SUMMARY:  We spent the whole day walking on the Divide, aiming for the famous (if you are into Lewis & Clark) Lemhi Pass, which their expedition correctly identified as the Continental Divide. Near the Pass is an equally famous spring which Lewis & Clark figured was the ultimate source of the Missouri River.  They weren’t correct on that one, but who cares?

We went to that very spring and drank a lot of its cold, great-tasting water, then loaded up with more, because we are facing 25 miles of no water. Groan. Our packs now weigh a ton, with 5 days of food and a lot of water, but it was fun to “hang out with Lewis & Clark” for awhile!

DETAILS: There was a very bright, full moon early this morning, but we still needed to bump our “get up time” to 5:40.  After we’d been hiking for awhile, we had a couple of “animal encounters”.  First there was a herd of elk, and second, there was a young bear.  Fixit spotted the elk herd; I spotted the bear (which was running away as fast as it could).

We pretty much spent the whole day up high, walking on top of the Divide.  This took us through several different kinds of forests, with different kinds of “ground covers.”  One of the forests had many dead or dying trees, which normally would mean everything looking gray, but not here!  The dead tree trunks and branches were covered with neon green lichen, which gave the whole forest a bright green look instead!  When I was a kid, and we were camping in Yosemite, I remember playing with bits of that bright-colored lichen–I liked making little “log cabins” out of twigs, and then making “gardens” around them with the lichen. There were also some very pretty meadows and some very overgrazed pasture (complete with cows).

We were anxious to get to Lemhi Pass, which is famous in the story of Lewis and Clark.  They correctly figured out that it was the Continental Divide, and that meant (on their westbound trip) that they were now headed “downhill” to the Pacific Ocean.  We reached the Pass, and it was really great to know we were walking in the footsteps of history.  There are roads here and there in the Pass area, and at the top, it was a little bit confusing with many different ways to go.  Our goal at that point was the famous spring which Lewis and Clark thought was the ultimate, farthest source of the Missouri River.  They were wrong on that one, but wow, it is a nice spring!  The area around it is sort of like an oasis with a picnic area. The spring itself is fenced, but so much water is flowing out of it that we had no problem filling all our water containers for the 25 mile waterless stretch in front of us.  And there are a couple of rocks placed so that you can stand and “straddle the Missouri”.

First, though, we had to wait for a grandma and grandpa who got there ahead of us.  They are on a road trip, and one of their “passengers” is a stuffed animal owned by their granddaughter.  Every time they come to something noteworthy, they take a picture of the stuffed animal at that very spot, then send the pic to their granddaughter.  So they were posing the animal by the spring and taking pictures of it!  So cute!  We didn’t mind the wait.  Once it was our turn, we not only got our water to carry, but also drank a lot right then and there.  Cold!  Ahhhh!

But we could not linger too long…gotta make miles.  Groan, our packs were heavy when we put them on.  Water WEIGHS!  Looking at our maps, we saw that the trail out of Lemhi Pass was described as “faint and poorly marked.” Fortunately, it turned out that was an obsolete note–the trail was fine, with some occasional rocky stretches.  And it was uphill, too–a big climb out of the Pass.

Tonight we are camped in a forest.  It was hard to find a spot–the ground is all so rocky.  But I was pleased to discover that even with some slow-going steep climbs, plus hanging out at the spring, we still managed to do almost 25 miles.  (24.6, to be exact)

SUMMARY:  We are surrounded by magnificent mountains, but no way to get a picture of them because of smoke haze. We made very good time with our hiking till about 10am, and then the CDT decided to play hide and seek again. It went way up onto a broad ridge, using wooden posts and rock cairns to indicate the route, then disappeared. We spent the next 4 1/2 hours searching, bushwhacking, consulting our Garmin GPS (which was a huge help) and studying our maps.

We did make progress, but it was slow. Finally at about 2:30pm, the trail stopped playing games, and settled back down into being a nice clearly marked trail, so in the end we were still able to make our minimum of 20 miles. Grrr, we could have done a lot more if the trail had behaved itself. But the scenery today was glorious, and tonight’s campsite has mountains like a wall on one side, and on the other, it’s sloping to the valley far below.

