CDT2025 Book 2 Chapter 7 – Mack’s Inn and West Yellowstone

Thanks everyone for your comments! 

Day1 – Lima to Rock Creek Spring

5 hrs sleep full of truck noises and a 6:04am train, then a breakfast burrito with extra salt.  A coffee from the little coffee cart.  Dropped off at 10:30.  $20 poorer, but what are you going to do?

Up and up high ridges, volcanic rim maybe?  Weird holey rocks and a fine gritty powder soil.  Not much water.

7 Northbound hikers today.

Crossed some meadows that looked like they were hit with a giant weed whacker. Then I saw the sheep and guard dog, happy to see me.  The sheep, not so happy. Maybe it was an Anatolian Shepherd?  Later, I saw the shepherd/gaucho on his horse and mule. With a couple of border collies.  There was another guardian dog who was less happy to see me. Later, I heard that he had menaced some other hikers who were almost at the point of using their bear spray on him.

Reached the spring at mile 17.  Four other hikers caught up to me, who had left an hour later.  I tried not to dwell on the math.  A few of them pushed on three miles to another site, and two stayed behind.  I  walked on for another half an hour to cover another mile or so and found a nice spot in a meadow.  Since we’re getting into actual bear country, I hung my Ursack instead of sleeping with it.

I really need sleep.

Day2 – another old guy

A 24 miler.  Slept in.  I had pointed the open door of my tent directly where the sun would rise.  Didn’t help.  Up it came, and I rolled over.  But on trail by 730.

Early on, trail was rough and slippery.  Think corn kernels mixed with talcum powder, on a bed of talcum powder.  Now put it on a steep slope, and walk down it.  I ended up on my ass about 8 or 9 times.  Usually swearing.  The benefit of being alone in the woods.

Everyone I left Lima with is ahead of me now.  Already.

Had lunch at a trailhead; no hikers or magic, but it DID have a privy, WITH TP even.

Later, ran into 2 retired guys, section hikers, who said, “Hey, one of us! Another old guy!”

I guess I’ll take it?

Hit mile 900!

Wide open valleys and ridges, no water.  17 mile water carry and a dry camp.  Camped with Frizz and Pedi for the first time since Glacier.  Ended up making cold-soaked instant mashed potatoes while they had double dinners and instantly strawberry cheesecake for dessert.  The benefits of time, money, and motivation, I suppose.  I should have 1 more boil in my fuel can, I’ve had it for the past 600 miles.  I’m trying to see how long you can go.

1 package if instant mashed potatoes is not nearly enough food.  I ate m&ms and a tortilla at about 4am.

Tomorrow, 13 miles to the alt/blue line trail down to Mack’s Inn, a little town S of West Yellowstone.  The goal is to get my post office packages. If I did the regular red line trail, I’d get there Saturday night, and end up cooling my heels until Monday.

It’s a semi bushwhack trail (or “schwack” as Taxi calls it).  I had read comments that it was awful, and started freaking out.  Hence, the 24 miler today.  But then I read other, newer comments that said the trail was obvious.  Plus, it ties into a woods road halfway down.  Maybe I’ll get up super early on Friday to get to the road even earlier.  Then it’s breakfast time.

There’s a ‘late summer’ feel in the air.  A lot if the meadows are dried up and dying off.  The Sun is a little lower.  Some of the low berry bushes are starting to turn red.  Even the constant wind feels more like a Fall wind.  The full time-thru hikers are kicking it into high gear.  Colorado and its mountains are still far off.

I’m enjoying being able to go at a good pace, but not a crazy one.  Every day I say out loud how lucky I am to be out here.

Day3 – to the blue line and beyond

After a night with ridiculous, tent-shaking storm winds, I did an easy set of switchbacks and old railbed up the mountain.  Instantly, everyone dusted me, so I had the whole trail to myself.  No worries about someone running into me during a pee break.  Lunch by myself in a huge grassy valley.

Ran into 5 NOBO hikers, 4 typical speed hiker bros who just give you ‘the man nod’ as they walk by, but 1 solo lady hiker who stopped to chat and had tons of good info on Yellowstone.

A 17 mile water carry from the start of the blue line, so I filled up at a decidedly froggy tasting pond.

