Fire and Ice
“Some say the world
will end in fire,
Some say in ice,
From what I’ve tasted of desire,
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
to say that for destruction ice
is also great
and should suffice.”
–Robert Frost
The clouds overhead blew away in the night. We awoke to a layer of frost on the inside as well as outside of the tent. The water bottles, kept inside had a frozen plug on top and the platypus drinking tube was filled with solid ice. In a word, it was cold. We were warm inside the sleeping bag, so we waited for the first …
The alarm went off early, but the cold air outside kept us in a bit longer than we’d hoped. It had rained for a couple short spells overnight and the clouds still hung low on the ridge above us threatening more.
I found a nice sized moose antler while taking care of morning business. Too heavy, and bulky, to even consider carrying out.
We broke camp and hit the trail, bundled up against the cold with 3 layers. It was a good thing too. It started to snow. Not just a passing flurrry either, but a real first taste of winter with enough to color the ground white and …
Winds whipped the tent around and a few raindrops fell last night. Storm clouds clung to the divide’s nearby peaks, the strong wind piling them up at first rather than blowing them away. Cooler morning temps kept us bundled up as we walked until late in the day. Eventually the clouds moved on with the wind.
The leaves of Fireweed, Oregon Grape, and a few other harbingers of autumn, are beginning to turn red, our first fall colors – autumn has arrived. A few summer colors are lingering, the occasional Showy Fleabane, Tall Larkspur and Aster, along with a few others are hanging in there. Mountain Ash, bending over with berries, …
In Lima we met Daniel and Ben, bikers from the San Francisco bay area who are peddling the Great Divide Bicycle Route (GDR) from Calgary to the Mexican border. Compared notes and websites with them over breakfast.
Mike and Connie from the Mountain View Motel continued their wonderful hospitality, dropping us off at the trail right where we got off. First we had them pose in front of their shoe tree – decorated with hiker’s blown out, worn out old shoes.
Northbound CDT hikers from England, Paul and Cookie, arrived last night and rode back to the trail with us. We had a quick info exchange in Mike’s car …
We got up just before the sun to get an early start. We have a bit over 17 miles to do to get to town. The trail kept close to the narrow crest the whole way, with distant views to either side. Mountains dominate the Montana landscape, while on the Idaho side we gaze upon the flat Snake River plain and distant dormant volcanos. By noon we can see trucks rolling along the interstate highway and at lunch we can make out the junk heap (literally) that is Monida. We have Lima MT in our crosshairs.
With burgers in mind, and in the mind’s eye, and beer on the brain, …
