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!

SUMMARY:  No rush to get up this morning–it’s only 13 1/2 miles to our next permitted campsite. It rained a bit, so we were glad to stay in the tent a little longer. We followed the trail to the west shore of huge Shoshone Lake, then waded through a quarter mile of swamp before finally reaching the Shoshone Geyser Basin. Wow! It is quite a place!

Signs warned us to stay on the trail as we passed close by hot spring pools of all sizes, colors, and temperatures ranging from just steaming to bubbling and boiling. The geysers each have little cones, and they roar and send up plumes of steam.

We went slowly through, looking at everything, before going on to our designated campsite, OA1, near the Firehole River. We hung out by the river for awhile, took a nap, and then walked half a mile to see the Lone Star Geyser erupt. It’s the 2nd biggest in the whole park, and quite spectacular! Back to camp for dinner then we had to dive into our tent as a thunderstorm came rolling through.

DETAILS:  It was raining lightly this morning, and since we only had 13 1/2 miles to do, we just lazed in the tent until it cleared up a bit.  By the time we got around to packing up the tent, it had already dried nicely.  The only bummer was the mossies (mosquitoes)–they were at nuisance level.  I wish that the Yellowstone campsites would be placed where there are less of those whining little critters!  After a bit of climbing (including one big climb), we reached the shore of huge Shoshone Lake.  The trail goes along the “beach” a bit (nice!!) but then it heads into what looked at first like a pretty green meadow with a few water lily ponds and baby pine trees, but then it becomes a SWAMP.  All we could do was to follow the “trail”, going slosh, slosh through water, mud and plants.  We didn’t care about it, with our La Sportiva running shoes, but we wondered aloud, “What can the people do with this when they wear hiking BOOTS?  Take them off and go barefoot?”

Not too long after we got out of the swamp, we were into the Shoshone Basis geyser zone.  Wow!  The signs warned us to stay ON the trail.  The place was full of hot springs (all colors) and little geysers and boiling springs.  I was so glad we did not have to rush through it.  We walked slowly and stopped often to look at the amazing features.

By lunchtime, we were back in quiet green forest, with NO mossies!   Yay!  It was so peaceful.  We took time to just enjoy the quiet.    By 2:00, even though we’d spent so much time just sauntering along, we had reached campsite OA1.  The first thing we did was to hang our food over the “bear bar”.  Then we headed for the nearby Firehole River, where we got water and drank a whole liter of “bug juice” (Emer-gen-C + Crystallite) each while we just lay around resting near the river.  One interesting feature was that there were tiny little cute hot springs everywhere.  You actually have to watch your step a bit so you don’t land in one of them!

Then we headed off along the trail for the 1/2 mile hike to see the Lone Star Geyser, but after a few minutes we met two young guys who told us it had just erupted 15 minutes ago.  Since it goes 3 hours between eruptions, we decided to go back to camp and wait there.  We set up the tent, and  I lay on top of my sleeping bag studying the maps for the trail to Mack’s Inn and then on to Lima.  At 5:00, we walked over to the Lone Star.  About 5 minutes after we arrived, the eruption started, so that was great timing!  There were a fair number of other people watching also, who had walked in from Old Faithful Village.  The geyser roared mightily (very impressive) and sent a plume of hot water and steam up 40′ in the air, for about 15 minutes.  When it finally fizzled down, everyone applauded, and as if it heard us, out came another burst (we all yelled, “Encore!”) before it finally did stop.

But dark, dramatic clouds were building fast and thunder was rumbling in the distance, so we hurried back to camp, and were into our tent just before it started to rain.  Whew!  Glad we had already set up the tent!  We ate our dinner in the tent (tortillas, ham, cheese), and after less than an hour, the T-storm was over and the setting sun was peeking through the clouds.  Our plan for tomorrow is: Breakfast at Old Faithful Village, then on to our next campsite.  If we can put in a 28 mile day, though, we could make it all the way OUT of Yellowstone Park and skip the campsite.  We’ll see!   I hope we can pull that off, because Montana is calling!

SUMMARY:  After a somewhat weary night in a crowded campground (I had forgotten how noisy campgrounds are!) we were among the first in line for breakfast at the Grill, then took a deep breath, prayed for help with permits, and headed for the backcountry office.

The wonderful older husband/wife team did the very best they could for us, but in the end it will mean 3 more nights in Yellowstone.  Sigh.  Then it was prayer time again. “Lord, we need a ride to Old Faithful Village.” Many cars passed us by, and it was hard. Then along came a well-travelled one driven by Felix, from Germany. Well, for us he was”Felix sent by God”, because not only did he take us to Old Faithful Village, but he stood by us during a temporary drama where the post office could not find our box, then waited while we sorted and reloaded packs and drove us all the way back to where we left the trail yesterday. Felix Mendelssohn the composer could have never orchestrated such an event. Felix, we will always be grateful to you!