DETAILS:  The sunrise this morning was very red–there is so much smoke in the air.  Here we are, surrounded by magnificent scenery, and I can’t get any pictures of it because of all the smoke. Sigh.  This morning’s trail was well-posted and well-cared for; we made some good miles, until 10:00 am.  That’s when the route headed out onto the massive ridgetops of the Divide, where it’s basically grass and rocks and a few CDT posts.  A VERY few.  Too few.  We started getting into a pattern of, “Where’s the next post?  Do you see one?”   “No.”  Then we’d stand there looking and looking.  Finally we would give up and get out the Garmin and the maps.  We’d locate the next waypoint and head for it.  The problem was, a lot of those “head for it” adventures involved some steep ups and down and going through bushes.  But each time, we would manage to find the waypoint and (sometimes) a bit of “trail”.

One of the worst of these “where’d the trail go?” challenges was almost unbelievable.  We had found a bit of the trail and were cheering and following it downhill into some trees.  At that point, it totally disappeared, AGAIN.  Well, actually, it turned out, it didn’t disappear–it just made a 90 degree turn to the left.  There was no signpost to show this–no rock cairn, no sticker on a tree, no arrow on the ground made with sticks…nothing.  Somehow we were just supposed to “know” where to go?

Well, out came the maps again, out came the Garmin, and we figured it out, but grrrr, it was frustrating!   All this “fun” continued till 2:30 pm, when we found ourselves once again on marked, clear trail.   Fixit says he likes the adventure of figuring out where to go…I worry about beating the snow to Canada.   But we both agree that we LOVE the Garmin!   Today would have been a nightmare without it.  We would probably have had to bail off the trail and roadwalk into Leadore.

And also, despite the frustration, the scenery up here is awesome.  We have the massive, muscular ridges of the Divide, plus rugged, rocky mountains to look at.  Some of them still have snow lingering on their north slopes.  We passed Morrison Lake–very pretty!! and wondered if the guy we met yesterday made it here OK by his shortcut route.  It was too early to stop and camp, but we did stop and look at the lake.

Tonight we are camped way up high on a ridgetop–wow, the views!!  On one side of us the mountains are like cliffs, rising high, and on the other side, they slope down to the valley far below.  It is gorgeous.  And when I did the math, I was so happy to find we had managed to do our 20 mile minimum after all.  We could have done way much more if we hadn’t lost so much time hunting for the trail.  But if we really push it tomorrow, we should be able to make it in to Leadore.

SUMMARY:  The trail today was a good variety! First we were walking along grassy ridges, following posts. Great views, but a little bit smoky. We were looking a lot at the serious mountains right ahead of us and wondering “How do we ever get through?” Our maps showed very rugged terrain, and the trail was convoluted, trying to wiggle through.

Well, the mountains turned out to be beautiful—rocky cliffs & valleys, lakes, wildflowers, rivers…and we enjoyed the trail. Tonight we are camped in a grove of trees in a little mountain valley, with cows mooing and a creek running. Very peaceful!

DETAILS:  The sky was covered with a thin film of clouds in the morning, and (sigh) the air itself was a bit smoky.  There must be a forest fire somewhere (Yellowstone, maybe?  While we were in Lima, we heard that lightning had started a fire there)  While we were eating breakfast–in the shadow of Mt. Garfield, brrrr– along came a 73-year-old NOBO section hiker.  He told us he had completed the PCT (it took him 7 years) and now he is working on the CDT.  “The CDT is way harder” was his comment.  He was headed for Buffalo Spring, and soon hurried away.

We had plenty of water, so were not concerned about Buffalo Spring, which was a good thing–it turned out to be basically mud & crud.  Yuck.  But for the rest of the morning, off and on, we were leapfrogging with the section hiker guy.  At one point he showed us the very cool Bear map waypoints he has on his phone.  Not only does the app show you which way to go to get to the next waypoint, but it has a picture of what it LOOKS like AT the waypoint, and then it tells you which way to go after that and what to look for.  Pretty amazing!

