Date: 7/30/20
Daily Miles: 22
Total Miles: 716
We got a lot of wind last night. It only lasted thirty minutes at most, but it was really strong. This morning, we realized that the wind had damaged Beardoh’s ridge line for his tarp. We’ll have to get a replacement sent out soon so that he doesn’t have any problems in the rain.
When we headed out this morning, we soon saw the herd of elk from yesterday. It looked like they had just moved a mile up the trail. They were spread out over the mountainside…in the grass, by bushes and in rocky areas. It is pretty amazing to see such a large herd of elk…and even better to see them twice!
The trail back to the CDT was really nice. We’re very glad that we took the alternate yesterday. The trail was great and we were able to hang in our hammocks at night. We would definitely recommend it to other hammockers hiking through on the CT or CDT.
We had less than ten miles left of the CT before our trail split off. It seemed like those miles were some of the busiest in a more than a week. We saw several day hikers/runners and several backpackers. We got passed by another hiker for the first time on this trail…we wondered if he was going for a “Fastest Known Time” on the CT since he was walking very fast.
Shortly after we said farewell to the CT, we stopped for lunch in a beautiful field full of wildflowers. It was a very idyllic setting, plus the sky was completely blue…not a cloud in the sky.
The rest of the day was a series of passes and descents. The trail was pretty good. There were a few downed trees and overgrown bushes, but the trail was overall quite nice.
We made it to camp by 6:45pm. For the first time in awhile, none of us put up our tarps tonight, while we all put up our ridge line so if it starts to rain at night, we will be able to put up our tarps quickly. That is our compromise when we don’t feel like putting up our tarps.
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