Day 123 - Continental Divide Trail - Rainbow Mountain to Lime Spur Road

Day: 123

Date: Friday, 06 September 2024

Start:  Rainbow Mountain

Finish:  Lime Spur Road

Daily Kilometres:  38.7

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

Total Kilometres:  3582.7

Weather:  Cool early then warm and sunny with some haze in the afternoon.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts/Muesli 

  Lunch:  Snacks/Trail mix 

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals

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

Highlight:  The stretch of trail from Goat Flat at 9337’ (no goats and not flat!) to Storm Lake Pass (9148’) followed a narrow path traversing a very steep slope that gave superb views of the surrounding treeless mountain peaks and the valley far below (when we weren't making sure we didn't put a foot wrong).

Lowlight:  Biting flies are back.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Our hiking day started at 6:30am with a steady climb to the top of Rainbow Mountain (9264’) where we paused in the early morning light to do some internet admin with the first good phone signal for a while.

We then continued on, including a huge descent followed by a huge switch-backing and steep ascent, until we had a late breakfast around 10am on a high treeless saddle (9214’) amidst fantastic alpine scenery in absolutely balmy conditions - mild, sunny, clear and no wind.  Perfect!

That was more than 2000’ of climbing before breakfast but, to Dave’s delight, that was almost the last climbing of the day.  We left the CDT here to follow the Anaconda Cut-Off Alternate which would take us through the town of Anaconda where we planned to resupply, and also reduce the distance we still had to hike.

The Alternate started with the traverse from Goat Flat (see above) then descended steadily to the scenic and crystal clear Storm Lake.  On the way, we met the first people, day hikers (one with a pistol on his hip), we had seen in 48 hours.

From the lake the rest of our day's hiking was along roads.  Firstly along a forest road with little traffic, then along Highway 1, which was quite busy, or along the old Highway 1, which was parallel and very quiet.

After dinner in a picnic area with the luxury of a picnic table and toilet, we kept walking until a little after 7:30pm when we found a place to camp just off the old Highway 1.

We only have about 12km to walk tomorrow morning to reach Anaconda so are looking forward to a nice cooked breakfast, an easy day, and a night in a motel.