After a little over 9 weeks and about 875 miles we are done with Montana. It was a great state and, with frequent forays the last few weeks into the wild Idaho side, it was very memorable. But it’s nice to finally be in Wyoming, although Yelowstone is, in many ways, as far removed as you can get from the rest of Wyoming. OK, we are in a state of culture shock. We saw more people in one hour on the 2 miles along the Firehole river guyser basin than we saw along all the rest of the trail from Canada! The lobby of the Old Faithful Inn has more …
From Chief Joseph Pass to Lima, the CDT follows the divide for about 225 miles as it forms the Idaho/Montana border. Our friends Sandy, Kerri and Ken met us at Bannock Pass with our resupply box, so we did not need to come down off the divide for a little over two weeks. Two weeks without email, cell phone, or any real news from the outside world. Total immersion.
In the lake basins near Homer Young’s Peak we came across carpets of wildflowers as thick and vividly colorful as any we have seen anywhere.
Sandy joined us for the 100+ mile section from Bannock Pass to Lima, a roller coaster …
From Pipestone Pass, just outside of Butte MT, to Chief Joseph Pass, just outside of nowhere but only a 45 minute drive to Darby, we walked a miniature version of the entire CDT experience. We saw trail so new that only this year’s hikers have set foot on it (and which does not yet appear inthe guidebook or on J Ley’s maps), we walked old “trail” which still follows faint jeep tracks, we walked the roads across agricultural/ranching lands, we walked across a 54,000 acre ranch now managed for wildife by MT Fish Wildlife and Parks, and, most memorably, we walked across the Picture Perfect Pintlers. Then we followed …
Greetings from Butte, Montana! For you non-westerners that’s Butte, like the “beaut” part of beauty, NOT like “butt” as in the butt of jokes.
We are a little over 400 miles and a a little over 4 weeks into the hike – by most measures about a third of the way done. It’s all gone so quickly and yet the trails, and snow, of Glacier National Park seem so distant.
The roughly 100 miles from Helena to Butte has been a mixed bag. Some proposed wilderness, with real solitude and great grizzly and wolverine habitat. The highlight was a breakfast shared with Elk cows and calves wandering through our …
It’s been a little over 3 weeks and we have covered about 300 miles so far on our hike. Very diverse country, this Continental Divide. From “Marquee” Wilderness areas such as the Bob Marshall/Scapegoat complex to lower lying ares given over to grazing, logging and mining, the CDT covers it all. As it must, if it is to cross the mountains and mid-sections of the American West.
Of course, the wilderness areas are more renowned and generally much more interesting. More wildlife, more dramatic scenery; but more hikers and horsepackers too.
The Bob Marshall, Scapegoat, Great Bear Wilderness Complex is one ofthe largest and …