Day 141: Bob Marshal Day 2: Racing Sunset

Miles Hiked: 27.1

Total Milage: 2441.6

Today I slept in a bit because I was so cold. I had to pee really bad and I was starving so I was forced out of my warm sleeping bag earlier than I wanted to be. The sunrise was pretty, especially as I watched it slowly cast light down the wall. I caught up on writing my blog a little bit and ate some snacks before packing up all my things. I left camp before Darwin and Legs. As I was packing up I saw a couple hikers go by camp. I was happy to see more people around!

I left camp wearing both my Puffy and my hoodie dress. It was a cold morning. I hiked down towards Spotted ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ pass where I passed about 4 hikers waiting on their friends. When I woke up all my things were wet from condensation. The mission for the first half of the day was to find a nice break spot about 10 miles from camp where I could dry my tent and sleeping bag out. The trail was pretty much all downhill. I did have to push through quite a bit of overgrown plants for a while. About 12 miles out I found the perfect spot. All the other hikers ended up taking a break at the same place. Everyone had the same idea of drying out their stuff. It was the most hikers I’ve seen on trail in one location on the entire CDT. All the hikers included : Darwin, Legs, Machine, Wild Turkey, Red Stripe, Grey Goose, Ricochet, Road Kill, Spider Monkey, Fire Hazard, and No No. I was so nervous about having to hike the Bob Marshal Wilderness section alone and once again the trail provided exactly what I needed. 11 hikers! I was excited about getting to hang out with all the new people but it also made me nervous about getting Permits for Glacier National Park. Not only am I in a big bubble of hikers, but we are all trying to finish Labor Day weekend so we will be competing with weekenders for the limited spots. While we were all drying out our things and eating lunch, a swarm of butterflies landed on all of our tents. It was so cool to see. When I went to pack my tent up they were flying and landing all over me.

After lunch we had a very long climb. Going from our lunch spot to the top of Switchback Pass we gained just shy of 3k feet of vertical over 6 miles. The first three miles were pretty flat. When I started going up all the switch backs it was a little dizzying constantly switching directions. At the top of the pass I took a break and watched as everyone made it to the top. I made some couscous because I was so hungry. The climb was very hot and my shirt was soaking wet. I took it off to dry it and wore my puffy jacket for the rest of the day. We all walked 1 mile downhill from the pass to make dinner at a water source. I did just Eat but I was so hungry there were no questions about eating more. I cooked a mountain house meal for dinner. Even though I was one of the first people to finish the climb, I was the last to leave dinner. I was just taking my good old time.

By the time I was hiking again it was 7pm and I knew I had approximately five more miles to camp. Sunset was at 8:20. I wasn’t too concerned about making it to camp in time until it was 8pm and I started descending down a lot of switch backs. There was tall brush and blown down trees all around with no signs of there being a space to camp anywhere. I didn’t have a head lamp because I lost it a few days ago and I was getting nervous. Night hiking alone in the Bob Marshal Wilderness without a headlamp is not ideal at all. Luckily I caught up to everyone else just as it started to get dark. We were looking for a place to camp ANYWHERE. Finally we found a flat spot without rotting logs. There was overgrown brush everywhere but we made it work. I was glad to have lots of people to camp with. I camped with Ricochet, Grey Goose, Wild Turkey, Red Stripe, No No and Roadkill.