Day 113 - Continental Divide Trail - Bannock Pass to Warm Springs Road

Day: 113

Date: Tuesday, 27 August 2024

Start:  Bannock Pass (but staying in Leadore ID)

Finish:  Warm Springs Road

Daily Kilometres:  39.7

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  3268.2

Weather:  Cold early then mild to warm and mostly sunny with a smoke haze.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts/Pop tarts

  Lunch:  Snacks/Trail mix 

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  Nothing in particular.

Lowlight:  Nothing in particular.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Jen, our shuttle driver, delivered is back to the trail at 7:00am and we were hiking soon afterwards on a cold and breezy morning.

Heavy packs and uphill, as usual, for our first day out of town, but at least the grade of the trail was not too steep.

We climbed up from Bannock Pass (7682’) onto the crest of the Continental Divide )also the Idaho-Montana border) and followed it roughly northwards for the rest of the day, generally at around 9000’.

For much of the time we were in pine forest and, for the first 10km, followed a very old log fence that marked the border.  Occasionally, we emerged into meadows with views that made us realise how high we were, with valleys and agriculture far below.

On the Montana side, later in the day, we could see the wildfire burning that we had heard about, but it didn't seem to pose any threat to us.  However, as the day wore on, the smoke haze became thicker and thicker though it may have emanated from other wildfires in Idaho.

The trail alternated between single-track and 4WD track and though there was the occasional steep section, the walking was generally good.  Nevertheless, there was plenty of elevation gain and loss during the day (+/- 4400’) so we were working hard.

We didn't see anybody on the trail in the morning but, later in the day we met a southbound CDT hiker and a couple riding ATVs then, shortly before we camped, we came across a trail-crew camp with a couple of guys who had been building new trail (which we had just hiked along).

There weren't many possible tent sites on the sloping and rocky terrain when we started looking for a spot around 7:30pm and it was 8pm before we found a marginal sloping site and set up our tent.  It is very smoky.