DETAILS:  It’s been a long time since we camped in a CAR campground.  Wow.  It sure is different from our wilderness campsites where the only sound is the wind, the birds, and maybe a creek and/or wind.  There were all kinds of noises all night long and smells, too.  It was hard to sleep.  Part of the not sleeping was I was really concerned about the logistics for today–all I could do was pray to the Father who loves me and trust Him to provide.

It was a cold morning–we didn’t bother to get up till 6:30, since the Grill wasn’t open till 7:00.  It was so cold I could see my breath. Brrrrr.  But we warmed up with a big and delicious breakfast and I spent a few minutes talking to the older guy who empties the garbage cans.  Looks to us like Yellowstone is being run by retirees and kids (teens and college students).

Then we went to the backcountry permit office and “Mom & Dad”, a husband/wife team, did the very best they could for us.  But it means it will take a day longer than we planned, to get OUT of the park.  Oh well.  After that, permits in hand, we prayed, “Help, Lord!” and took my hand-lettered sign out to the Grant Village exit road, trying to hitch a ride to Old Faithful Village.  It was very discouraging.  Nobody would stop.  Finally along came a well-travelled car driven by Felix from Germany.  Felix turned out to be our “angel” for the day.  Not only did he drive us to Old Faithful Village, but when we got to the post office and they could not find our box, and we had to phone to find out where it was and go through all sorts of drama, Felix waited patiently, in case we needed a ride somewhere else.

It turned out that our box was right next door to the post office, in the “backcountry” building.  Whew!  I asked Felix if he would mind waiting another hour while I sorted through the food and made a quick shopping trip to pick up what we needed for the next leg.  He said, “No problem.”  I hurried as fast as I could on that shopping trip, and one of the things I got was another pair of socks!  I always wear “double” on my socks–Wrightsox go on my feet first, then over that I wear Thorlos.  The poor Thorlos are in bad shape, and I was worried that they might not make it to Canada, so I got a really awesome pair of socks just in case the Thorlos “die.”  I love the Thorlos–they are so comfortable, but I guess they are not quite as durable.

Felix then gave us a ride all the way back to the CDT trailhead which we hitched out of yesterday, and even gave us some granola bars to eat during the ride.  He told us that back home in Germany he is a geologist and a teacher at a university near Cologne, and told us how he really likes the students and teaching, rather than researching and publishing and being the “boss” of things.  Well, he sure took care of us!  There is no way we could have made it back to the CDT so easily without his “above and beyond” help.  I thought of Felix Mendelssohn, the composer, and thought, “Only God would have orchestrated all that happened today.”  Thank you, Felix!  May you be as much of a blessing to your students as you were to us!

It was wonderful to be back on the trail tonight and not in the car campground!

SUMMARY:  We packed up by headlamp this morning, determined to do the 24 miles to the road, and get to the Grant Village backcountry permit office before they closed at 4:30pm. The first 8 miles, we were on the Snake River trail, through burned forest where only smaller plants had regrown. (Tough going with trek poles!). The second 8 miles was the Heart Lake Trail, which was miles of forest regrowing after a fire, but the poor young trees were so crowded that none of them were doing well.

Heart Lake was awesome! It had a real beach. If we were not making a run for the road, I would have stopped right there. Then the last 8 miles—a “hot spring trail”—lots of hot springs, all different colors. We hitched a ride to Grant Village and were in the backcountry office at 4:20, only to be told, “We can’t issue permits after 4pm. Come back tomorrow.” Groan! So we got food, and camped at the backpacker campsite.

DETAILS:  We got up a bit before 5 am, in the dark and got dressed/packed up by headlamp.  It was very cold–I could see my breath, and there was frost on the plants as we started hiking at 5:45, when there was barely enough light to see the trail.   Our goal was to make it to the Grant Village backcountry office (24 trail miles plus hitching a ride) before they close at 4:30.  Fixit is way faster than I am,  and I was sure he could do it, but for me, I would have to “push it” all day.

The 24 miles actually divided very nicely into three 8-mile segments.  The first one took us along the Snake River Trail.   Most of the time we were up high above the river, and the trail was mostly pretty level, but it was also very rocky and we were going through a forest fire zone where the regrowing plants hung heavily over the trail, making it tough going (for me).  I had prayed and asked God to give me the strength to do well at the hiking today, and I felt that I did fine going through all those rocks and plants.  We stopped for breakfast at 7:30, when the sun finally made it down into the river canyon.

