Continental Divide Trail – Day 91

August 22, 2023
Miles Today/ Total: 13.6 / 1,608.6

I slept until about 6:30 before getting around this morning. I got up, dressed and headed down the street to Wrangler Cafe for breakfast.

I ordered the breakfast burrito and drank a couple cups of coffee. I finished up and walked back to the motel. I packed up my gear and was about to leave when it started raining.

I went to the motel office and got a cup of coffee to drink while I waited out the rain. As I waited I signed the log book and noticed that the hiker before me – Encore – had signed it and listed Bixby OK as his home.

He had gone to get breakfast so I waited until he returned so I could talk to him. Stud had also came out and was wanting to head up to the trailhead this morning so I waited for her as well.

We finally headed out about 10:00 and started to hitch on the road. A camper stopped and gave us a ride, but was only going a few miles. Back on the road we continued hitching and caught a 2nd ride from a lady who was headed out to do some mountain biking. The road construction was still going on and when we got to that marea we were told it would be about 30 minutes to get through. The lady dropped us off and turned around to head back to her biking.

Stud and I walked the road for about a mile when the first cars were finally let through and we stuck out our thumbs and caught a ride for the last mile to the trailhead from a couple of guys heading out to backpack.

We started our hike up the trail about 11:30. We passed by many hikers out for the day or returning from a backpacking trip. We reached the trail junction where I needed to turn toward Seneca Lake and said our goodbyes. It was nice hiking with another person for a couple of days.

The trail continued upwards past a couple of small lakes before reaching Seneca Lake. It was a huge lake and the trail wound along the edge for quite a while. The trail eventually met up with the official CDT route and began following the valley around. The area was very rocky and the trail wound in and out of the rocks. It crossed a large bridge over Fremont Creek and began climbing upwards again.

That’s when I heard the thunder. I turned around and dark clouds were heading my way. I started looking for a place to setup my tent and soon saw what I thought might be a flat area on a nearby hill. I climbed up and discovered a nice campsite up there. I quickly found a flat spot and began setting up my tent. I had just finished when it’s started sprinkling. I threw my gear inside and crawled in just as the thunderstorm reached me. There was lightning, thunder, and heavy rain and I had just beat it into the tent.

I sat listening to the storm for awhile then started getting my food ready for dinner. I didn’t have much water so I put my cook pot out to collect water running off the roof of my tent. The rain was heavy enough I had soon collected 2 liters of water. I filtered the water and cooked dinner in my vestibule as the rain continued.

The rain continued into the night and it’s now 9:30 and still raining. It’s going to be a wet hike tomorrow.