July 21, 2021
Miles: 34.8 miles
Steps: 72,987
Got packed up as quick as possible so I could get as far as I could as I needed to be at I-15 by 5pm tomorrow for my ride into Lima, MT where I’ll be spending the night and picking up my resupply box.
I was surprised how much condensation was on my rainfly when I wasn’t close to a water source and my elevation. I guess there was still moisture in the air after the storm rolling through.
I had about 10 miles to rejoin the CDT. The first 4.5 miles I continued to climb up the gravel road close to the top of the mountain before turning off onto a trail. It was an easy climb as that was the easiest part of the day as pretty soon I turned off there wasn’t much of a trail all the way to the CDT. Someone had placed pink tape to help others where to go when there was no trail.
Back on the CDT I started to climb back up after the downhill bushwhack. Felt good to be back on the CDT after the 33 miles on the Mack’s Inn alternate, saved me about a day of hiking as 1 day closer to finishing.
Got to my next water source and filled up a lot as I had 17 miles until my next one as I had a big climb up to a ridge walk. Right after leaving the water I ran into 3 southbounders. Swapped info and was off to the hard part of the day.
Getting up to a ridge is always tough but the reward is worth it. With all the fires in the area skies were still hazy but still enjoyed the hike.
After leaving the ridge it was all downhill to my campsite. Sometimes those steep downhills can be harder than the uphills as I slip too much.
I slowly got into thick forest with lots of overgrowth and some mosquitos. Actually the bugs weren’t too bad as I was expected it to be worse.
About a mile and half before the lake I would be camping at was a trailhead with picnic tables so ate dinner there.
Got to Aldous Lake before dark. Had the whole lake to myself. The thing I liked about it was there were bear boxes so no hanging tonight.
The lake wasn’t much to look at as there was a layer of green algae over the entire lake. It did look cool but glad I filled up on water before arriving.
Set up camp and went to bed. I will say I was expecting it to be very buggy but it wasn’t.
Got any early start in the morning, 4am.