Continental Divide Trail (CDT)

I forgot to mention in our last post, the RV park in Ennis was excellent. If you're ever in the area it is awesome value, has super spacious clean showers, and is right in the centre of town.

We rejoined the trail in Butte, which was awesome. Even though it was still kind of sucky weather and there wasn't a huge amount of water around (15mile carries between sources, and a lot of sources not marked on guthooks) it was good to be back on trail. The trail north from MT hwy 90 was in great condition and the miles went by super fast. We easily did 22miles after lunch one day! I know a lot of people miss this section because they take the Anaconda cutoff, but we really enjoyed it.

So, the last few weeks of the trail got on top of me. We hit longer and longer days, and I just didn't have the energy left to write. But I'm going to catch you up now, partly because I got some great photos in the last few weeks that I really want to share!

Honestly, the Wind River Range was spectacular. I enjoyed it far more than much of Colorado. The trail was generally in better condition, and the mountains were just totally beautiful. 10/10 would recommend. We hiked out to Pinedale for a resupply partway through, which was definitely a good reset in the middle (I had too much food and my partner had too little, which always happens with us. As soon as we get into the mountains my appetite goes way up and his goes way down!)

Well, as I'm sure you guessed, we made it to Canada. I still can't believe we did it. We walked 2300miles from Mexico to Canada. It was our first thru hike. We both wore out 5 pairs of shoes, Bourbon lost 22kgs and I lost 23kgs (45lbs or so I think?). We walked in snow, rain, hail, lightning, scorching heat and crazy high winds. I walked with blisters, we both walked with tendon issues, and we still made it. We took a lot of zeros (I have no regrets, thru hiking is hard!). We met lots of amazing hikers and spent time doing a thing we love. I don't know if we will be back for another long trail in the US, but we will see. Maybe Europe next, or South America, or even Australia. Who knows. In the meantime, here's to all the people we met along the way, and all the people who have hiked long trails. You guys are legends. Thank you!

You know what was good about camping in miserable weather on the second last day? The amazing weather we got the next morning. The Chief Mountain terminus route really, really turned it on for us at the end.

Ptarmigan tunnel as the clouds rolled in. It snowed on us (round snow, it think it's called graupel?) And we hid in the tunnel for an hour hoping it would pass. We got a clear gap and made a dash for it, only to find ourselves hiking down in cloud even thicker than this, with lightning all around and snow falling again. As we got lower from the pass the graupel turned into rain and we trudged on in the wet.

We camped super early because we were worried about getting a hitch from the border after it closed, and managed to stay at a campsite that allowed fires and even had rangers at it who offered us dry kindling! It was the first time I felt warm the whole time we were in Glacier I think. And it felt fitting for the trail to make us suffer one more time before the end...

Piegan pass. For some reason everyone complained about this and hiked Siyeh pass instead. I thought it was pretty beautiful up the top, and the sea of fog below the peaks was pretty crazy to see (on the left hand side of the photo). Worth it for the early morning start.

Reynolds campground. Another soggy night, but wonderful views of the river beside the campsite.

The view from Pitamakan pass of Old Man Lake. Bourbon and I hiked this section last year, but still nobody believes us when we told them how awesome the trail was.

Our crew for the last few weeks: Bourbon, Bugs, Coach, Maps, Obtuse... And me awkwardly wishing my arms were longer there at the front (Medic). We had a good crew.

I'll try not to spam you with too many photos of Glacier National Park, but it will be hard.

Glacier delivered everything we expected right from the start. A 2500ft climb right off the bat, sleet and strong winds at the top, but then a toasty campfire at two medicine campground (which also had fancy flushing toilets!!)

Because of the permit situation, we suddenly dropped to doing 15mile days (with one 26mile day and two passes, typical haha). It was actually a nice change of pace, because the weather was pretty dubious most days so it was good to be able to stop, camp, and warm up.