Month: July 2016

“Winds in the east… Mist comin’ in… Like something’s a brewin’, about to begin… Can’t put me finger on what lies in store…But I fear what’s to happen all happened before…”

We have a day off in Lincoln as Grizzly is fighting a sinus infection and needs some rest. There’s not much to do…so I use my time effectively to tsunami instagram and Facebook with photos, and dye my hair bright BRIGHT pink. Because why not?

I eat food from my food bag, laze about, half watch bad movies on the tv. Excitement abounds. I have dinner with Grizzly, Crunchmaster, Coop and Alex, then pack up for an early start. There’s a big climb out, 28 miles without water and a hot day so I want out early!

I barely sleep and it’s morning already. The guys are going to hitch up later, and I jump on the opportunity for a 7am ride up to the pass with Alex & Coop from the owner of the hotel they are staying in. As we climb up the steep 2 miles to the top of the ridge I’m glad I got here early! It’s hoooot!

I’m up on the ridge, exposed, with the sun biting. It’s actually not thaaaat hot, but with no shade and unable to gulp as much water as I want it feels rough. It doesn’t take the guys long to catch up and we find a tiny sliver of shade to hide in. I flick of another tick from my leg. Have I mentioned the ticks? I found one burrowing into my thigh when showering in Lincoln, another crawling up my leg this morning, I’ve flicked off about 3 others in the past couple of days, and now here are some more. I steal some DEET from Grizzly – this sh*t scares me. So many warning labels. I’m pretty sure I’m spraying cancer directly into my blood stream, but right now I’m choosing spray on cancer over Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Cancer vs fever. Over blowdown vs under blowdown. Frozen wet feet vs bushwhack and slippery log to cross river. All the awesome choices out here.

After 14 miles we make it to Flesher pass. We decide the name is creepy and must be the site of some crazy serial killer atrocities. ‘The Flesher!’. Maybe he used too much DEET and burned the flesh off people.

Alex and Coop are sitting in the shade across the road next to the pass. We sit for 5 minutes, which we all know is really going to be 30. We are all blergh. Really blergh. There is magical portal that can take us anywhere we want with the lift of a thumb – a road. Where should we go? I want to go to Harry Potter World. Everyone’s happy in Harry Potter World- how can you not be??  I’m pretty confident I can stitch together hitches to get me there. No one else is keen. Boo.

I sit and contemplate the infinite possibilities of now. Is this my place in the world right now? Of all the places I could be, is this the one? There is a lot more ‘blergh’ than awesome here. A lot more miles of ‘meh’ in between the awesome. Once you’ve committed to a thru-hike, it seems hard to change that decision. There is so much value in pushing yourself through tough things, getting out of your comfort zone, coming out stronger at the end. But sometimes… sometimes life is too short.

Right now I’m not happy.  It turns out, we’re all not happy. Something needs to be shaken up, changed. I’m not ready to stop hiking, but I want to be surrounded by beautiful things, inspiring views, amazing people.

And right now we have a portal. A magical portal.

I’m sick of faffing about, of talking in circles. I stick my thumb out and despite the thin traffic manage to get us a hitch. It’s myself and Grizzly, and after a few minutes of hesitation, Crunchmaster.

All of a sudden we are not on the trail, we are in a world of possibility…

We head to Helena, find a bed, eat food. Sulk. Mull. Marinate. Think.

Think brain, think. Of all the things that can be done in the world at this very moment, what is my thing???

A plan is hatched. A rental car. The Colorado Trail. Then the rest of the CDT. I need beauty and motivation and I think this will do it. A few weeks surrounded by mountains and peaks and trail that is real trail should give me the momentum to keep up with this trail. Or it won’t, but it is the reset I need to give the CDT my best shot.

And if not….

There is always Harry Potter World.

18.6 miles hiked, ‘camping’ in a hotel in Lincoln ☺

Last one to camp, first one on trail. I’d much prefer it to be the other way around but I have short legs compared to my hiking partners. I should get bonus points for all the extra steps I have to take.

Oof it’s a steep climb out onto the ridge from the lake. I have my podcast on speaker -hiking by myself I want to make the most noise possible. I pass Waitup who is hiking through to Helena and not stopping in Lincoln so we say a half goodbye. It’s always a strange thing with hikers- you never know when the last time you see someone will be.

Today we have 6 big climbs – nothing is flat. We are either going up or straight back down for the 18 miles left to the road from which we’ll hitch to Lincoln.

My pockets are stuffed with my remaining bars so I can eat as I go. I stop for lots of little breath catching breaks, eat bits of bars, take sips of water. I’m up high and have rolling hill views all day, however the trail seems to take the most convoluted route to the hwy possible.

