Well, here it is six weeks after we finished the CDT. We had a lot of fun picking up our new car in Whitefish and driving south along the same route we hiked. We slept in the back of the Subaru, ate at some of our favorite CDT restaurants, and slack packed some missed sections. Ended the road trip with six days at the Grand Canyon, visiting Emma.

After lots of time to think about the thruhike, I have these comments. The mountains and camping every night felt like going home. I don’t feel changed by the experience, only reassured that I love long demanding journeys. Dopamine, a good appetite, excitement, deep fatigue, and new experiences make me very happy. I was surprised to discover I enjoyed backpacking—the slow pace, the remoteness, the physical challenges. Also surprised that I’m not a nature lover so much as an exercise lover. While other hikers exclaim about the beauty of nature, I’m in my head daydreaming or making plans, grooving on deep breaths and moving muscles. But happy to be doing it in the mountains!

John and I talk about doing another long hike in the future, considering the American Discovery Trail or the Nakasendo Trail in Japan. We just bought two Yamaha XT250 motorcycles and want to ride to Alaska next summer. We still want to bicycle around the world (maybe in 2024?) and the architect is finishing the plans for our house, construction scheduled for early 2023.

The near future has us moving back to Cary, NC, where we rented a tiny house for three and a half months. I’ll be training for a marathon, learning how to ride a dual sport bike on gravel, cycling, and hanging out with my son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. Celebrating the holidays and birthdays. Giving real retirement a shot before I start thinking about working part-time. Can I handle freedom? Looking forward to finding out.

We finished hiking the Continental Divide Trail on Wednesday, Sept. 8, around 4:15 pm. I’m still processing my feelings about the experience and will write more sometime in the next week. But I was able to do the math for the trip and came up with the following statistics:

Start date: April 15, 2021
End date: Sept. 8, 2021 (plus five days making up missed miles)

​Total days on the trail: 151 days
​Days hiking and neros: 123
Days resting (zero days): 28

Average miles hiked per day: 18
Average speed: 1.83 mph, includes meals and breaks
Average hours hiked per day: 9.25

Pairs of shoes: 6 (Beth); 5 (John)
Pounds lost: 10 (Beth); 20-25 (John)

Injuries: Shin splints (Beth); shin splints and blisters from hell (John)

Leaving Lincoln, MT, tomorrow morning to hike into the Bob Marshall Wilderness. We may have very limited cell service for the next 11 days but will update when we reach East Glacier, ca. Sept. 7.

The last four days was beautiful hiking. Steep climbs and views of the rolling mountains with sections of woods and golden pastures. Yesterday was one of our toughest days, hiking along the ridge line with strong winds, colder temps, and sleet/hail/rain. But today we were drinking coffee and eating diner food for lunch inLincoln, MT. As the wise and more experienced hikers tell us, good times followed by bad times followed by good times. Don’t leave before the party is over.

We hiked through Yellowstone this past week. Such a difference between the back country and the tourist areas. Hiking through the Shoshone Geyser Basin, we saw a geyser that erupted every minute, plus beautiful hot pots and thermal areas—all to ourselves. Wonderful scenery and some of the easiest hiking of the trip.

Very different than the Old Faithful Village, with its crowds, overpriced food, and traffic. One night, we stayed at the Grant Village Campground, right next to a large group of young Girl Scouts (7-9 years old). Sad to say, the leaders spent the evening lecturing the girls on cookie sales! Later the same night, John was awoken by the sounds of a domestic argument and the arrival of the police (luckily, I slept through this). Quite the contrast to sleeping in the woods.

We have a little more than 600 miles to go. I’m guessing we will reach the Canada border mid-September. I perceive many thruhikers are going through a seventh inning slump. There’s a cooling in the air, creating an urgency to move faster. We’re taking fewer zero days and hiking bigger miles. At the same time, we’re heading into some of the most remote and demanding sections of the CDT (Bob Marshall Wilderness and Glacier National Park). Feeling torn between wanting to finish (and resting) and wanting to continue (freedom).

Tomorrow we head north to avoid the fires in Idaho and western Montana, hiking an alternate route known as the Butte-Big Sky Super Cutoff. Roughly the route is Big Sky - Ennis - Whitehall - Helena - Bob Marshall Wilderness - Glacier National Park - Finish!

I overuse the word challenging when writing about our CDT hike. So I’m hitting the thesaurus to describe our last five days of hiking.

The last five days of hiking in the Wind River Range have been 1. Beautiful, 2. Rewarding, and 3. Demanding, taxing, formidable, arduous, and effortful.

We are now in grizzly bear country, so we headed out armed with bear spray and a heavy five days of food packed in our Ursacks (bear bags). Our hike began with a gradual 1,000 foot climb back to the CDT red line and continued uphill for another five miles before we camped among the clouds and granite spires of the Wind River Range.

