July 21
Again, that night was probably my best on this trip. I slept really well, listening to the creek gurgle, no animal nor other noises, no condensation. We had some rain during the night but luckily it was dry when we got up and packed up. That always helps … packing up a wet tent isn’t fun. We would be reminded of that the next morning!
This day certainly turned into a soggy one! I am happy that we got to have the views we had from the pass yesterday. Leaving our favourite campsite, we were still dry but had to put on our rain gear within an hour from setting out.
Unexpectedly we kept climbing and also had to use our maps/phones a lot to identify the junction where the trail split (higher and lower option). Due to the weather forecast, we were not keen to take the higher route (more climbing, risk of thunderstorms, already wet).
After that junction we started the downhill to Wall Creek. The trail was well defined but had some brushy sections and also lots of mud. It had started raining for good now!
With all our gear on, that rain never really stopped all day, it just varied in intensity. The mud and the puddles made it hard to walk but at least there was less horse manure on this trail.
In 5 miles, we made it to Wall Creek. Even breaks aren’t that much fun when you’re sitting in the rain, so we kept them short and walked another 3.3 miles to the ford of Spotted Bear River, bringing us back to the original route on the other side. We had by then stopped taking our shoes off to ford creeks since they were soaking wet anyway, including socks and pants. My rain skirt at least kept everything above the knee dry!
Even the dog didn’t seem to have much fun in this downpour and pulled less than before. On the other side of Spotted Bear River, we headed back west towards Pentagon Junction. This was the one we had passed on our first day, and that is where the CDT alternate leaves the rover to climb up to Switchback Pass.
When we arrived at the little cabin that is used by the Forest Service, we found 3 CDT hikers already on the covered porch. Prime real estate in this rain! After some chatting and checking of maps and weather, we decided to camp at Pentagon instead of moving further as there was no chance to dry anything anyway. We also didn’t know if the next campsite (where we had stopped for a break on the first day) was busy with horses or not. To the car we had 10+ miles left, and it was 3pm (taking us 6.5 hrs for the last 10 miles of hiking).
By the time that decision was made, sadly it had started to pour again, and setting up your tent in the rain is tricky. The fabric is waterproof but as you go through the steps, it’s difficult to keep water from getting inside (I have to admit that in thousands of miles hiked, I never had to do this in such heavy rain). The dog sat in the pouring rain waiting, with a face that made it clear she didn’t approve.
It wasn’t a cold day but by the time the tent was up, the poor dog was soaked through and shaking (she had been wet all day but had a backpack on and had been moving … without that, she cooled down quickly). It took some spare clothing, a space blanket and some burrito rolling to make her feel better and get her ready for dinner!
For the humans, changing into dry clothes and having some tea helped. Again, it wasn’t cold, just wet. Eventually it let up enough to clean up the body and the dishes. We talked some more with the 3 CDT hikers and happily gave away what we had extra (food, space blankets, etc.). Two of them had quilts that were soaking wet and they were trying to dry them with their gas stoves! Definitely not recommended … Even if your pack and your body gets wet, the most important thing is always to keep your quilt dry. We use compactor garbage bags (or liners) inside the backpack, and I even have my quilt in a waterproof stuffsack inside the liner on wet days.
One of the CDT hikers decided to hike out with us to get a ride to Whitefish (he was from Missoula) but he had changed his mind in the morning and continued on the CDT Southbound. It’s always rewarding to give back to thru hikers, having experienced such wonderful trail angels along the PCT and PNT myself.
I am still using my Zpacks Duplex tent from the PCT and I hope it continues to hold up. I was worried about dog nails on the DCF floor but just used light dog booties while inside the tent and it held up. I really hope to use it on many more adventures.
For those interested, my dinners were Knorr Sidekicks which I much prefer over any dehydrated hiker meals, which tend to be very expensive (often $15), extremely salty, very spicy, and unnecessarily loaded with protein. Knorr’s cost $1.50 – still salty but not to the extreme!
Sorry I didn’t take a lot of pictures during this day! We camped at around 1500m and hiked 23.5 km.
PS. Loved the dog pic.
Wow. You guys are killing it! Ron’s dog?
We’d love some of that rain. 37C here!