Day 100: Sheep Experimental Zone

26mi

- Left town a late around 11am from the Island Lodge next to the Robins Roost grocery with Quicksilver and Apache. Quicksilver and I had to frozen pizzas for breakfast and felt sick going uphill out of town

- We are entering the sheep experimental zone today apparently.

- Leaving the Mack's Inn Alternate after a 10mi 3000ft roaded climb we bushwached for 5 straight miles. The end was the worse stretch where I found myself lost in a marshy bushy area where my legs kept brushing up next to stinging nettle. UGH.

- The sky has a strange haze today, likely due to the forest fires up north. I'm going to need to figure out how to hitch around. Or hope that the trail closures between Lima & Darby, MT about a 100mi section.

- Cowboy camped on top of Taylor Mountain. Might regret this even though the weather looks good.

Day 99: Island Park, ID

29mi

- Idaho border today!

- Stayed the night at the Island Park Lodge right next to a Chinese restaurant and grocery store called Robins Roost. Split the surprisingly large room with Apache & Quicksilver.

- Watched Saving Private Ryan with Quicksilver & Apache while analyzing

- Ate two large pizzas, a half gallon of chocolate milk, a liter of Dr. Pepper, a full lunch at the Chinese restaurant next door, two ice cream sandwiches, and a large coffee all within a 12hr period. Hiker hunger is in its prime right now.

Day 98: Old Faithful Village

5mi

- Holy hell there were a ton of people in Yellowstone. Old Faithful seems much less climactic than I remembered as a child when I came here with my Dad.

- Horfed so much food down at the breakfast buffet at the lodge.

- After hearing my name being yelled from the third story balcony in while checking out the lobby Yellowstone Inn. Mac & Appa brought to my attention that there was a bath in what is called the "Tub Room" inside down a series of hallways. It was glorious almost too nice for thru hikers.

- Found that my last campsite was to be shared by Quicksilver, Apache, and I. When Rangers schedule CDT hikers hey clump them into campsites until full.

Day 97: Geysers Galore

35mi

- Fist bumped Jeremy through his bug netting in the morning before booking it to the beginning of the geysers and hot springs.

- Walked on sandy beach on a lake.

- Saw a helicopter in the morning dropping off to park workers at a ranger station next to a lake to help rebuild the roof. At first I was hoping there wasn't a fire

- Walked by a bunch of weird bubbling Hot Springs and geysers. Tried soaking my feet in some Springs but found them WAY to hot.

- Crossed a road that had a ton of traffic going one way, it is a Friday at Yellowstone.

- The OA3 campsite was 1-2hrs further than I anticipated. Yogi's miles and the actual aren't accurate, go figure.

Day 96: Yellowstone, Southern Border

36.4mi

- Must've had a moose or elk clump up near me last night. It freaks me out because I was sleeping with my food and I thought it was a bear.

- Kind of just trucked all day with a couple of short breaks to make it to the Yellowstone Snake River Campsight I reserved.

- Made it to Yellowstone while I happened to come across a chapter in an audiobook that was saying Yellowstone was sitting atop a super volcano that is due to blow.

- Met hiker, trail name Jeremy, today. He was saying that he had nicknames all his life so he thought he'd just be his real name. I guess a couple of nicknames were Germy & Worm. He told me he wants to be a pirate ninja when he finishes the trail.

- Saw a bear after talking about bears with Jeremy. It hissed at us as it ran up hill. Did t know they do that.

- Hanging bear rope at the campsight I somehow on my first throw got my carabiner lodged in a bolt and washer that was securing the bear hang pole between two trees. Jeremy offered to climb up and retrieve it 20ft up and got it down relatively quickly.

Day 95: Ride Ethics

25mi

- Had breakfast with Spice in the morning and packed everything up to get some miles.

- Got a hitch from an old man that demanded more money from us. I heard about him before on the CDT Facebook group but it didn't dawn on me until both spice and I were in the car. I asked him if he was going to charge us, jokingly. I ended up only giving him $10, and spice had nothing. He asked us again after we got to the trail. We both just walked off. It doesn't work that way, at least be up front about

- Found that Spice was a bike messenger in a few big cities, SF, Boston, Philadelphia. I was picking his brain since it seemed like something I've been wanting to try for awhile.

- Passed a few adventure motorcyclists shortly after hitting the trail again. They gave me recommendations on what bike I should get as a beginner to long distance biking. Recommendation: The Honda XR650L.

