Day 85 

21.5 miles

After a minor sleep in I headed next door to a cafe just as they opened to kick the day off with an early breakfast of pancakes, bacon and coffee. 

I was out of motel and on the road by 7:45am to hitch back to trail. I wasn’t quite sure how it would go as it’s around 25 miles out of town. 

I didn’t have to wait too long. Former semi-pro MTB rider Wesley was driving into town for a coffee and to pick up his bike. While headed in the opposite direction to where I was headed he said he’d pick me up on the way back in around 15 minutes or just jump in now and grab a coffee with him. Coffee it was. 

Wesley was working as a caretaker for a ranch near the trail head and often saw hikers hitching to and from town. He had me back at the trail head just before 9am. 

Picking up the Blue Line from where I left it the other day I continued on from the other side of the road. So much for dry feet, they were instantly wet from walking through yet more wet grass. This must be a week of wet feet on the CDT. 

The Blue Line was a mix of single track through alpine meadows, forest service roads and multi-use tracks shared with horse riders. 

Leading past Brooks Lake the lake edge was packed with trout fisherman in waders. 

It didn’t take too long to reconnect with the Red Line entering into the Bridger-Teton Wilderness. 

Along the Red Line there were loads of pack horses as a group of tourists were riding out following their 5 day outings. If there is one conflict of multi-use trails it has to be between horses and hikers as the horse throughly cut up or ‘pug’ the track surface especially in wet conditions like that over the last week. Horses cut in narrow and deep trenches along the trail, many that forming mud pits. These trenches make if difficult to hike as the trail is just not quite wide enough to easy pass one foot in front of the other. Often one foot will clip the side of the trench forcing a trip with trekking poles the only thing saving a full forward fall. It is tedious work and at times it easier to step out of the trench to hike cross county adjacent to the actual trail. 

Encountering a second group of riders leading pack animals out all the lead riders were women with each saying hi as they rode by. The last one spoke with a thick Aussie accent and I surprised her with a good old “G’day cobber. How ya goin?” She had a good old laugh. 

Late afternoon saw the trail leading through yet more burn country. 

Around 7pm I arrived at USFS cabin calling it a night. The cabin was locked up and would have been small and pokey to stay in anyway but I was thinking more about bear security and food. I was starting to see more and more signs of bears along the trail and I did see a recent note about a resident grizzly near this hut that had paid other hikers a visit. At least there was a bear box outside that could be used although it was 5 metres from the best tent site behind the cabin. 

To be safe and sure, once my tent was set up, I walked at least 300 feet from my tent to cook dinner, constantly scouting around on the look out for bears. Just on packing my cook set and food bag I heard a loud bang near the cabin. Thinking this was a bear immediately looked up, relieved to see it just a few more hikers banging shut the bear box. 

Walking back I met Redline from California and Bluejay from Texas. I saw these two at the cafe this morning at breakfast but didn’t introduce myself. We had a quick catch up and went to bed. We’d be at the same camp sites in Yellowstone over coming days and would have much more of an opportunity to get to know one another.