By Snickers time (9:45) we had finished the first 8 miles and started on Leg #2–the Heart Lake Trail.  This time, it was 8 miles of walking through a “regrowing” forest of small trees, just the same as we see back home when we hike on Mt. Vision in the Point Reyes Nat’l Seashore.  The little trees are the regrowth after the awful fires in Yellowstone several years ago.  But just like the ones on Mt. Vision (also regrowth after an awful forest fire), the little trees are insanely crowded together, and none of them are doing well. It’s a very sad sight.

Sometimes the trail went through a meadow with bushes, where I did my best to whoop and holler in case there were any grizz around.  Then we’d be back in the forest again, where the little trees were packed so tightly together that I don’t think a grizz could squeeze between them.

After so many miles of no views, it was wonderful to reach Heart Lake!  Wow!  It has a real BEACH!  And the CDT trail actually follows the beach!  If we were not trying to make it to the backcountry office (and Canada!) I seriously would have just stopped right there and said, “This is it!  We camp here!”  A bunch of Boy Scouts were at the beach, and we spent a few minutes telling them about what we were doing.  They were amazed and wanted to take a picture with us.  But we had one more 8-mile leg ahead of us, which I would call “The Hot Springs Trail.”  We passed lots of hot springs, all different colors, and even though it was a very warm day, they were steaming.  Again, if we had not been in a hurry, I would love to have spent more time looking at them!

Part of this last 8 miles included a really big climb, and it was such a warm/hot afternoon that I just ran out of steam before the end of it.  I had been pushing myself hard all day, and trying to do a long hill with no shade in the heat, was just too much.  I finally said, “Fixit, you’d better just head for the road and try to hitch into Grant Village.  I don’t think I can make it in time.  Wait for me at the backcountry office.”

So Fixit took off, and I plodded on.  But when I finally reached the road, he was still there, trying to hitch a ride.  The problem is, he’s not very good at hitching–when we need to do that, it’s me who gets us a ride.  So I took over, and though many cars went by (it is a busy road), after 15 minutes we got a ride from a sweet young Asian couple, who actually turned around in order to help us out!   Wonderful!  They dropped us off right by the backcountry office, and we were walking in the door at 4:20.

But oh bummer….the nice older couple who run the office told us very sadly that they were not allowed to issue any permits after 4:00, even though they are open till 4:30.  They thought that rule was stupid, but they have to obey it.  “Go get a campsite,” they said, “and come back in the morning.”  Bummer!   We had hoped to get our permits and hitch straight back to the CDT.  And there was another complication, too.  Our next resupply is at Old Faithful Village, and now by the time we get there, it will be Sunday, and the post office will be closed.  So that means TOMORROW we have to get to Old Faithful Village and get our box.  Yikes!

So we went over to the information office and asked about getting a bus from Grant Village to Old Faithful Village.  Turns out there are no busses.  Oh no!  That means hitching, and technically we aren’t supposed to be hitching a ride in the park (though we did today).  But the lady at the info desk said, “The college kids who work here in the park hitch rides all the time.  You’ll need a cardboard sign…if you can find some cardboard, I’ll lend you my Sharpie pen to write with.”

So we went to find some food and some cardboard.  First we stopped at the store for cold drinks and ice cream, then we went to the Grill for burgers & fries.  I asked the lady at the Grill for some cardboard, then we went back to the info desk, borrowed the Sharpie, and I made a sign.  Then we walked over to the campground, got a spot at the biker/hiker campsite and got to meet 3 bikers who are riding across the USA.  They plan to finish in Astoria.  It was fun talking to them.  Actually, in the campground there were several “adventure tour” groups who all seem to be having a great time of it.  They get to hike, bike, canoe, and all sorts of stuff.

Tomorrow’s logistics look awfully tricky–I prayed that everything would work out.  It is weird to be in a car campground–so much noise and smells.  It will be great to be back on trail (I hope!!) by tomorrow night.

SUMMARY:  Surprise! The day began with a brief bit of rain, then a glorious sunrise. Turned out that the only reason we got rained on was that we were camped up so high. Shortly after we started hiking, the trail disappeared, and we were following cairns over the rocky mountains. Four long, rocky, rough descents came next (sigh—I am so slow on that kind of trail) and we began a pattern of “trail into pretty green forest” then “trail through brushy meadow”. In one of the forest bits, we met a SOBO with a huge pack. He said he’d made better progress than he expected, and had a leftover camping permit for tonight—would we like to have it? Wow!!