Day 94: Giant Jackalope

ZERO

- Zero'd today in Dubois, WY. 

- Did laundry in town and had a difficult time finding the correct amount of quarters for the laundry. I bought a massive frozen burrito a gas station with the worlds largest, rideable, jackalope anticipating that I'd get enough quarters. I didn't and went back and bought a Dr. Pepper for some more change. Probably shouldn't have taken that PM Alka-seltzer last night.

- Ran into Outro hitching out and warned her about an old man who allegedly asks for more money than his ride up to the trail is worth.

- Scheduled campsites for when I get into Yellowstone two days from now. The guy on the phone was super patient with me seeing how I switch campsites over and over again.

- Destroyed the rest of my spaghetti.

- Bid biker tourer Charley a farewell on the rest of his bike trip across the country.

- Hikers Youngblood & Spice joined me at the free church Hostel towards the afternoon.

Day 93: Dubois, WY

18mi

- Within the first 2 hours of hiking I came across a hiker looking around confused. I discovered he was on the verge of becoming very lost following the fading trail in tall grass. His phone GPS was malfunctioning from the get go this morning, and he had no paper maps as backup, oh and no food. Luckily I lead the way and fed him beef jerky links and candy for his final walk into Dubois. 

- Walking on a road we were caught in the middle of a cattle drive. Where a cowboy essentially herds a group of cows to another pasture to graze. Being unknowing hikers we accidentally broke up his herd into the woods to the side of the road. "FUCKIN' GOD DAMMIT, GIT OUT OF THE FUCKIN' WOODS!", he kept saying. We ran off away from the cows trying to keep from interfering any more. From behind the trees the cowboy made a death wish for us to be eaten by Grizzlies. All I could say almost laughing was, "SORRY SIR!"

- Could not wait to get to town today.

- Met a southbound hiker Outro in the Super Foods grocery parking lot after hopping out of a quick hitch. She brought to my attention a free church Hostel down the street to crash at with a kitchen. I'm in, and girding down tons of spaghetti, salad, and chocolate milk.

You made it man. 

Day 92: Middle Fingers Flying

32.3mi

- Briefly hiker celebrity Anish, she holds the unsupported record for the Appalachian Trail or used to hold it, not sure.

- Pretty sure the locals have been moving around to see the trail markers to confuse us. I'm pretty sure somebody riding on an ATV gave me the finger when I waved.

- I can tell my body hates me for going 150 miles without complete recovery.

- Cows have also replaced the mountains.

Day 91: Knapsack Col

30.9mi

- Violent storms last night. The lightning flashes behind my eyelids woke me up. 

- Knapsack Col was in my opinion one of the best sections on this trail. A Col is the lowest ridge or saddle between two peaks. This one happened to be at around 12,000ft. I was glad I took my time to that section because it was both beautiful and treacherous. Insanely rocky on one side of the pass, and slippery snow the other. HOLY MOLY it was mind boggling out here.

- Sending down the valley I'll be other side of knapsack I ran into more amazed and NOLS groups, slippery grass, unstable rocks large and small, patches of mosquito hatches that filled my mouth.

- I ended up taking a wrong turn and felt that I could cut across on some rocks but it turned out that it turned into a sketchy situation. Had to turn back several times to choose a safer way to move through the massive boulders.

- My shoes are falling apart, fairly good for trail runners at almost 800 miles on them. I liked them especially when going downhill on wet grass.

- Met my first Southbound hikers, two girls named Jez & Chez. I assured them Knapsack Col was worth doing.

- Ended the day walking along tall grass a really long lake as the sun was setting on nice flat trail way up high. Such a variety of scenery today.

Hikers for scale

Day 90: Soaked Feet

30.2mi

- Plenty of stream crossings today. Snow melt is in its prime here in the Winds. 

- Woke with everything being absolutely drenched from condensation from overnight, I ended up drying everything out in a big pile I'm a rock around lunchtime.

- Somehow Mac and opera passed me this morning so I followed them on the opposite side of a river crossing changing their socks. We hiked for a little while.

- Saw a bunch of and NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) groups on backpacking trips. More people in disbelief we were hiking from Mexico.

- Eight complete shit coming down Lester pass on some infamous wet grass, man I need new shoes.

- It must be Friday since there's a million people out on the trails.

