Day 214

Day 214 (cdt 41): 30 miles + 2 bonus miles

The day got off to a rough start. I overslept 90 minutes after planning to get up early since I ended early yesterday. After I got going for a bit I realized I took a wrong turn so rather than just turn around and go backwards I thought I’d bushwhack to get there faster. After doing this for about 30 minutes I realized I went the wrong way cause I naturally thought I was going northward. Dumb. Big dumb idiot.

After this I was pretty sure it was going to be an awful day but it ended up being my favorite since getting back on the CDT. The smoke cleared up and there were actually some blue skies today. It’s funny how much that can make a difference.

And I finally got to do what I came to the CDT to do. I got to do some awesome ridge walking on the divide of the country. I really didn’t enjoy the Bob Marshall wilderness. It was all walking low through burnt valleys but I loved the scapegoat wilderness today. After a little bit of climbing early in the day, it was constant stunning views until I went to bed.

It looks like I’m going to start having to actually worry about water again but I’ll definitely take 20+ mile carries if it means I can ridge walk instead of ride burnt valleys. I’m just so much happier on a ridge. Today was around 7,000 feet of climbing which I’d normally hate but I was happy all day.

It was a combination of being on the ridge and the weather but today was the first time in a while I had crazy winds. It was pushing me sideways a few times. I guess that what happens when you lose your mass and get scrawny. This area also seems to be a hotbed for crickets and I swear they’ll jump like 5 feet in the air and soar 30 feet with the wind. The also really good at sticking to my skin and hair.

I physically felt quite a bit better today. This was probably the first time since early Oregon where I didn’t feel a good amount of foot pain all day. I was feeling better so I ran for a short bit today. It wasn’t much, but it’s a good sign.

A mile before camp I saw something off on the distance. There was a group of 8 large objects right near the trail where I’ll be going tomorrow morning. They were brown and looked pretty big but I don’t think grizzly bears typically hang out in big groups on a grassy mountainside. It might’ve been cows or elk but I’m not sure if either are common around here. Maybe I’ll find out in the morning from their remnants. Or maybe it was just rocks and my vision sucks.

It’s still damn windy and setting up my tent was a nightmare. I’m still getting pretty big gusts which make it flap so hopefully that doesn’t keep me up tonight.

Song of the day: sober-pink