CDT Day 4 – Forest Full of Widow-Makers

Date: 6/15/20

Daily Miles: 21

Total Miles: 81

This morning we woke up to blue skies and no wind. It was pretty cold, but we were so happy for the silent forest.

As we walked in the morning, it felt like we could appreciate the beauty around us since we weren’t focused on other challenges coming our way. It was nice to enjoy the green mountains around us and snowy peaks in the distance…the variety of wildflowers in bloom…and we even saw a small bird’s nest with eggs tucked in the grass along the side of the trail.

The part of the CDT we have been hiking on, as well as the next few hundred miles of trail actually follows the Idaho/Montana border pretty closely. So, we generally don’t know which state we are actually in. At the few road crossings we’ve had, we’ve seen signs on the road for leaving one state and entering the other.

As the afternoon progressed, the wind started to pick up a bit and the clouds came in. It was never very warm today, but to started to get colder. We had a pretty big climb in the late afternoon that was quite steep and tiring. Once we made it to the top, we found a dinner spot that was slightly protected from the wind. There wasn’t a lot of trees around, but we found a small clump of trees to huddle behind.

We got pretty chilled while having dinner and we were all bundled up as we headed out for our final miles of the day. It started to sprinkle, but never enough for us to put on our ponchos.

We hadn’t planned to go quite as far as we did at the end of that day, but as we started to look for a campsite, the forest around us was in pretty bad shape…most trees burnt and lots of downed trees. A forest full of widow-makers for both hammock and tent campers. We ended up having to walk an extra hour before we found a spot with live trees where we could safely hang. It’s not very protected from the wind, but by that time we were getting less picky.

Once we set up camp, the wind started to die down, so we are hopeful for a quiet and dry night.