Hiker Gets Charged by Dog

This morning I woke up around 6am. Then I rolled back over and fell back into a deep sleep. I was dreaming and everything! Around 6:30am I got up again and decided to start packing up. Beer Run had said they would be doing breakfast around 7-7:30am this morning.  

I got everything packed up in my tent. Then I had to walk super far from our camp area to find a place to dig a cat hole. This whole area is wide open and it feels like you can see for miles. So I needed to find a place sort of down hill where everyone couldn’t see me. But I figured it out. Then headed back and finished packing up. Just before 7:30am I was ready for the day. And Beer Run poked his head out to let us know that breakfast would be ready in 5 minutes. Amazing timing! I could smell the delicious food from outside the van even.

The velveeta Mac n cheese scramble that Beer Run made for us. It was so good!

For breakfast Beer Run made sautéed peppers, onions, potatoes, and eggs. Then he added it into a batch of velveeta Mac n cheese. I would have never thought to make something like that, but it turned out incredible. I could have eaten 5 plates of it just by myself. But I only served myself a normal serving because there were 6 other hungry hikers who wanted breakfast as well.

Nothing like starting your day with a mountain lightning.

Then around 8am we said goodbye to Beer Run. I’m so grateful to him for coming out here and feeding us. He spent alot of time, energy, and money planning this whole trail magic deal. All of us were so appreciative of the whole thing. He really made my whole day and brightened what has been a really hard last week or so. He’s going to be around for the next few days so hopefully we will get the chance to see him again at West Yellowstone. We’ll be there in just a few days hopefully.

After we left we continued walking the road right from where Beer Run had parked. He was literally parked right next to the trail. The trail brought us along a road for the next hour or so. Then we cut back onto some actual trail eventually. We began climbing almost as soon as we got off the road. The grade was a bit steep at times but nothing too wild. And the trail would flatten out for just enough time so that I could maintain a good heart rate. After we got up to the top of the first small climb we just rode along the top of these small hills. Slowly but surely making our way up a taller mountain. It was easy going.

Syrup, Sidequest, and High Profile up ahead along the dirt road.

Somewhere towards the top I decided to check for service. When we get up to the top of a climb I usually give a look. But lately I haven’t had service anywhere besides town. Maybe for a brief moment once per section of trail I’m able to get it. This was my lucky moment though. I had full bars and was able to get a blog and a daily video live. And almost as soon as everything successfully uploaded, I lost service. It was truly perfect. Then I just continued walking.

Syrup signing all of us into the trail register.

The trail had a pretty steep descent once we actually made it to the top of our climb. Per usual we descended substantially just so we could climb back up again. That’s just how it’s been lately. This next climb was just as gradual though for the most part. I would climb up one hill or maybe two and then the trail would even out. There was one more steep and longer climb before lunch. But it couldn’t have been more than 400-500 feet. Plus the terrain was very cool and different then it has been. The climb was in a forested area but was still rocky. As I made my way I up I could see High Profile and Sidequest up in the distance. I passed by another southbound hiker as well who I haven’t met yet. That was probably the tougher climb of the day so far.

I liked this trail marker because it looked like someone carved it by hand.

In time the climbing got easer, but it definitely wasn’t over yet. There were some great stretches though of basically flat terrain mixed in. It was after 11am at this point and I wound up passing Sidequest. He had stopped to eat something. But I knew that High Profile would be stopping off for lunch at whichever water source is next. That’s always the perfect place to stop for a long lunch break. So I decided to just keep going and then take a big break there.

We were 3 miles away from the next water source. I had to do a couple brief climbs to get up there. But it was so gradual and easy. After what we’ve been doing lately I can’t even be bothered by a moderate climb. As I got close to the top I was looking at my Far Out map and realized we were coming to a field with sheep. Apparently that’s where the water source was. But there are also a bunch of sheep dogs in the field which I guess can be pretty territorial.

Pretty pink flowers growing along the trail.

When I got to the field I noticed a few dogs right away. Most of them just looked in my direction and maybe gave a bark or two. But then the main dog saw me and wound up running over. I had to put my trekking pole out between me and the dog. As soon as I did that though the dog backed off. After all of my hiking in the southern US I’m no longer afraid of dogs for the most part.

