Continental Divide Trail – Day 118

September 18, 2023
Miles Today/ Total: 14.9 / 2176.2

I slept great last night and didn’t wake up until 7:00am. I showered, dressed, and packed up some of my gear before heading down to the post office. I shipped my resupply box to Benchmark Ranch and headed back to the motel.

I finished packing up and made me a small pot of coffee then sat down to update my social media. I finished up a little after 10:00 then headed back to the trailhead.

I walked through town and hit some pictures of downtown Darby on my way through. I started hitching as I neared the edge of town and took almost an hour to get a ride.

As I was walking out of town I passed the Ranch they use for the exterior shots of the Dutton Yellowstone Ranch on the TV series Yellowstone.

The guy who picked me up and drove me back to the Chief Joseph Pass trailhead was going out to visit a hunter friend who was camped out in the forest. We talked about elk, motorcycles, and Colorado.

It was shortly after noon when I reached the trailhead and I started down the trail. This area is a popular cross country ski area in the winter and was interlaced with lots of trails. The CDT stuck mostly to the divide and headed out across the mountains.

The elevation change was gradual today and soon I was in a burned out forest area. It appears the area burned in 2022 and very little has started to grow back yet. The last 8-10 miles I hiked today were all burnt.

As the sun sank in the sky I passed a small campsite that seemed to have escaped the worst of the fire. Trees were charred, but not dead. I set up camp and crawled into my tent as darkness started creeping across the mountains.