Day 137 - Continental Divide Trail - Burnt Creek to Pentagon Creek

Day: 137

Date: Friday, 20 September 2024

Start:  Burnt Creek 

Finish:  Pentagon Creek

Daily Kilometres:  37.6

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

Total Kilometres:  3976.6

Weather:  Cold to cool all day and partly sunny.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts/Muesli

  Lunch:  Snacks/Trail mix 

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals.

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles with his left ankle particularly sore; Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  Hiking along the base of the Chinese Wall for about 13km.  The Wall is a high escarpment (~8000’) with a sheer and forbidding rock cliff that towered above us as we hiked along about 1000’ below its crest.

Lowlight:  Nothing in particular.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We woke at 5am and were hiking by 6am on a cold morning.  We climbed steadily towards the base of the Chinese Wall, a very impressive escarpment (see above) which stretches about 20km in total, reaching it around 7:30am.

We then followed the Wall for about 13km through a mixture of pine forest and meadows, dipping down to cross many small creeks.  A strong cold wind came up and we both were quite cold by the time we stopped for breakfast, even though sitting in the sun.

When we reached the end of the Wall the CDT swing eastwards and we followed it for a few kilometres before joining the Spotted Bear Alternate route.  Most CDT hikers take this Alternate.  Not only is it 25km shorter than CDT but also because, reputedly, the scenery is just as good.

After descending from a pass, the Alternate followed the Spotted Bear River, which we crossed a few times.  The trail was quite good underfoot, but also quite overgrown, so we felt like we were bashing our way though vegetation much of the time.  Nevertheless, we made reasonable time and the more even tread of the trail took the pressure off Dave's bad ankle a little.

Later in the day we were passed by three northbound CDT hikers, all of whom we had seen back on Augusta, and also three men on horseback, with a pack horse, all of them with rifles on the saddles, just like in the Westerns.

Around 7:20pm we reached a more open area where we could camp, a rarity on the wilderness along the Spotted Bear River, and stopped for the night.