CDT2025 Book 2 Chapter 5 – a day in the life

I’ll get to Leadore in a minute.

 

Most days are pretty similar, despite the change in scenery, and slower change of the season.  I thought I’d include a little “day in the life” (Beatles singalong optional).

 

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It is not all bad.  But the monotonous, non -trail parts can be.  I’m not being glass-half-empty here

 

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You’re dealing with constant sleep deprivation.  It’s light until about 10, and the sun comes up at 6.  Plus there’s the tossing and turning during the night.  So unless you go to bed before it’s dark, and stay in bed after sunrise, you’re always just short of enough sleep.  That can grate after a while.

 

Up at 6, stuff, hiking by 6:45.  Snack time at 9:30 if you can stretch it out, usually earlier.  After that, you do what everyone does daily after eating.  And there’s no graceful way to do it.

 

Probably a 2nd snack in here at some point.

 

Noonish, or 11:45 its time for lunch.  Hopefully at water.  While your water filter gravity filters, eat, take your shoes off, check your phone app, and despair at how few miles you’ve done by lunch.  Not that it’s hike-or-die, but you need to eat food daily, and it doesn’t grow.  Eventually you have to get to town.  Which means hike.

 

Pass or be passed by others.  You might encounter others, resting for lunch, or at a convenient lake.  Or vice versa.  Depending on where “the Bubble” is, it might happen a lot.  I think at this point most of the hikers are ahead if me, so this will happen less often.  I’m starting to bump into the edge of the NOBO (north bound) wave here in southern Montanaho.

 

Late afternoon: threat of, or actual rain.  Eat a snack under the umbrella.  Don and doff rainwear a few times as needed.  Get sweaty.

 

Around 5 ish, depending on the mileage, look for a place to eat dinner.  Camp is hours away.  Many people hike after dinner, myself included.  Sitting for an hour and eating a hot meal can be very energizing.

 

Hopefully, somewhere during the day, there was flowing water at trail.  A reasonable stream allows for some laundry, at least yesterday’s socks.  Safety-pinned to the outside of your pack, they’ll be dry in the morning.

 

At every water source, check mileage until the next.  In this terrain and season, divide miles by 6 to determine liters required.  Remember if you “dry camp” (at a place without water) to bring an extra liter.

 

Sage came back!  Also, mint!  Elevation and latitude are like time machines.

 

Huckleberries, then none, depending on altitude and moisture.

 

Snowfields might be above you.  Or below you if you’re in the bug stuff.  Good news, they mean streams are running.

 

Thunder.  Maybe lightning.  Sometimes even below you in the valleys.

 

Camp and eat with bugs.  Count food again.  Figure out what you can eat and still have enough to arrive in town on fumes.

 

Crash at 9 while its still light out. 

 

Update blog.  Update spreadsheet.  Look at map app, count miles and elevation.  Try and compute next campsite.

 

Probably wake around 11, readjust quilt, sleep until dawn.  Be cold.

 

Toss and turn, pee.

 

Worry about Ursack being a wise choice vs a bear can.

 

Repeat, and repeat.

 

 

 

Jul26

 

Easy day, gorgeous trail, hiked with Rally and Pop, fun.  Pushed on.  Rally had a bad day on 25th too.  Too many miles, not enough swimming at lakes.  I had explained to Slay that since I’m slow, I just hike all day, every day, and don’t take long lunches or swim breaks.  Did a little too much, but got to a ridge top to camp on.

 

Yeah Smokebeard, how old ARE you?  We were talking about that.  I said anywhere from 40 to 60, I have no idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jul27

 

25 miler.  crissed the 45th parallel.  like northern VT.  Ridgewalk with serious climbs.  Like Franconia Ridge.  Ridge is the divide and Montana/ Idaho state boundary.  I peed over the line.  Because I could.

 

Excellent but no water.  Some was .25 mile off trail, 19 miles later, .5 miles off trail.  Carried almost 4L.  Arrived thirsty. Hiked with Treebeard.

 

Lots of Lewis and Clark stuff here. 

 

27.3 to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jul28

 

Until about 1am, it was thunder, lightning and rain.  I woke to rain blowing into my temt; I sleep with the outer door open to keep condensation down.  When the sun came up. I kept rolling over and going back to sleep.  Finally up by about 8.

 

The morning was mostly grinding up and down ATV roads.  ATVs can go straight up the gradient of the hill, much easier than people.  The end result is steep, Franconia Ridge-level hills.  Brutal.

 

Suddenly, the trail was wide open, and it was 100 (maybe) mile views everywhere.  I felt privileged to be there.

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch at a spring 0.1 miles off trail, it was all open terrain, sage fields, big sky, and the perpetual threat of rain.  Each morning things start out cloudy, then the air heats up and the skies clear.  Then, in the afternoon, clouds build from the heat of the day.  Often you can see rain falling in the distance.  Or on you.

 

I’m not looking forward to trying to hitch into town, Leadore isn’t exactly on the way to anywhere.

 

Jul30 – Leadore

 

On trail by 6, past cow fields for a few miles, and presto, at the road by 7:45.

 

 

 

 

Rt 43 is a dirt road that leads from nowhere to nowhere. 

 

But, 20 minutes after I got there, a woman showed up with a few hikers that she was dropping off. She was more than happy to give me a ride into town. For twenty dollars.  I got in at around 8:30am, before everything opened and spent a few minutes outside the community center/library charging my phone before racing inside to use the bathroom the minute it opened.

 

 

 

Setting the alarm on my phone to wake me up at 5:00 a.m. turned out to have been a stroke of genius.

 

The rest of the day will be eating, laundry, showering, and maybe having a few beers with some other hikers whose birthday it is.

Leadore is a cool little place.  Population 105.  They sell weird fur pelts, nails, fly fishing stuff, brass knuckles, pistols that are really foldout knives, and postcards at the convenience store.  Which also makes burgers on a Foreman Grill, or sub sandwiches if you like.  They have posters which read “The way to a man’s heart us through his fly”.  Because they’re fishing posters.  Or posters of women posing in underwear, your choice.

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Ate several thousand calories of mostly junk food at the store, and checked into the Mustang Inn for a shower and socializing.

 

The other hikers organized a big communal lunch and dinner, which I stepped back from, having plenty of my own food from my maildrop.  Plus it’s their ‘tramily’ ( I hate that word).

 

Among dinner topics, the correct number of pairs of underwear to carry, the merits of on-trail laundry, the number of days permissible to go without bathing, and the amount of weight everyone has lost.  not that we’re all just gross, but it’s a common thread for all hikers, regardless of age, experience, or preferred pronouns. 

 

Smokebeard, if you don’t have enough wipes to use them every night, it means YOU DON’T CARRY ENOUGH WIPES.

 

 

 

 

 

Some hikers stayed over at the other hotel, since this one was full and there was a thunderstorm warning.  They decided to shuttle out at 6am.

 

Frizz and Pedi showed up! I’m sitting in the main room at the hotel and hear “Smoookebeeeeaerd……..” and it’s Pedi!

 

Had not seen them since the day before the Canadian border!  Hugs all round.

 

I left at 4pm after doing chores and eating.  And eating.  A guy named Taxi and I got the shuttle out.  Met Meemaw ( from East Glacier! ) and some dude coming in.  Taxi and I did about 8 and then flopped down in a saddle of land.