That meant we could get into Yellowstone instead of waiting at the border, and only 24 miles to do tomorrow instead of 27, to reach the road, where we could get a ride into Grant Village. So tonight we are in a very nice official backcountry camp near the Snake River.

DETAILS:  Very early this morning, it started to rain–drippy, drip-drip.  It was clear when we went to bed, but clouds had moved in during the night.  It turned out later that the only reason we got dripped on is that we were up so high (10,000′).  But before we needed to pack up, it stopped, and we were fine.  The clouds started clearing, and there was a glorious sunrise.

We headed out, determined to finish the  climb to the top of the ridge–only a little bit left to go–when the trail disappeared.  Oh no, not again!  But then aha!–a cairn, another cairn, and hooray, there was the trail!  But the long downhill on the other side was tough.  It was very steep and very rocky, which meant slow going for me, but no worries, because all we had to do was make it to the Yellowstone Park border.   The trail started following a sort of “pattern”–over a pretty little forested ridge, then down into a brushy meadow area (I did a lot of yelling in those areas!!), then repeat.

Around 11:00, on one of the forested ridges, we met three CDT SOBO’s–one thru and 2 sectionhikers who were coaching him.  The thru had an enormous heavy pack, and the other two were trying to teach him how to “lighten up”. We showed him our packs and joined the “chorus” of telling him he didn’t need a lot of that stuff he was carrying.  In the conversation, it came up that since we have no permits, and no way to phone for them, we would camp at the park border and make the 27 mile run to the road tomorrow.  The thru guy said, “Wait!  I have a permit for TONIGHT at #8C9 campsite, and I don’t need it.  Here–you can have it!”  Wow!!! That would be a big help–only 24 miles to do tomorrow instead of 27.  We might be able to reach the backcountry office tomorrow afternoon!

So we hiked off saying, “Thank you, Lord!”  We had lunch when we got to the ranger station at the park boundary, then strolled along the trail till we got to our new destination, meeting more SOBO’s along the way.  They are all heading for Togwotee Lodge, and are trying to figure out how they will get around the fire.  It was fun talking to them–we were in no hurry.  By 2:30 pm, we had reached the campsite, which turned out to be very nice.  It’s by a creek with good water, there is lots of flat ground, and a “bear cable” for hanging our food.  We set up our tent, hung up our packs, and headed off to the creek to wash our socks and ourselves.   Then we just lazed around and rested.  I looked at the maps and figured out that tomorrow we have three 8-mile legs to do.  The mountains here look lower and more gentle, so I think it will be very do-able to make it into Grant Village before 4:30 pm, even including trying to get a hitch at the road.

We went to bed early and were glad of the extra rest.  We are tired!

SUMMARY:  We encountered all the usual trail challenges today—miles of burned forest, lots of creek and river crossings, plus some tough uphills and downhills. We seem to have escaped the forest fire smoke at last, so we had blue sky and fresh air. But probably the most amazing thing of all was the “horse superhighway” which had several “lanes”. We followed it for much of the day and met lots of horses and pack trains going in both directions.

A highlight of the day was when we reached the “The Parting of the Waters”, where a creek flows right down the Divide, but divides in two when it reaches the valley. On one side it goes to the Atlantic, the other to the Pacific. We got there at dinnertime and just hung out for awhile before doing a killer climb up to where we are now camped at 10,000 feet.

DETAILS:  We’ve switched to getting up at 5:30 instead of 5:20 (the days are shortening!) but we were still on trail by 6:00 am today.  Even though the ground was awfully lumpy, I still slept OK.  But I am finding that more and more, I’m tired and sleepy DURING the day–it’s been a long trail to get here, and I guess I’m just getting “wore out”??  Yesterday, Fixit mentioned, “Only one more month and a bit, and we are done!”   Thinking about that has been a big help to me.  When I start to feel discouraged because I’m so tired, I say to myself, “Only one more month, just one more month” and I feel much more cheerful!

Most of this morning, we were hiking through burned forest that is just beginning to regrow.  That means lots of knee-high plants hanging over the trail, and it’s harder to use our trek poles.  We passed a really cute little ranger cabin with bear boxes by it–a great place to camp, but it was still morning!

There were lots of river and creek crossings today–mostly rockhops, some fords, and one log.  I crawled across that log and was almost done when Tattoo Joe came along.  “Are you all right?” he asked.  “Yes, I just don’t like walks across logs,” I said.  Of course TJoe bopped right across the log, and so did Fixit.  We leapfrogged with him for the rest of the day.  He told us he does 30 miles every day, no matter what.  He’s very friendly and fun to talk to–he knows a lot of hikers, has done the CDT before, and has lots of helpful info.

