CDT mile 1312.9 miles hiked 8.2
Frost on summer grass what a wild cold summer it has been
It was cold again this morning, so cold that we had frost on the ground and frozen tarns and puddles along the trail. The trail was gentle today with easy ups and downs. The terrain we walked across was marshy and wet, often with thick mud and peat. With each step, we tried to dodge having wet shoes but eventually, we said forget it and plodded through.
Cheezy leads the way to town through a marsh
Cheezy led the way today we want her to get comfortable leading us along the trail so that when we enter grizzly country in a couple of weeks she can not feel pushed and be confident that her pace is working for us. She did a great job of navigating even though the marshy lands were not so easy to pick a line through. She does forget that her stride and Maverick’s stride are both longer than mine, so what they can easily cross is more of a large jump for me.
Killing time while waiting for cars to come up the pass, 3 cars in an hour, not good odds for hitching
We made good time and hit the road around 9am. I changed into my hitch clothes: a pair of rain pants and a ballcap. We strolled down to Battle Pass and tried hitching. In 1 hour 3 cars passed us and not one would stop. We finally got a cell signal and called the hotel, the owner said, “I’ll come get you,” and 20 minutes later I was in his mini van going down to Encampment.
Now Encampment isn’t much; an old mining museum, a bar and grill, thrift store, Post Office, and a few homes. The town is going through a bust since the price of copper sent the mine out of business and the price of lumber is down. The people in town are friendly though and made us feel welcome.
Cool art in the hardware store
We spent our short time in town doing the usuall task: post office, eating, resupply, eating, laundry and of course more eating. We reunited with Buttercup who had been here for 5 days and in the morning we’ll hike out together.
The town history
