Monday, July 1st.

Monday, July 1st. Day 13.

Today's miles = 19.3 Total CDT miles = 173.3

I woke up this morning because I heard Panama and Beth packing their things. I didn't mind of course. I suppose it was time to get up anyway. Today was one of the first days ever that I was done packing and standing there with my pack on before Baboon. It's just me hating trail mornings that usually delays my packing up. I think its because I can't hear my automatic coffee maker click on or smell my dark roast espresso blend as it begins to brew. I have been coffee-less this whole stretch from East Glacier Park and I will admit it has made me rather grumpy in the mornings.

About 3 minutes into the hike this morning I came across a river that I had to ford. I had spent all day yesterday drying my socks on my pack while hiking as was so excited to have dry socks to put on for one of the first times this trail that I didn't want to ford with them on. So, I took off my shoes and socks and crossed the river barefoot. It was some AT style crossing. On the AT the fords are so infrequent that it is beneficial to stop and take the time to get your shoes off. But out here I am crossing water at least every hour if not a lot sooner and the crossings are a lot more difficult. Luckily the fords today didn't have too fast of currents. The fords in Glacier last week were horrendous. My dry socks lasted about an hour until I came to the next crossing. The second crossing looked like the rocks were a lot sharper than the first so I thought it best to leave my shoes on. I would have crossed in my camp shoes but as they are currently in transit to Lincoln Montana I obviously could not. I don't usually carry camp shoes but I broke down and sent for them this trail. My feet have been wet pretty much the entire time I have been hiking, seriously! I need to be able to take my wet shoes off and have something else to put on. I don't like carrying the weight of camp shoes but I have a feeling they may end up saving my feet. My feet are already pretty rough. I think it's my Keens. I never had one blister on the AT or the PCT until Oregon on the PCT when I got a pair of Keens. I now have big blisters on both of my pinky toes, both of my heals, and both sides of my feet. They hurt badly enough without them being in wet shoes for 14 hours a day.

Most of the hike today was through the burn area from last night. Because it was a burn area there were no leaves or anything on the trees to shade the sun. So, I ended up using my umbrella most of the day. It worked great for the areas from my waist up but my legs got too much sun and I now have painful sun rashes all over my legs.

About 9 miles into the day I forded a stream and on the other side was a small campsite on the edge of a meadow and it was shaded by trees! Live trees! I thought I must be getting close to getting out of the burn area. It was so inviting that I took lunch there, cooked a hot meal, and took off my shoes to dry my feet. It was a great lunch. If only that spot had been 12 miles up trail and I could have camped there. After lunch I hiked through the marshy meadow to the edge of a beautiful pine forest. I ended up hiking in that almost the rest of the day. The spider webs were out in full force today. Just about every third step got you a spider web, a spider, or both, to the face. Between the spiders and the mosquitoes I ended up throwing on my bug net and using the umbrella to block the spider web contact. By the end of the hike I had a bunch of spiders making webs in my umbrella.

The last 7 miles of the day were uphill with just a few breaks of downhill. We hiked along The North Wall which literally looked like it was a wall separating one area from the next and it was made out of jagged mountain. Once we descended a bit after the wall we came to an area that was decently flat with tall grass and plants. We decided to bunker down there for the night. Panama, Beth, and the pups were just a bit behind us and chose to camp here as well. There is a waterfall just down the way on trail. I'm excited to fall asleep to the sound of that rather than mosquito swarms just outside my tent.