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I think it’s the combination of sleep deprivation, low calorie diet, sore feet, and dehydration, but I’m fried.  Really had a hard time in the morning just moving.  “That Brunette,” the lady hiker I met, was also feeling it. Except she had done 2200 miles already.  It’s easy to get jaded on the incredible views and overall experience.  At some point, you just want to sit indoors with a soda, or watch a movie, or read CNN, or do ANYTHING other them hike, talk about hiking, or think about hiking.  Just to shut out the enormity of it.

Can you need a vacation, FROM vacation?

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The side trail went way up to a 9200 foot pass, with only minor bushwhacking needed.  Just keep going up. It’s easy.  Then it was a forest road, down, down, down.  Most of the way down, I realized I could make the highway if I pushed into the evening.

So I did.  I got to the main road at about mile 29, at 8pm.  Getting dark, and the USFS campground was 1.7 miles away.  I put out my thumb and within 5 minutes, got a ride!

Paid my $25 and pitched my tent, using the last bits of fuel in my cannister for dinner.  I had bought that fuel WAY back in Helena, so I got my money’s worth!

Day4 – the road and West Yellowstone

Up at 6, hitching by 7. 

Got a ride finally at 9, from a couple in a passenger van with 5 young boys.  The kids were hilarious.  Seatbelts optional, it seemed.

Kid: Aren’t you hot?  Why are you wearing your rain jacket?

Me: I had to put on a dirty shirt this morning.

Kid: oh… (not really understand where I was going with this, the parents did)

Shower and sink-rinse laundry were in Leadore, 9 days ago.

As we got into town, traffic got bad and Dad had to hit the brakes.  One little kid went tumbling forward and fell between two seats.  Mom: “Honey, I told you to put your seatbelt on.”

Got to the Post Office, got my food drop and bounce box.  I had sent my bear can, warm jacket, rain pants. and a few odds and ends here instead of home.  It’s been cold, and the rain is a new thing.  So I pulled the jacket and pants out ( 20 more ounces to carry, hooray ), and sent the rest home for good.

Then it was time for food.  While walking back towards the main drag, I stopped into a walkin medical clinic to use the scale. Confirmed, 20 lbs down from when I started.

I ate a lot of food at a cafe.  I mean a lot.  I realized the trick you have to adopt is to eat faster than you’ll feel full.  Otherwise you won’t eat enough and you’ll just be hungry in an hour.  And by “enough” I mean “too much”.

At one point, I thought I probably seemed like Gollum, sitting in the corner next to the power outlet, scarfing down day-old pastries like some kind of feral thing.  There are lots of ritzy tourists here.

Things are pretty expensive here.  Paid WAY too much for a hotel room, but it’s got laundry right there, showers are not an extra 10 bucks, and it’s a bed.  I had planned a full zero here for ages, so I feel it’s worth spending money on.

I’ve really been dragging, and I think it’s the repeated, high mileage days.  High, for me, I mean.  I’m going to slow down, because this is turning into just a grind.

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I had an epiphany though.  99% of Montana is done, so now I “just” have these sections left: Yellowstone, the Wind River range in WY, and the San Juan range in CO.  Basically the crown jewels of the CDT.  By accident, I’ve done all the lesser (ometimes crappier) sections.  People take vacations specifically just to these places.  And instead of “having” to do them, I “get” to do them.

For much of the trip, since Helena or so, I’d boiled the whole thing down to miles and pounds of food and liters of water.  The Leadore section was a hard, beautiful grind. Trying to get through the thing instead of focusing on the thing itself. 

But because of injuries and basically splitting the trail into chunks over 3 years, I get to do things at a pace where I can enjoy it.  For some, it’s possible at 30 miles per day; not me.  Tracking my miles, there’s been a lot of days where my 7 day running average, including town days, was over 20 miles/day.  That’s Oregon-on-the-PCT pace, and this trail is WAY harder.

So its three epic backpacking trips, and I get to do them all in a row.  Pretty lucky guy.  I just need to rest up and make sure my body is ready for it so I can properly enjoy things.  Maybe a zero here, sub-20 mile days there.  It will be hard, laying off the throttle, but I need to get out of that habit.  And mentally be ready to carry more food between towns so I can go slower.

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Next stop(s), the Wyoming border, Old Faithful, Yellowstone, and Dubois, WY.