[Day 109] Half a Pack

My backpack feels half-a-pack lighter after yesterday’s 20-mile water carry and 7,000 feet of accumulated ascent. Fortunately, water should be a nonissue along the trail ahead. That is, if I can walk the trail ahead…

I became a smoker today, huffing my first half-a-pack of tobacco-free soot from the nearby Colt and Stadium Creek fire complex. This may be the densest smoke I have hiked in. I doubt the fires pose any immediate danger, other than a few hours of unhealthy air quality. Though, I heard in Helena that the town of West Glacier was under evacuation. I’ll evaluate when I’m in Augusta.

A deer, unphased by my emergence from my tent, was exploring camp this morning. As I walked to unhang my food bag, she went right for the urine-stained earth where I peed last night. Salt is a valuable commodity in the backcountry. Human food is loaded with excess sodium — even more excess for a backpacker’s diet. The extra salt, obviously, is processed out by the kidneys and expelled in a deer-enticing urea. A couple mornings in Northern California on the PCT, I awoke to foot-deep holes dug by the hooves of deer. Did the deer get their salt? I don’t know, and I certainly didn’t know they could dig. I shewed the deer away by chucking a couple rocks. The last thing I wanted was the deer’s urine attraction to bring her close to my even saltier trekking pole grips, backpack straps, and hat. Marmots are much more notorious for heists and destruction of these items for a taste of the rare backcountry mineral.

I followed a gradual ascent along Dearborn River. At the Welcome Creek USFS Cabin, I split from the river and followed Welcome Creek up Straight Creek Pass. I took lunch at a great spring on the opposite side of the pass. The smoke intensified as I followed the long descent along Straight Creek. The winds howled and whistled through the standing pine tree remnants of the burn scar along Straight Creek, imitating at times the distant yipping of a coyote pack.

Before Elbow Pass, I made it to a splitting junction of the CDT and Straight Creek Trail. Straight Creek Trail runs parallel to the CDT separated by the north-running ridge of Patrol Mountain. I took the right hand turn onto Straight Creek Trail, which is a more logistical path to access Benchmark Trailhead — how I will access the town of Augusta.

Straight Creek was easy hiking out. There were some raspberries and thimbleberries along the way to treat me on way into town. I was to the trailhead and dirt road to Augusta by 6pm. Carl got me down the road to Wood Lake. Bill and Dale, who run packs for Forest Service, got me the rest of the way into Augusta. We had a great discussion over Montana, the CDT, and packing. They took me to the Buckhorn Bar and treated me to dinner.

After the bar, I walked around a bit to let dinner settle, then headed to the Western Bar for another meal. My appetite is something. A group of kids my age were just of a backpack session in the Bob Marshall and were drinking their hearts out at the bar. They let me join them over conversation of the CDT and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. They offered me a shower at their hotel room, and I wasn’t going to deny that.

After my shower, I headed over to the Augusta Fairgrounds to stealth camp. It was a bit precarious, especially since I was unsure how close I was to local residents, but I made do.

Signing off,

Zeppelin / fReaK (ON a leash)