Continental Divide Trail – Day 76

August 7, 2023
Miles Today/ Total: 26.6 / 1,306.2

It sprinkled a couple of time through the night, but never enough for me to close up the tent. I still woke to a wet morning because I was camped down by a creek. I wiped everything off and packed up and started down the trail.

The trail followed the road for a short distance before turning up toward Three Islands Lake. It climbed up on a ridge and had some nice views of the valley through the trees. It cut over to another forest road and began following North Fork of Elk Creek up the valley.

At Diamond Park the trail became an OHV track as well and the trail began to have some real steep climbs straight up the mountain. A couple of motorcyclists passed me going up the trail and they seem to be enjoying the steep climb.

The trail leveled off at the top of the pass and began following the ridge line with small ups and down. This continued until about 1/2mile from the Wyoming border where the trail turned back to a single track hiking trail. I stopped at the border and took a picture then filled my water bottles at a nearby spring.

I hiked another couple of miles looking for a place to camp. There was a lot of blow downs and pine beetle kill and I continued on hoping to get out of that area. I’m finally came to an area with some smaller pines and no dead trees and found a place to set up for the night.

I’ve now finished 2 states and about 1/2 the trail. It’s been a blast so far and looking forward to more exciting trail to come.