Day 140 - Continental Divide Trail - North Badger Creek to East Glacier Park MT

Day: 140

Date: Monday, 23 September 2024

Start:  North Badger Creek 

Finish:  East Glacier Park , MT

Daily Kilometres:  39.7

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

Total Kilometres:  4089.3

Weather:  Cool all day.  Overcast in the morning and mostly sunny in the afternoon with a strong wind.

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts/Muesli

  Lunch:  Pop tarts/Trail mix 

  Dinner:  Nachos, icecream.

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

Highlight:  Reaching East Glacier Park, our last resupply town on the trail before we reach Canada.  A bonus was getting here a day early so that we have two days off before our last five days on the trail.

Lowlight:  Nothing in particular.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

The alarm went off at 3am and we were hiking by 4am on a cool dry morning, quite a contrast to yesterday's cold and frost.  Our tent was dry when we packed up and the creeks we had to cross were rock-hoppable, at least until the sun rose.

Later in the morning, as we followed Two Medicine River downstream on a trail that crossed it multiple times, the rock-hoppability became more challenging though, Dave, who has Goretex boots, managed to keep his feet dry …. unlike Julie .... not amused.

The reason for the early start today was to cover the 40km to East Glacier Park, where we had a motel booked, by a reasonable time.  Despite hiking in the dark by headlamp for the first three hours, we made good time, covering 12km, and had breakfast as dawn broke.

Between breakfast and lunch we covered another 12km, mostly following Two Medicine River through a lovely valley populated with many autumnal deciduous trees backed by partially pine-forested mountains.

We had our lunch break at a trailhead on Highway 2 across.from the jagged peaks of Glacier National Park.  It was windy and cold, despite the sun and we didn't dally.

Our last 16km of the day was a roadwalk down Hwy 2, which was quite busy, but the mountain scenery was good.  We arrived in the tiny town of East Glacier.Park, with its impressive Amtrak station on the elevated railway through town, around 3:15pm and.checked into the motel.  Dave was very tired, but happy to have made it, especially with the prospect of two days off now before our last five days on the trail.

In town, we met some other CDT hikers we had last seen in Augusta who are planning to leave tomorrow.  Suddenly, there seem to be more hikers around.

Later, we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant around the corner and will have an early night.

Day 139 - Continental Divide Trail - Strawberry Creek to North Badger Creek

Day: 139

Date: Sunday, 22 September 2024

Start:  Strawberry Creek

Finish:  North Badger Creek 

Daily Kilometres:  37.7

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

Total Kilometres:  4049.6

Weather:  Very cold early then cool and mostly overcast.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts/Muesli

  Lunch:  Protein bars/Trail mix 

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals 

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

Highlight:  We passed the 2500 mile mark of our trek today.

Lowlight:  We woke at 5am to a tent with frozen condensation on the inside and ice on the outside.  Packing it up in the dark was miserably cold.  Then, because we had to ford a creek to continue on the trail, we crossed it in our sandals then put our boots/shoes on.  It was bitterly cold and we both had frozen feet for the first hour or so, not to mention frozen hands.  This may have been the lowlight of the whole trip!

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We woke at 5am, packed up our frozen tent and forded the adjacent stream (see above).  We were both miserably cold for the first hour or so and that encouraged fast hiking by headlamp in an effort to warm up.

For most of the morning we were passing through a burnt out forest with lots of fallen trees and other dead trees still standing like forlorn sentinels.  On either side of the Strawberry Creek valley, along which we were hiking, were stoney mountains.  The trail, which must get quite a lot of horse traffic, was cut up and very boggy, though not as bad as it might have been had the ground not been partially frozen.  We could understand why some hikers call the Bob Marshall Wilderness the Bog Marsh Wilderness.

It was a very autumnal day, cool and overcast, with much of the deciduous foliage yellow or orange.

Around noon, we crossed the low Muskrat Pass (5987’) and left the Bob Marshall Wilderness.  The Chinese Wall had been the highlight, but there were other spectacular escarpments and lovely forest in between, though it was sad to see such extensive burnt areas.

Outside the Wilderness, the trail continued to be boggy for some kilometres then became firmer underfoot but very overgrown with wirey scratchy undergrowth.  Seemed like we had to have bogs or undergrowth.