Well, before noon we crossed a river (ford), hiked a little bit farther, and found ourselves on the “horse superhighway.”  No kidding.  The trail has lanes and is totally covered with horse prints.  We met so many horse/pack trains, going in both directions!  And one of the horse destinations was to “The Parting of the Waters”, which is where we were going, so we had no problem with wondering where the trail went!  It was fun meeting all the horses and mules, but some of the critters did NOT like us and behaved badly.

Of course, every time we came to brushy areas, I would start yelling, “Hey grizz!  Hikers!   Coming through!”  By dinnertime, we had reached The Parting of the Waters.  It’s a lovely, peaceful spot, great for a dinner stop.  Tattoo Joe was there, too, so we had another chance to hang out with him, before he headed out to finish his 30 miles. And of course we had to take the obligatory pictures of us straddling the creek where it divided.  One part goes east, to the Atlantic, and the other goes west, to the Pacific.

Then we tackled a big climb–2,000′ in only 3 miles, from 8,000′ elevation to 10,000′.  Boy were we tired by the time we got to the top!   We wasted no time finding a campsite in a grove of trees where we’d be protected from the wind.  It’s pretty open and alpine up here, and it is nice to listen to the sound of the wind in those trees!  Whew, are we tired!

SUMMARY:  The early morning sun showed us lots of smoke. Bummer. We had hoped for blue skies at last, since we were hiking away from all the fires. But the smoke seems to have spread everywhere. Then, even with the GPS, we had a hard time finding the CDT trail and ended up hiking a bunch of extra miles.

The mountains around Brooks Lake, our first goal, are magnificent—the jagged Pinnacles, and another mountain that looks like a massive gray wall—but I could not get pictures of any of them in the gray smoke haze.

The trail did a huge “down” to the Buffalo River, which was wide but shallow—an easy ford. We are still working on the uphill climb from that—whew! Lots of views of deep, dramatic canyons. We hung our food bags from a tree for the first time in this entire hike. Don’t want grizz coming into our tent to get them!

DETAILS:   The early morning sun showed us…smoke!  Oh bother, it had spread out all over the place during the night, so instead of hiking off into blue skies, there was smoke haze enough that it was hard to see the mountains.  We got a great breakfast from the Lava Mtn. Lodge store and scarfed it up at the table in our cabin.

Then it was time to hike!  I had thought the Bear route for the trail went right near Lava Mtn. Lodge, but the Garmin as Fixit understood it said no–that the trail was further up the highway.  Fixit is having a hard time figuring out how to interpret all the numbers that show up on the Garmin screen.  (Note: later on, I decided to “learn” the Garmin and was able to make sense of all the numbers.  What Fixit hadn’t understood at that point was that it shows both the trail AHEAD of you and BEHIND you, and you have to find the waypoint number on your map, then you can spot it on the Garmin and head for it)

We walked and walked and walked–no sign of the trail.  Finally we reached the ROAD to Brooks Lake.  Oh no!  That meant we had totally missed the CDT and done a bunch of unneeded miles.  Oh well.  We walked the road to Brooks Lake, and it was a beautiful sight when we finally got there–surrounded by magnificent mountains, including one that looked like a giant wall, and others, called The Pinnacles, that were dramatically jagged.  Despite the smoke haze, there were people in the campground and people at the Brooks Lake Lodge.  I was bummed because the mountains and scenery were so magnificent, but I could not get a picture of them because of the smoke.  The camera just can’t see gray mountains against a gray sky.  So all I could do was LOOK.

We followed the trail past Brooks Lake and Upper Brooks Lake, meeting folks from the Lodge who were out horseback riding.  Once we were past the lakes, the rest of the day was basically big downs and big ups.  The biggest “down” was to the Buffalo River, which was wide, but very shallow and easy to ford.  After that we began a very long climb, which we are still sort of “on”.  It was interesting to watch the changes in the types of rocks along the trail–quite a variety.  And the forest was varied, too–everything from pretty and green to dead and burned.  And whenever we got to a brushy area, I would yell and make as much noise as I could so if there were any grizz, they would have time to get out of the way.  Fixit does not like yelling, so he leaves it up to me.  I don’t like yelling, either, but I much more don’t like the idea of having a run-in with a grizz.

Tonight we decided we’d better hang our food bags.  It is such a pain to have to do that, and it’s the first time we’ve done it on this hike.  But this is grizz country now, and especially after hearing what happened to poor Zorro, we are being careful.