CDT Part 2 – Day 15 – Windy Walking

8/10/21

Daily Miles: 18

2021 CDT Total Miles: 264

Overall CDT Total Miles: 2336

We all slept really good, protected from the wind. We managed to stay toasty warm even though it was quite cold out. The wind didn’t seem to slow down overnight and it was still there when we got up.

We started walking around 6:20am, with our extra layers on. As soon as we walked from the trees to the road, we could immediately feel the cold wind. We had nice walking on the road for the first seven miles.

We stopped at our only water source for the day (a water trough) and tried to hide from the wind behind a trough to get a break. The water source was really nice, as they have been so far on this stretch. Not many water sources, but the ones we’ve used have been really clear and cold.

Shortly after getting our water, we left the road and started in on trail. The trail today seems to have been made by someone who doesn’t believe in switchbacks, as the ascents were steep ups and the descents were all steep downs. Lots of shorts ups and downs made for a tiring day.

We had our windshirts on and off all day. Whenever we would come to an exposed section of trail, we would put on our windshirts, because we knew the wind would make us cold. The positive thing about the exposed sections was that we would get great views of the surrounding mountains as we walked over treeless knobs.

In the afternoon, we came to a spot where it looked like we would be walking an exposed ridge line for about four miles. We put on our windshirts before leaving the trees, but we were still unprepared for the ferocity of the wind on the ridge. It was hard to stand upright at times, let alone make actual forward progress.

We found a tree to hide behind about halfway through. It is nice to just get a break and release the tension in your body from being out in such strong wind.

Finally we made it to the end of the exposed ridge walk and we headed down into a saddle to look for a protected place to camp. This isn’t the best campsite…there is some wind, but not bad. The hammock hangs aren’t ideal, but they are probably a step up from last night’s hang, where SweetPea was hanging over a fresh pile of cow poop.

We got to camp around 5pm, so we had time to just relax in our hammocks before moving on to our camp chores. We even sewed in another piece of foam on the back of SweetPea’s backpack which is still bothering her back a bit.

We found a tree to hang our bear bag that is not too far from where we are camped. Beardoh has been getting good practice with tossing the line and his accuracy is getting quite good. SweetPea continues in her role of “String Supervisor” which just means she not so good at tossing the rope.