Day: 094
Date: Thursday, 08 August 2024
Start: Brooks Lake Road (but staying in Dubois WY)
Finish: County Line Creek
Daily Kilometres: 30.3
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 2735.6
Weather: Gloomy overcast and cold morning; mild and partly sunny in the afternoon
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Microwaved breakfast burritos
Lunch: Italian subs
Dinner: Rehydrated meals.
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: Nothing in particular.
Lowlight: Hitchhiking out of town took about an hour and a quarter, longer than hoped, despite quite a lot of vehicles passing by. The weather was cold with low cloud and a biting wind as we waited for someone to finally stop - a chatty retired couple who had already picked up another CDT hiker and were on their way to Jackson Hole to do some kayaking (kayaks on the roof), weather permitting.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We woke at 6am, wishing we could sleep in but knowing that we had to get about 30km along the trail today in order to reach our booked campsites in the Yellowstone National Park backcountry as per our permit. This meant hitchhiking back to the trail as quickly as possible so we could start hiking.
After checking out of the motel at 7:30am, we walked to the edge of Dubois with our thumbs out to passing vehicles, then found ourselves a spot where oncoming vehicles had a good view of us. There was moderate traffic, but it seemed a long time in cold weather before we got a lift (see above).
We were dropped off at Brooks Lake Road where we had stopped hiking on Tuesday and our first 8km was a road walk along that gravel road to Brooks Lake where we had our morning break in a National Forests campground. The morning was still very gloomy and cold with low cloud, making for a bleak scene.
However, after our break, when we reconnected with the official CDT, the weather began to improve. The trail was nice single-track, though with plenty of evidence of horse traffic (and we did see some riders and packhorses), along a valley giving glimpses of some overlooking rocky bluffs as the cloud cleared. We were now in an area with reportedly high grizzly bear activity and we kept our eyes open as well as practicing our “quick draw” technique with our bear spray canisters.
For the rest of the day the trail was generally good, with only one significant climb, as we passed through valley meadows and pine forest. There were occasional good views to the nearby mountains and bluffs. Along the way we encountered about eight southbound CDT thru-hikers, generally travelling solo, and sometimes keen for a chat.
After fording a wide creek around 6pm, we cooked our dinner on the shore before hiking another 3km and finding a tent site by the trail at 8pm.
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