In the morning, we were up high on grassy ridges with great (though smoky/hazy) views in all directions.  At Bannack Pass, we met two 4-wheeler vehicles who gave us COLD water (nice!) and also showed the section hiker a quicker way to get to Morrison Lake, where he had a resupply waiting for him.  One of the 4-wheeler guys is a local, who grew up around here, fishing, hunting, riding and camping.  He described to me the amazing wildflowers in the spring and the wonderful smell of sagebrush right after a rain.  Wow, nice!

But up ahead of us, there were no more grassy ridges.  Instead, there was a high wall of very impressive-looking mountains.  As we walked towards them, I was thinking, “How will we ever get through there?”  The map said that yes, we would get through–on a very convoluted, twisting trail.  I just hoped we’d be able to follow it OK.

Well, it turned out that the trail was actually pretty good.  There were some uphills, but reasonably graded.  And we used the Ley map to take a shortcut down a canyon, that saved us 3 1/2 miles of official trail.  At the end of the shortcut, to get back to the CDT we had to crawl under a barbed wire fence and ford a creek, but it was worth it, to save over 3 miles!  All through the afternoon, we were hearing rumbles of thunder, and had occasional sprinkles of rain, but nothing more.

After the shortcut, we were walking along a green, rocky river valley, then over a ridge and down into another valley.  And that’s where we are camped now, in a grove of trees, near a creek.  We can hear cows mooing.  The sun has been trying to come out, but not quite making it, so it’s a sort of cloudy sunset tonight.  We feel like it has been a very nice day of hiking!

SUMMARY:  We spent a lot of time today trying to stay with the CDT in all its twists and turns. Some we spotted, and the scenario would be “Wait! Stop! The trail went that way!” Then whoever was in front had to do a course correction. But several times we both missed a turn and kept happily heading along a grassy ridge or across a meadow or through the woods, thinking we were on the CDT. Finally we would realize our mistake, and then Garmin GPS to the rescue!

We also had a couple of long, steep hill climbs that wiped us out quite nicely. But in spite of it all, we still managed 24 miles and found a place to camp with a beautiful view of Mt. Garfield.

DETAILS:  Our goal today was to make at least 20 miles, or even 25, if possible.  But the trail had other ideas.  Not too long after we started this morning, we arrived at what looked like nice NEW trail, freshly built, and contouring around the mountain rather than going straight up it and straight down on the other side.  There have been several of these new “contouring” sections, and we thought this was another of them.

So we walked happily along, enjoying the nice trail, until we realized, “Wait a minute–this isn’t going AROUND, it’s going DOWN.”  A check of the Garmin confirmed our concern–the CDT was behind us,  up there on top of the mountain.  So we turned around and walked back up to find the real trail, and finally located it–a faint trace that (of course!) went straight up.  We are still not sure what the nice new downhill trail was all about.

This continued off and on all day.   Several times we were sure we were on the right route, then something would seem “off” and we would stop to look at the Garmin and groan and figure out a way to bushwhack back over to the CDT.  One of our bushwhacks took us down a grassy ridge where a herd of cows got very upset when we showed up and started running down the ridge ahead of us.  We felt really bad about this–I know the ranchers hate it when hikers scare their cows.  Back home, many of the trails go through cow pastures, and the cows there are so used to hikers that they hardly even move at all, even if we are very close to them.  The cows we met today were freaking out when we showed up.

One of our concerns as we came down that ridge was “We have to find water!”  We were just about out of water, and when we got to the creek where we expected to find water, it was dry.  Oh no!  But we kept on going and kept on looking, and finally spotted a spring, up the hill a bit, where we could get water.  Whew!

Finally the CDT left the grassy ridges and went into forest, with lots of ups and downs and twists and turns.  Fixit was hiking ahead of me and he was in what I call “thinking mode” which means he is actually sort of oblivious to what’s going on around him because he is thinking about something.  I’m such a klutz that I have to stay focused on what the trail is doing so I don’t trip & fall, so I have to do my thinking when I am NOT hiking!  Anyway, in one half-hour stretch, THREE times I had to yell and yell to Fixit, “Stop!  Come back!  There’s a junction here!  We have to turn!” because the CDT route had once again done a twisty turn and headed off on another “side” trail, and he didn’t even see it.