Later in the afternoon, we descended to North Badger Creek and the trail became better, passing through cool damp pine forest.

Around 6:45pm, we reached our target creek, where there was reputedly Verizon phone reception, and camped.  The reason for wanting phone reception was that, with a 40km+ day tomorrow, we will reach our last town and resupply point, East Glacier Park, and be able to have an extra day off.  That would be helpful because while in town, we will have to spend time getting to another town, St Mary, 50km away where there is a Glacier National Park Visitor Centre, to obtain our backcountry and camping permits for the last five days of our journey.  You can only get these in person on the day of, or the day before, you enter the park.

We did manage to get an additional night at our already booked motel in East Glacier Park and will make a very early start tomorrow in order to arrive at a reasonable time tomorrow evening.

Day 138 - Continental Divide Trail - Pentagon Creek to Strawberry Creek

Day: 138

Date: Saturday, 21 September 2024

Start:  Pentagon Creek

Finish:  Strawberry Creek

Daily Kilometres:  35.3

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

Total Kilometres:  4011.9

Weather:  Very cold early, then cool and mostly sunny.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pop tarts/Muesli

  Lunch:  Protein Bars/Trail mix 

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals 

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

Highlight:  Nothing in particular.

Lowlight:  The crossing of the Middle Fork Flathead River turned out to be both time-consuming and frustrating.  When we arrived at the river it was obvious, disappointingly, that it was not rock-hoppable as hoped.  We did not want to wade through so, after some investigation, found a log jam downstream that looked a possible crossing option.  Just as we were about to try, another CDT hiker, “Owl”, turned up and walked down the main log across the river with aplomb.  To fall off the log would have been catastrophic given the jumble of logs below and the fast-flowing water.  Julie went across more carefully, but Dave decided he didn't have the agility or balance to justify the risk and returned to where the trail crossed and changed out of his boots into his sandals and waded across while Julie waited on the other side.  Once there, Dave dried his feet and put on his boots before we began walking along the trail again.  In less than 100 metres, we came to a second crossing of the river and both had to take our footwear off to wade across.  Extremely annoying and the whole exercise cost us nearly an hour.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We woke at 5am and began hiking around 6am in pitch darkness.  First we had to rock-hop across the Pentagon Creek which was not easy in the dark by headlamp and Julie ended up with one very cold wet foot.

Then we had a 3000’ climb up to the aptly named Switchback Pass (7792’) over the next 10km.  It took us nearly four hours and had seemingly endless switchbacks and false summits, though the grade wasn't too bad and the forest lovely.

At the Pass we stopped for breakfast in the sun and admired the views with craggy rocky summits on either side.  After the Pass came a long descent past some picturesque lakes and beneath craggy cliffs on trail that had been badly cut up by horse traffic.  We had seen some horse riders with pack horses on our way up to the Pass.

The trail improved as we got further down and began following Clack Creek for many kilometres along the valley floor, mostly through meadow.

We left the creek to cross the Middle Fork Flathead River (see above) then follow it upstream for some kilometres, finally rejoining the CDT (from the Spotted Bear Alternate).

We had dinner at the trail junction, then walked another 5km through a burnt landscape until we found a rare place to camp on a tiny island with Strawberry Creek flowing on either side.  It will be cold tonight and it looks like we will have to ford the creek first thing tomorrow morning.

We didn't get quite as far as hoped today because of the slow climb at the start and the time lost at the later river crossing.

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.

Day 136 - Continental Divide Trail - Straight Creek/Benchmark Trailhead to Burnt Creek

Day: 136

Date: Thursday, 19 September 2024

Start:  Straight Creek/Benchmark Trailhead (but staying in Augusta MT)

Finish:  Burnt Creek

Daily Kilometres:  30.0

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

Total Kilometres:  3939.0

Weather:  Cool to mild and partly sunny.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Microwaved breakfast burritos

  Lunch:  Meat & cheese rolls

  Dinner:  Rehydrated meals.