I get phone reception at the top of a hill – the first since leaving East Glacier  – and my phone has its mini-rave buzzing and blipping with all kinds of urgency. Enter the phone vortex.

Thankfully there is a nice stream with beautiful cold water on the descent of one of the hills. It’s a hot one today and I greedily gulp down a litre of water with my favourite raspberry scratch electrolytes – I’d been saving my last packet for today!

2 more climbs and I sing my way down the final switchbacks to catch up to the guys below to grab a hitch. They saw a moose just before the switchbacks started!!! Boo I’m so sad!!!  I desperately want to see a moose. A baby moose would be like Christmas.

We manage a hitch in about 5 minutes and head into Lincoln for showers and beds and all the promised comforts of a town stop.

Laundry is an interesting event in the local trailer park, and it’s quite the task to find something other than fries to eat. 9 days since town and I’ve been dreaming (as always) about epic food, but have to settle for a cheeseless pizza. I’ll get my curry one day dammit! ☺

I’m asleep way too late. I really need an early night but town does that weird thing where I’m so busy doing lots of things but don’t achieve anything. Sigh. Tomorrow is a zero and all the things will be done then ☺

25 miles hiked, 276.2 @ 7510ft

I slept with the tent door open to try and reduce condensation, but instead wake up to a face full of frost against the bug net and a world of ice around me. Today is a big day with the beginning of our climbs that we are going to be seeing from now until…well forever.

I’m out before the guys just before 7am so I can enjoy my solo morning without feeling rushed, and they will catch up to me (easily. Long legged speed machines). It’s coooold and I take my shoes off to cross the river instead of going across the log as the log is covered in ice.

The morning warms up and soon I have to take off the extra layers. I stop too many times as my stomach is not happy today. I hope it’s just a passing thing and I haven’t picked up something nasty. I’m hiking along the side of a hill with the river rushing below to my right, winding through trees. A meadow appears in front of me and is the perfect place for brekkie. I find a lovely spot in the grass with wildflowers around me, sit thinking far off thoughts, munch on my granola and watch as a deer trots right near me,  unaware of my presence until the last minute. She stares at me for the longest time.

Granola finished I’m on trail again and enjoying the downhill that will continue for 12 miles today. Another shoes off crossing and I stop at a junction on the other side. I dart off again to take care of business and when I get back my pack is gone. Whaaaat??? Then I hear some terrible ‘animal noises’ from the bushes. Bloody  Grizzly and Crunchmaster have finally caught up and stole my stuff. Rude Buggers.

I leave before them as they take a break, and a couple more miles down the road they catch up as I stop for water. They zoom off and  I switch on my podcasts as I meander through the trees. We’ve agreed on a catchup point just before the big climb starts to eat dinner so we can hike late.

I put a message on facebook before I started the hike for suggestions from my friends in their favourite motivational songs. My playlist is a big mish mash, and it makes me smile to think of my friends as their chosen songs come on ☺

I turn a corner and the guys are unexpectedly sitting at a stream. Turns out this is our last water for 20 miles, so we have to drink up, eat early dinner here, and carry way too much water up the big climb. They’ve just seen a grizzly on the opposite hill, which adds an unexpected nervousness about this section- south of Benchmark ranch we weren’t really expecting to see too much bear activity. Naughty bears.

Dinner is done, music is on and the climb begins. It’s very exposed straight up a hill on a very narrow pathway. Thank goodness the weather is nice – just a little chilly which is good for climbing! Grizzly very quickly turns into a dot far up on the mountain and I turn my speaker up loud – I’m acting under the assumption that bears have very poor taste in music and will be scared of my playlist 😉

Blergh it’s a breath stealing climb. The hills rolls away in waves below – it’s nice to have high up views again!

Finally at the top, we are camping at a lake I can see far below; the trail takes a big wide turn around it. My footsteps going right in front of each other like a sobriety test on the too skinny, too steep gravelly path.

Switchbacking down down down I stop momentarily to put on my R1 hoody as the wind has picked up, and change the playlist to my thru-hike karaoke – I’m in a singing mood! I tone down my singing along to Johnny Cash as I get to the bottom- there are a few tents about that may not be as excited about going to Jackson as Johnny, June and I.

It’s nearly 9pm by the time I get down to the lake, legs shaky from the descent. Tents up, we hang our food bags and all the smelly things from a high branch, and dive into tents to get warm. A looong day. I need to get used to this and instruct my legs to build lots of muscle while I sleep please!