Scenery wise, this afternoon was awesome!  We were back in the real mountains, with meadows and creeks and forests.  It was really pretty and really rugged.  The trail was mostly lumpy and rough, too.  I kept thinking about wanting to do at least 20 miles, and getting frustrated, but then I’d try to remind myself to just enjoy the beauty of this place.

Tonight we have a great campsite with a view of Mt. Garfield.  Clouds are building–we might get rain tonight.  Fixit and I are totally wiped out from doing several long, steep climbs, plus all the bushwhacking.  But when I checked the maps, I was amazed and delighted to find that in spite of everything, we still managed to do 24 miles!

SUMMARY:  The Divide Mountains here in Montana-ho (we call it that because we are right on the dividing line between Montana and Idaho) are like no mountains we have ever seen before. They are huge and magnificent. They remind me of ancient sleeping (but powerful) giants, covered with a gold velvet cloth, heavily embroidered in sage green.

And we are literally walking right on top of the Divide, which means lots of big ups and downs. The views in every direction are glorious. We began our hike today just before noon, after being dropped off on the shoulder if I-15, so we had less than 24 hours in Lima. Tonight we are camped on the Divide, with a very colorful sunset.

DETAILS:   We lazed in till 7:30 am (nice, after usually being up at 5:30!) but I needed it because last night I stayed up till 10:15 pm doing our laundry, which REALLY needed to be done!   Our clothes were total filth!  They hadn’t been washed (except for a few sock rinses) for two weeks.  Gross!!  We had a great breakfast, once the restaurant opened, and then I went across the street to a c-store to get more food for our packs.  I was concerned a bit, because every SOBO we have met so far has been grumping and moaning and groaning about the “awful PUDS” between Lima and Leadore.  It’s only 103 miles, and we figured on doing it in 4 easy days, but now I am reconsidering and got enough food to last us generously for 5 days.  When I loaded our food bags, they were heavy.  But we will chew into that!

Mike, the wonderful motel owner, drove us back and dropped us off on the shoulder of the Interstate, where he had picked us up, so we jumped the fence again and headed out on the frontage road.  We walked around 2 1/2 miles, to where our route finally turned away from I-15, and stopped for lunch.   It could have been a very hot day, but there were plenty of clouds to keep us cool.   We followed the second road, as it crossed a big valley and headed up a canyon, then finally there was the CDT, where the trail  wasted no time in going up the first PUD of what did turn out to be many more!

The rest of the day was like riding a rollercoaster, up and down, following a fence line for many miles.  We met two more SOBO’s–Baldur and Half Mile!   We last saw Half Mile in Grants, way back in New Mexico!  He is hiking alone, now–his wife has headed home.  He said that the PUDS get less extreme after awhile.  I thought to myself “Wait till you get to those insane killer steep hills south of I-15!  Talk about extreme!”

I have to say that the scenery up here is magnificent.  The mountains are different from any I have seen before.  There are hardly any trees, and the mountains just look massive and powerful.  The best way I can describe it is to say that I felt as if I were looking at sleeping giants, covered with a velvet cloth of gold (the shimmering, goldbrown grass) that is embroidered in sage green (the sage bushes, which are like traceries on the mountainsides).  Fixit and I stopped at the top of every PUD to catch our breath and just take it all in.  It is so beautiful and so powerful.

Our only concern as of this evening is WATER.  We both left Lima carrying 4 liters, which is a big load for us–we normally don’t take more than 3 each.  It’s been so warm and the hills so steep that we’ve drunk up a lot already, and have 5 miles to go till the next water (hopefully) at a creek.  We are camped way up high on a saddle between two hills, and the sunset is gorgeous–huge clouds all colored red and gold and orange.  We are really starting to feel the pull of Canada–we so want to get there BEFORE the snow does!

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!