Friday, June 21st.

Friday, June 21st. Day 3.

Today's miles = 7.9 Total CDT miles = 27.8

I woke up this morning feeling horribly dehydrated. I felt like I was completely hung over. My head was pounding. My eyes were sensitive to light. My whole body was weak. I was dizzy and nauseous. I realized that with the rain and cold temperatures I hadn't really felt the need to drink much over the past few days. I was paying for it this morning! I spent the first part of the hike today miserable and drinking as much water as my stomach could handle. A few miles into the hike I began to feel a little better and actually started to enjoy the giant patch of wildflowers I was hiking through. After the initial climb this morning I descended down a bit and thats when the trail became completely laden with wildflowers. Monkey and I were looking up and off into the distance above us when we saw it; the first Grizzly of the CDT! I named him Theodore and we watched him graze for food up on the mountain. He was far enough away to still feel comfortable but close enough to watch him and see him well. It could have been a lady Grizzly but with the name Theodore I would rather continue assuming it was a boy grizzly. I'm not exactly sure how you can tell the sex of a grizzly while still maintaining a safe distance. Hmm...something to look into.

After taking a short break to watch Theodore we pretty much just put our heads down and hiked the rest of the way into Many Glacier, our camp spot for the night. Many Glacier is a tourist haven. They have car and RV camp spots, cabins, showers and laundry (which I used), a camp store, and an Italian restaurant which we got pizza at for lunch. Because we were only hiking 7.9 miles we got to the restaurant in time to beat the lunch rush. I don't mind doing small days. It's still so early in the trail and the country is so beautiful I don't want to rush through it. Today the sky cleared and it was the first time I could really see the views here. It was spectacular. Hopefully the weather will stay nice and there won't be too much snow going over the passes the next few days. I'd like to avoid having to actually self arrest with an ice axe.