CDT Part 2 – Day 4 – First Steps on Road

7/28/21

Daily Miles: 20

2021 CDT Total Miles: 76

Overall CDT Total Miles: 2146

We ended up just getting a few sprinkles last night (not enough to affect the smoke today). It was a warm night, but we were still able to get a good night of sleep. When we got up at 5:30am, we felt pretty good.

A few miles before the end of yesterday’s hiking, we came to a trail junction where the CDT had been rerouted. Our navigation app (Guthook) and our paper maps didn’t show the reroute, but some comments by other hikers in Guthook indicated that the reroute was about seven miles longer than the old trail (a mixture of gravel and paved roads actually). We didn’t feel like we had the buffer in our schedule (mostly food-wise) to add an extra seven miles, so we just stuck to the old route.

That meant that the bulk of today was spent walking on a mixture of gravel roads and a paved state highway. The gravel road walk at the beginning of the day was pretty pleasant. It was cool out and we didn’t see any cars at all. We passed by a Boy Scout Camp and some private residences. Definitely a pretty idilic place to live.

The paved road was pretty quiet too, and we had nice views to look at as we walked. The road seemed to cut between two mountain chains, so we got views of some ranch land with silhouettes of mountains in the distance.

Once the old and new routes reconnected, we were on an old logging road for quite awhile. We spent most of the afternoon climbing, but it was so gradual, you could easily forget that you we gaining any elevation. That is, until near the top of the climb, when we got on a snowmobile trail, which got really steep. Surely those steep trails are fun in a snowmobile, but for us walking, it was tough.

Since we had so many miles of easy road walking today, we were able to finish our day pretty early, and we got to camp around 5:00pm. It had started to sprinkle, so we tried to set up quickly, with the hope that more rain would be coming. Luckily, we are now getting a nice light rain, so hopefully the fire will get some relief.

Since starting four days ago, we have been having an issue with the toe socks we wear. We have worn Injinji socks for years and feel like they help us to avoid getting blisters. Usually Beardoh will start to get holes in his after about 500 miles. For SweetPea, the last two pairs she’s had (she carries two pairs and switches each day) lasted 3,000 miles without any holes. We both got two new pairs of socks for this trip, and already we have four holes between us. Ugh. At least the rest of our gear seems to be holding up well.