[at-l] AT & CDT in one year

[bluetrail at aol.com]

Li titled this e-mail:? "CDeToured"? He finished the AT and is out on the CDT--or he kinda is.


Well, the whole CDT on the Lewis & Clark Forest is closed. This happened the 

night before I walked by the Gooseberry Guard Station. Luckily I checked in 

with the trail crew there, and we poured over maps to help me plan a reroute 

of probably 100 miles of trail! I essentially miss all the cool stuff in the 

Bob Marshall and Scapegoat Wildernesses now, but at least I can continue 

hiking south mostly through the more demure western part of The Bob down the 

South Fork of the Flathead River. But I'm in a quandary because my new route 

comes out at Monture Guard Station that is probably 30-40 miles by road from 

Lincoln, my next stop, then another 17 miles by road back up to Rogers Pass 

where the trail resumes. Do I try to devise some crazy route on trails and 

back roads to hook back up with the CDT before Rogers Pass so I can keep my 

hike from Canada to Mexico contiguous? Or do I give myself a mulligan 

because I couldn't control the fire situation and the closures and just 

hitch back over to Lincoln and the CDT at Rogers Pass? Very bothersome. The 

Ivory Soap purist (99.44, but not quite 100%) in me can accept the 8 miles 

of ride I got from Flathead NF employees from a trailhead back to the 

Spotted Bear Ranger Station, but creating an intentional gap of 57 miles in 

my trip is troubling. Then again, I feel I have to make it back to The Bob 

at some point to see what's supposed to be a very nice stretch. This is all 

annoying as hell, but not totally unexpected out West. I just didn't expect 

such a huge detour due to fires, around one of the wilderness highlights of 

the whole trail, and to have it come so early (locals say fire season 

started 3 weeks early this year and things are shaping up to be as bad as 

2003--a record-type year). At least the Helena and Beaverhead-Deerlodge 

don't have any trail closures in place for the CDT through the rest of the 

state . . . yet.

By the way, I got a ride into Whitefish, MT from Spotted Bear (50 miles of 

dirt road to get to a highway!) to get checked out at a hospital. My throat 

had been feeling swollen and sore for days, I had thick, nasty snot that 

wouldn't go away, and I was feeling most of the symptoms of giardia 

(bloating, gas, cramping, loss of appetitie, nausea, lethargy) except 

diarrhea. I was still hiking along, but was absolutely wasted putting in my 

average 28 miles several days ago over easy terrain and had to take a nap in 

the middle of the day 2 days ago. I was worried about giardia and maybe 

tonsilitis getting worse and possible severely impacting my trip, so I 

decided to get myself checked out while I had decent access to a hospital. 

Turns out none of the above are the problem! The stool and blood samples 

showed no nasties in my gut, and only my white blood cell count was 

elevated. Since I had been recovering from a cold I caught travelling back 

from the AT, and I had been just killing myself with little sleep and too 

much go-go-going, the Doc theorized fatigue was making the remnants of my 

old cold flare up and I may have caught a stomach flu-like virus from a meal 

in East Glacier. I should have just toughed it out in retrospect (like Rich 

suggested!), but I just didn't know what was going on and was having trouble 

getting in miles and enjoying my trip constantly wondering what might be 

wrong with me. But at least I have peace of mind now and can chalk any 

balking on my part up to "wuss factor" for a while.

Otherwise, the CDT has been incredible! The scenery on the first day alone 

in Glacier was--and no disrespect intended to the East, but it's just not 

the West--more amazing than every day on the AT rolled up into one. I've 

seen bighorn sheep, moose, black bear, one grizzly bear, marmots, pikas, 

raptors, frogs . . . most every glamorous megafauna out here except mountain 

goats and wolves. Cold, free-flowing alpine water everywhere, nicely graded 

trails, wonderful views. Some tourists backpacking in Glacier of course, but 

not a single other hiker in the 4 days since entering the Bob Marshall 

country (although lots of fire and trail people wandering around!). I'd be 

in hiking heaven if I weren't feeling off my game physically, but hopefully 

I'll shake this stuff soon.

Despite my unexpected reroute and town detour, I may still make it to 

Lincoln by Sunday night and be on schedule if I choose to not worry about 

the 57 mile gap. I should think about that.

How can you taunt me with a menu like that? ;-)

-Li

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