In talking about the more 3. Demanding, taxing, formidable, arduous, and effortful parts of our journey, I worry that I may sound like a bit of a whiner. No shame. I hereby declare that one can be appreciative and a whiner at the same time.

The first evening we encountered hail and rain (comment: raincoats and rain pants are a bit of a joke since we always end up wet through and through). Stopped early at the very top of our climb and set up our tent, scrambling to cook dinner between rain showers. Since we entered grizzly territory, all of our cooking is done far away from the tent, very different than previously when we’d cook and eat in our tent.

But one thing about rainy weather, you gain an immense appreciation for being dry and warm. That night we told one another several times how great it felt to be dressed in our woolies, snuggly in our down sleeping bags. Followed by the next morning, when we put our cold and wet clothes back on and packed our precious dry woolies safely in our packs.

If we had brought along a novice backpacker with us, I truly doubt they would have ever backpacked again after this particular experience. Hiking in hail, cooking and eating in the rain, and putting on cold, wet clothes the next morning. As seasoned hikers, we expect days/nights like these but know that they are followed by sunshine, dry weather, and all of the other rewards that come with using your muscles, heart, lungs, and positive thinking to move through this beautiful world. Good times/bad times.

We had originally planned on hiking through to Yellowstone but diverted to Dubois, WY, so I could visit Urgent Care to check on a suspected UTI. Pretty sure I had an infection but by the time we reached Dubois, it seemed to have run its course. $150 to receive the green light that I was indeed in tip-top shape.

We have collected all of our back country camping permits and are ready to be Yellowstone tourists! Fun times ahead.

After having hiked through severe blowdown for three hours the previous evening, I was not enjoying being on my hands and knees at 5:30am,* crawling through dirt, trying to pass under a large tree. Something on my pack keeps getting caught, holding me back. I keep going lower, until I’m almost on my belly. I lose it.

FRACK it! FRACK IT!! I’ve had enough of this stuff!!” (Actual words substituted to protect the more sensitive reader).

When I say severe blowdown, imagine someone ripping out a forest of trees by the roots and throwing them like Pick Up Sticks on the ground. Trees stacked three or more high, one on top of another. Your job is to either go over, around, or under.

The prior evening, we had both found the blowdown an interesting and fun challenge. Something like a jungle gym adventure. But after moving only 1.8 miles in three hours, I was done with it. Yet the only direction is forward. So after apologizing to the very patient John, we continued through another mile of this stuff.

And on the other side of the blowdown, we entered The Wind River Mountain Range, which includes a CDT alternate route known as the Cirque of the Towers. We had heard it was challenging and beautiful. After experiencing it, we wonder why we had never heard of this stunning mountain range before. We hiked through valleys surrounded by granite spires, with lakes and creeks running through the middle. We climbed four passes in two days, with 3,000 to 4,000 feet of elevation gain a day, spending a good deal of time above tree line. I experienced a touch of vertigo for the first time due to the heights.

When we made it to Pinedale for a nearo and zero rest day, we were exhausted. But also proud of ourselves (physically and mentally) and grateful for having each other, good health, and this amazing opportunity to thruhike the CDT. We’re healing through the powers of good coffee, town food, a bed, and a bathtub.

Tomorrow we head to Yellowstone! 185 miles of hiking with only one brief stop to pick up a resupply box.

To quote Bubbles, “I’m hardcore now!!!”

*A new thing we started that morning, drinking coffee and eating breakfast after we’ve hiked away from camp. No coffee=very grumpy Beth.

Writing an update about our walk through the Great Divide Basin, our third trip through the Basin. We did it in 2018 on the TransAmerica route, in 2019 on the GDMBR, and now this year. There were a few sections that we're common to all three, but it was primarily walking on two-track roads on BLM land.

We put in our biggest mileage on the trip so far, 102 miles in four days, 27.5 miles being our longest day. Primarily this was due to good walking roads (generally few big climbs and smooth surfaces), and us being stronger. We were able to finish 13 to 14 miles by noon, and finish the day around 4:00. A couple of days were pretty uncomfortable, too hot with little breeze, but overall the weather was good, especially the mornings.

Saw lots of other hikers. I've often told people that 'nobody is out there in the basin,' but we saw more hikers this year than we ever saw cyclists on our 2018 and 2019 trips.

We are now in Lander, WY, a favorite town on our 2018 trip, resting and resupplying. Due to fires in Idaho that have closed over 120 miles of the CDT along the ID, WY border, we are having to plan a new route when we leave Yellowstone. This will shorten our route, but after walking over 1200 miles so far we are happy to walk fewer miles.