) for breakfast because of the cold.  Then we walked along quickly, but I kept a close eye on the Ley map to be sure we were on track.

I need not have worried about missing the Mack’s Inn turnoff–somebody had made an excellent rock-n-stick “sign” at the point where the official CDT left the road and went back to being trail.  Since we were taking the Ley alternate, we stayed on the road.  We walked happily along, with me regularly doing my best to confirm our position on the map, and all went well…..until it didn’t.  Suddenly, what I was SEEING did not match the map–what happened was that we came to a T- junction which did not appear on the map at all.  What was this?  “Our” road ended at the “T”, but it wasn’t supposed to.  There was a big sign, with map, at the junction, but it was so faded by the sun that it was barely legible.

After much puzzling and praying, based on what we could make out from the faded sign, we elected to turn right.  Our Garmin was of no use, since we had left the official CDT behind up on the ridge.  And it turned out that we were correct–we were on the Ley route after all–confirmed by the fact that we started meeting SOBO’s!!!  I have been keeping a count of how many we’ve met, and it has reached 22 of them so far.    The road kept on going and going and going.  Ley’s map said it was only 8 miles, and it was downhill, but it seemed like it was taking forever.  But the views were great as we came down into the valley where we expected to see Mack’s Inn/Sawtelle.

We just kept walking and finally we were there–we’d reached the Henrys River recreational area, and there were houses, businesses, etc.  People were rafting, canoeing and kayaking.  We had a great late lunch at a Mexican restaurant, Cafe Sabor, right by the river, before negotiating the trickiness of trying to walk along Hwy 20, which was being repaved.  We tried as much as possible to follow “frontage roads” to avoid the unbelievably bad traffic snarl and construction vehicles on the highway.

When we reached Sawtelle, we stopped at the grocery store to add more food and water to our packs.  Fixit waited in the shade outside the store while I went in to buy food and get water from the soda machine.  The store is called “Robin’s Roost”, and it’s very friendly and very well-organized; a great little place.  We also went over to Subway and got sandwiches for dinner tonight.  Some of the bikers we’ve met, and the SOBO’s, said that Sawtelle is a great place to stop and spend the night, but we pushed on into a hot afternoon, determined to get in some more miles.

This meant a very long walk up Sawtelle Peak Road, passing a lot of very impressive, big houses, but only 2 of them had a sign posted in front of them by the fire department that said basically, “This property has done a very good job of being prepared for wildfires.”  What that meant was, the property owners had really thinned their trees and removed brush, etc.  Problem:  Thicker trees + brush = more PRIVACY.  So many of the houses apparently valued privacy over fire safety.  Interesting priorities!

But then it got tricky.  The paved road became a gravel road, and there were several intersections where we were not sure which way to turn.  Finally I told Fixit, “I’m going to ASK to make sure we are still on Sawtelle Mountain Road.”  So again, he sat in the shade while I went and knocked on a few doors.  I finally found a guy who told me which road was the right one.  Whew!   I sure do miss being able to use the Garmin!

The road began to climb in earnest up the mountain, and at 7:00 ish we started looking for someplace to camp–not easy on a mountainside.  But finally there was a flat place up above the road where we made a very nice camp with a view back down the valley.  We are tiiiiiiired!

SUMMARY:  We didn’t think we could do it, but we did—a 29 1/2 mile day that put us over the border of Yellowstone Park and into Idaho! I think what fueled it was the breakfast buffet at the historic Old Faithful Inn. We ate and ate—all so good—before getting back on the CDT as it traveled past beautiful and amazing fields of hot pools, springs, and geysers.

A stiff climb up out of the valley, and we were on our way to Summit Lake, hiking through miles of burn zone recovery from the terrible fires in 1988. We were supposed to stop and camp at Summit Lake, but when we got there, it was only 2:15pm. “Let’s make a run for the park border! Only 9 miles—we can do it!”

Thunder, lightning, and rain had just arrived, but we raingeared up and headed down an often faint and overgrown trail. By 4:45pm we were at the Idaho border, and before dinner, we were OUT!! of Yellowstone. Celebration time!

DETAILS:  We woke up to a very wet tent (outside wet from rain, inside wet from condensation) and packed up by headlamp because we really wanted to make it to the Old Faithful Inn for the buffet breakfast!  At first the trail was just up ‘n down hills in the forest, till suddenly we topped out on a ridge and there it was down below–the whole Village, with the many geysers and hot springs steaming like crazy in the cold morning air.  The trail takes a very long, roundabout route, and we finally said “Phooey on this” and did a shortcut to the Village.  But we were VERY careful while on the shortcut.   There’s a lot of little geothermal stuff around here, less than a foot across, and we didn’t want to accidentally step in one of them.

But we made it OK and headed straight for the breakfast buffet, where we ate and ate and ate.  Wow, it was good!  And while we were eating, it started to pour rain and do some thunder outside, so we really lucked out on timing.  Once we were totally stuffed, we headed back to the trail.  We could have hung around for awhile to watch the Old Faithful geyser do its thing, but we had just missed it and didn’t want to wait that long.  As we walked by the front of the Inn, we noticed that there was a church service going on, upstairs, on an outdoor balcony!  If we had not already decided to make a run for the park border, we would have joined them.

The CDT route out of the Village takes you through a large geothermal area with geysers, pools, etc.  The pools are all beautiful colors, and the whole thing was amazing to see.  The rain & thunder returned for a little while.  Finally we reached the Summit Lake trail, and began to climb out of the valley.  Partway up, surprise!  We met Medicare Pastor and Rockstar again!  They were sitting by the trail having a granola bar break.   We met a few other hikers, too, all of them “loaded for bear”, meaning they had bear bells on their trek poles and bear spray cans on their pack shoulder straps.  I’m afraid we only have the bells.  The way we figure it, by the time you 1) Realize that the bear has evil intentions and 2) Unclip the bear spray and 3)Release the “trigger”  it is way too late.  So no heavy bear spray for us!

Once we were up out of the valley, the trail was reasonably good going, not too rocky, so we could walk fast.  We were going through the “burn zone” from the 1988 fires.  What’s weird is that though the fires were 28 years ago, some areas have regrown (trees the size of Christmas trees) while other areas are still just blackened wastelands of tree trunk skeletons.

By 2:15, we reached what was supposed to be our camp for tonight, at Summit Lake.  It was in the burn zone, and not pretty at all.  We looked at it in dismay, and to add to the “fun”, the thunder was starting to rumble again and rain was starting to fall.  Fixit and I wasted no time in making a final decision, “Let’s run for the border!  It’s only 9 miles away, and we have plenty of time!”  So we got water at the lake (no more water for the next 20 miles), raingeared up, and set out.

But once we had left Summit Lake, the trail quickly deteriorated.  Several times we had to stop and look for it.  There were also a fair number of blowdowns to climb over.  But we persevered, and just when the rain stopped and the sun started to come out again, we met 2 more SOBO’s.  One of them had only started in July, and he is already here!  Wow!

The closer we got to the park boundary, the worse the trail became–very rough and rocky and hard to follow.  But at the Idaho border, there was a sign, where we cheered mightily and finally we did a really big cheer when we reached the Yellowstone Park border!!  After that, the “trail” was basically on an old road and was easy going.  We did about 1.6 miles on it before we finally stopped for the day, which gives us around 29 1/2 miles total.  We have a nice campsite (no mossies!) but we will have to sleep with our food.  There is no way to hang it here–the trees are all very small.   But what a relief to be out of Yellowstone!  Hooray for Idaho!