Friday, June 28th

Friday, June 28th. Day 10.

Today's miles = 19  Total CDT miles = 113

I got out of town today around 9am. I was planning on a 7am start but I guess I'm lucky I got out as early as I did. After the egg and veggie scramble for breakfast I felt ready to start this 9 day stretch to Lincoln. I'm carrying 7 days of food (which is heavy) and will be stopping in at a resort called Benchmark which I will not be staying at because it's quite expensive. I did send myself a box of food there for two days to take me into Lincoln.

The first little bit of the hike today was through the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. It quickly turned back into Glacier National Park and finally into The Louis and Clark Wilderness which is where I posted up for the night. The beginning of the morning was hiking on unmarked jeep roads. There were many roads leading in many different directions and no indication as to which one was what. Monkey and I didn't spend too much time looking at maps but rather just kind of winged it. It worked out. By the time we entered Glacier again we knew we were on the right track. The terrain was rather mellow today. There were no extended ups or downs but rolling hills covered in mud. It was the first day on the trail that we haven't gotten any rain. It was in the mid 80s and sunny all day today (a bit warm for my taste). I'm not one for extreme temperatures one way or the other. I was not complaining though because I would rather have the weather today than the weather of this past week.

Now that we are out of Glacier there are no longer any designated camp spots or a permit to follow as far as mileage. So I can camp anywhere and do as many or as few miles each day as I want to. It's nice having that freedom (which both the AT and PCT had) but at the same time it can sometimes be more difficult. Tonight is a good example of that. Around 5:30 pm I arrived at Maria's Pass. At the pass (not a traditional pass) there was a highway and a small camping section with picnic tables and potable water. When Monkey and I got there Panama, Beth, their two service dogs, and Simon (a British Sobo CDT hiker) were there finishing up dinner. It's  smart to cook and eat before you set up camp then continue hiking for a few miles as to leave the food smells behind. It would have been a nice place to camp for the night but it was only 15 miles into the day and now that we are out of Glacier it's time to start bringing up the mileage. So Monkey and I also cooked dinner there while the other three continued to hike. After dinner I got packed up again and set off on the trail. For the first few miles after dinner there was plenty of nice camping but we decided to hike more. By the time we wanted to post up for the night there was no place to set up tents whatsoever. We ended up walking a while longer before we met up with Panama, Beth, Simon, and the pups who had bunkered down on slanted, holey, sharp earth due to the lack of a better spot. Monkey and I decided to set up only his tent as suitable tent space was scarce. We hung our food on a limb that looks like it may not want to hold 7 days worth of food for two hikers and then piled into his tent attempting to find relief from the swarms of mosquitoes! Swarms! I've never seen this many mosquitoes outside of a tent before. Now I will fall asleep to the sweet hum of blood sucking insects.