Once I got past the dogs I sat by the water source with HP. There were a couple other hikers there already too. And as we sat there about 9 more hikers arrived. We are in quite the bubble once more. While I sat at the water source I cracked open a Mountain Dew which I packed out from Beer Run’s trail magic. That was such a treat. Then I ate a lemon blueberry muffin for lunch as well as a couple other snacks. Everybody else arrived and we all took a nice long break there. All the other hikers had no issues with the dogs, except for Syrup. The biggest dog apparently charged at him barking. I guess the dog just didn’t like him. So Syrup pulled his mace out just in case, but didn’t have to use it. He did loose the safety though to the bear mace. Which is quite an unfortunate thing to lose  

The sheep herders tent and camp set up. Apparently they have been here for a couple of years. They had a large tent, more dogs, horses, and donkeys.

When we left our lunch spot we had to do a little bit more climbing. But then we spent the next handful of miles going generally downhill. The rest of the day was pretty chill. We only had to do the occasional 200-500 foot climb. Plus it was a relatively overcast day. It wasn’t too hot out or sunny. The weather has changed a lot the last few days. Previously we had been in a heat wave. Then for the last 3-4 days it’s been storming and overcast. Things sure do change quickly out here.

A mountain off in the distance as we began our descent.

Shortly after lunch we passed by a northbound hiker. She stopped immediately and gestured to me, saying my name. It was Mighty! I actually crossed paths with her under the exact same circumstances on the Florida trail. I was going southbound and she was going northbound. That was the day that I fell up to my neck in dark swampy water. The most traumatizing day of my ECT thru hike last year. It was so crazy to see her again.

9 Lives happily climbing up a mountain.

Plus, she was actually one of the hikers months ago in Florida who had warned me about a crazy hiker. Apparently he was harassing people and screaming while he hiked the FT. And in the truly craziest coincidence that same hiker is out here on the CDT this year harassing hikers again! Cottonmouth has gained quite the reputation on the CDT for threatening hikers and making people feel unsafe. Apparently he is off trail now because he got arrested in a town off of the CDT. But just recently I was discussing him and these issues with other hikers, and I remembered Mighty. She had warmed me about him back in Florida. Now here I was on the CDT, crossing paths with Mighty again! It was so cool to see her.

Fireweed was growing in huge patches alongside the trail today. It was so vibrant.

We walked for another 2 or so hours after leaving lunch. Then passed by our next water source and decided to stop off there. There weren’t many more miles left for the day at this point. In about 6 more miles we were going to pass by a trailhead parking lot. Apparently there was a privy there, bear boxes, and picnic tables. That seemed like a solid place to stop off. Though it was tempting to go a bit further too.

I had never seen this flower before today. It looked so fuzzy!

Those next couple of hours were nice and easy. We only had to climb a couple hundred feet at a time. Generally we were just cruising along on flat-ish trail. As we walked we passed through fields of bright pink wildflowers. There have been a lot of these flowers on trail previously. But I’ve never seen whole fields of them before. Then we got to a pond when we were nearing the end of our day.

By the water the mosquitoes were so bad. I figured once we got away from the pond it would get better, but it didn’t. The rest of the day the mosquitos were bugging me like crazy. I can’t stand having to swat at bugs while I’m trying to hike. Luckily we only had about 45 minutes left of going to go for the day. Otherwise I would have had to stop to spray down with bug spray.

A trail marker for the CDT. This is what the markers used to look like. So you’ll often see them along the trail and along then old CDT.

When I got to the junction for the trailhead parking lot the bugs were still bad. I guess it’s just going to be like that for the remainder of the night. All of us headed over to the parking lot to see about camping. There wasn’t really any place to set up right along the trail. It wasn’t much better in the parking area either. But we found a decently flat area in the woods. Then got our tents set up before doing dinner.

Another flower that I had never seen on trail before today. The little white and light purple bells were so pretty.

Once I was set up I brought my things over to the picnic table. What a luxury, to be able to cook at a picnic table. I made ramen with peanut butter for dinner. Then drank another $3 liquid iv packets. I’ve had a good laugh drinking these because of how expensive they were.

As we were all eating dinner it began to rain! What timing. So I housed the rest of my food and put my bear bag in the bear box. Then I retreated to my tent for the night. It began raining so heavily. Then it even started to hail! Once again, weather has been crazy lately. Though it didn’t last too long then it cleared up and was a quiet and calm rest of the night. I did some writing and then headed to bed.

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