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles with his chronic left ankle being particularly sore today for some reason; Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  As we walked the mile through town to the Benchmark Road junction at dawn, we worried about how long it would take to hitch-hike back to the Benchmark Trailhead along the rough dead-end forest road.  We reached the turnoff and had begun walking along the forest road, when a pickup towing a large horse trailer passed us, then stopped 50m up the road.  The passenger walked back to us and said if we were willing to sit in the tray of the pickup, they could take us to the trailhead.  Then he (Dave) and the driver (Bill) reconsidered and moved everything (saddles, etc) from the back seat of their dual cab into the tray of the pickup so we could sit in the back seat.  We then had a very interesting drive out to the trailhead learning about the two weeks they, who were from Wisconsin, were to be working as volunteers for the Forest Service in the Bob Marshall Wilderness repairing corrals, gates, etc.  In the trailer were their two horses and two pack mules. They delivered us to the trailhead around 9am, the earliest we could have hoped for when we left the motel.

Lowlight:  Nothing in particular.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We left the motel around 7am, walked through Augusta, and managed, against expectations, to quickly get a ride back to the Benchmark Trailhead (see above).

We were hiking by 9am and soon in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and following the Sun River upstream which turned out to be what we did for the entire day until we camped.  The trail was well-used and somewhat muddy not helped, judging by the evidence, by frequent horse use.  We passed through occasional meadows, but were mostly in lovely pine forest, with high mountains rising on both sides.  It was a very clear day and the views were fantastic.  Along the way we saw some very large bear tracks and some bear scat, but no bears.  We did see a few hikers.

Dave was struggling with a sore ankle and the usual post-town heavy pack, so our pace was not fast, but we managed to get done what we had hoped and found somewhere to camp around 7:15pm.

Day 135 - Continental Divide Trail - Augusta

Day: 135

Date: Wednesday, 18 September 2024

Start:  Straight Creek/Benchmark Trailhead (but staying in Augusta MT)

Finish:  Straight Creek/Benchmark Trailhead (but staying in Augusta MT)

Daily Kilometres:  0.0

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos from her run this morning.

Total Kilometres:  3909.0

Weather:  Cool, overcast and breezy.

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Denver Omelette & hash browns, toast & jam.

  Lunch:  Meat & cheese rolls

  Dinner:  Cheeseburgers & fries, ice-cream.

Aches:  Nothing reported.

Highlight:  Nothing in particular.

Lowlight:  Nothing in particular.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Another decadent day off in Augusta for us.  Breakfast at the motel's cafe after Julie went for a run, then planning, admin and some chores while watching the TV in the background.

We chatted with two CDT hikers who were hitchhiking back to the trail this morning, one of whom was an Australian we met way back in New Mexico nearly four months ago.  Every time we think we may be the last of this season's northbound CDT hikers, some more appear from behind us.

We had an early dinner at the same bar in town followed by an early night.  The next, and penultimate, leg of our hike will be 5-6 days through the famous Bob Marshall Wilderness (“the Bob”), which reportedly has superb and wild scenery along with a healthy population of grizzlies.

We have to hitch-hike from Augusta back to the trailhead in the morning and are a little apprehensive about how easy that will be.  Fingers crossed!

Day 134 - Continental Divide Trail - Augusta

Day: 134

Date: Tuesday, 17 September 2024

Start:  Straight Creek/Benchmark Trailhead (but staying in Augusta MT)

Finish:  Straight Creek/Benchmark Trailhead (but staying in Augusta MT)

Daily Kilometres:  0.0

GPX Track:  Click here and here for Julie’s Strava & Photos from today.

Total Kilometres:  3909.0

Weather:  Cold early then mild and mostly overcast with some light rain in the afternoon.

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Western omelette, hash browns, toast & jam.

  Lunch:  Ham & cheese rolls.

  Dinner:  Chicken dinner/Steak strips, ice-cream.

Aches:  Nothing reported.

Highlight:  Nothing in particular.

Lowlight:  Nothing in particular.

Pictures: No pictures today.

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Not much to report for today.  We both had a.good night's sleep and enjoyed the motel's breakfast after Julie had been for a run around the very small town.  

Augusta is a neat and tidy little Western town set in flat grazing land with the mountains to the west.  The locals are very friendly and we are immediately identified as CDT hikers.

For the rest of the day, Dave hung out in the motel room watching the TV and doing some admin chores while Julie spent time sitting outside on the verandah or looking around town, including asking whether anybody knew of anybody who could drive us back to the trail on Thursday morning.  No luck so far, so we think we will be hitchhiking.

We ventured back to the same bar as last night for dinner then had another quiet night.  A few other hikers have turned up at the motel.