Day: 111
Date: Sunday, 25 August 2024
Start: Elk Mountain
Finish: Bannock Pass (but staying in Leadore ID
Daily Kilometres: 18.5
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 3228.5
Weather: Very cold early, then just cold with an increasingly strong wind, and partly sunny.
Accommodation: Motel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts/Snacks
Lunch: Pulled pork sandwich & macaroni salad, cookie
Dinner: Meat lovers pizza, pastry
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: Although it was very cold, the first hour of hiking over the shoulder of Elk Mountain at about 10000' was magic as the sky slowly lightened in the east and the sun finally showed itself.
Lowlight: Nothing in particular.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
Before we went to bed last night, Dave tried to make contact with the motel owner in the tiny town of Leadore where we had booked a room for tonight and tomorrow night and planned to resupply. He had said he would arrange a shuttle for us from Bannock Pass, where there was little traffic, which we expected to reach around noon today. However, we needed to phone from the upper parts of Elk Mountain, the only part of the trail with phone reception before the Pass, which was still 19km away. Anyway, he wasn't answering his phone and Dave left a message, knowing that, with our planned early start, he didn't want to be calling again before 7am on a Sunday morning.
We got up at 5am, wanting to make sure we got to Bannock Pass comfortably before noon, and were hiking by 6am, with headlamps, on a beautiful cold clear morning (see above). Soon after, when we had some reception, Dave checked his phone and there was a message confirming our shuttle to Leadore.
Initially, we had a steady climb on single track above the treeline over the shoulder of, and very near the summit of, Elk Mountain. The trail passed across steep slopes including some talus fields, requiring attentive footwork despite the temptation to look at the views.
Later, the trail followed 4WD tracks along the treeless spine of the Continental Divide and state border as it descended to Bannock Pass (7700’). It was another rollercoaster ride with a few climbs that had Dave worried about getting gravel rash on his nose (or on his butt when descending).
Every now and then we just had to stop and take in the fantastic alpine views, even though they were marred a little by smoke haze which we later learned emanates from a new wildfire not that far from the CDT ahead of us. We hope we don't have to make a detour.
We reached the Pass at 11:15am and sat at a picnic table in the cold wind while we waited for our shuttle. Jen arrived at 11:45am and we enjoyed a chatty ride for the 22km of gravel road to Leadore. Jen dropped our packs at the unmanned motel and then dropped us at the nearby general store where we bought some lunch. There were a lot of firefighters and vehicles there getting lunch when we arrived. They were fighting the new wildfire.
The store is the only place to get food in the tiny town and closes at 4pm on Sundays. We bought a pixza from there for a very early dinner. There is a cafe in town but it is only open Wed to Sat! Bad timing on our part.
We are pleased to have finished the five days to Leadore, which we had heard was tough. We were lucky with the weather, even though we copped some thunderstorms, hail and strong cold winds. So much of the trail is very high on exposed ridges and would be no fun in really adverse weather.
We passed 2000 miles today.
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