- Turning into the alternate for Knapsack Col I was greeted by two forest service workers. We chatted for a little bit talking about the trail maintenance they were doing and conditions up ahead. They told me they kicked a bunch of campers off of the lakes up ahead for not being 200 feet away.

- These mountains look evil or wicked, almost like they should be in Lord of the Rings.

- I'm questioning how doable Knapsack Cole is going to be tomorrow with all the snow I'm seeing around Titcomb lakes where I camped for the night.

Day 89: Thermarafting

25.9mi

- Holy shit the mosquitoes in the morning drove me nearly insane.

- Ran into Mac and appa at the top of the first pass today. I guess Mac started the three seconds of video a day for the PCT and it became pretty popular and you tube.

- We all tried shoe skiing down a short shoot of snow, being last I made the mistake of using overdue shoes with no tread, so I got moving much faster and fell trying to keep from sliding into a rock. Bad choices. I split my knuckle open but not too bad.

- I convinced the other two to ride on an air mattress down a snowy slope that ended and icy cold water beneath a beautiful tower.

- Loss my bear spray right before the settlement of Texas pass, and had to backtrack all over the downhill just to finish the really steep .7 mile climb again.

- A freak storm came rolling in nearing the top of a partially wooded climb, it was so sudden with the wind and lightning that I had to literally crouched under a giant rock to stay out of the hail, rain, lightning. It was probably gone after 30min.

- Passed hikers Thunder & Snow at the end of the day when removing rain gear after things finally cleared up.

- Camped on top of a rock to get some wind in order to get away from mosquitoes at night.

Day 88: Into the Winds

34mi

 - Was up and out by 7:30 this morning, yet I was still the only one that was really up out of the 6 tents pitched.

- So far the South Winds have just as much sage as the basin, it just has a lot more elevation change and trees.

- Since this is now grizzly bear country and I've begun clapping my hands periodically to forewarn bears. Who knows if it helps. I'm coming around corners or blind spots within the forests.

- Unlike Colorado, the mountains of Wyoming do not have airplanes flying over them constantly. Long periods of pure silence struck me as bizarre at first out here

- Made it onto the beginning of the Cirque of Towers alternate route in the Winds, and boy is there a lot of mosquitoes. A LOT.

Day 87: Killing Time for Bear Spray

- Slept great at Wild Bills, their beds are so comfortable. Bill made a massive breakfast for Buddah and I in their kitchen, consisting of eggs sausage and all the pancakes I could eat. Reset talking with him about hunting for a good hour while sitting amongst busts of various animals he's killed, buffalo, bear, elk. Apparently grizzly bears are starting to become over populated in the area so hunting permits may start being issued. GREAT.

- Ordered a can of bear spray on Amazon since we were heading into grizzly country in the Wind River Mountains coming up. However the can wouldn't be getting in until later in the day near 4pm, so to kill time I rode with Wild Bill and Carmela to the town of Lander, WY. With still plenty of time to kill I lounged around South Pass after saying but to Bill & Carmela dropped me off. Here I met up again with old Appalachian Trail buddy Bones once again with his posse. They all walked a 60mi day, finishing it at 2am this morning. They all seemed slightly zombie-like. Met Prophet, another hiker from the Grand Rapids, MI area. Crazy small world.

- South Pass City is a bit of a historic site, and was the first place in the US where women were allowed to vote, it was also a major telegraph station along the Oregon Trail. Nearly every buildings inside could be viewed staged as if settlers were still living there, pretty cool, also eerie, especially some rooms.

- I bought a new Swiss Army nice at the outfitter I haven't bought the only color available hot pink, maybe this time I won't lose it.

- Camped at South Pass City in the park after waiting for bear spray to come in the mail all day.

Day 86: Wild Bill & Carmela

18.6mi

-  Woke to Buddah popping his head up over a rock where the water source was not to far away.

- We apparently have been walking along the Oregon Trail for a stint? I remember learning about this piece of pioneering history from a similarly titled computer game. 

- Two mountain bikers rode by and stopped to ask me if I was ok? I was confused , so I asked if they were ok too... They rode off after saying have a good ride.

- Stayed at Wild Bill's Cabins in Atlantic City, more like a town. Bill and his wife Carmela were super accommodating making Buddah and I a big dinner followed by amazing cherry pie made by his wife Carmela. We both were giving them suggestions around the table on how to market their cabins they're renting to hikers of the CDT and bikers of the GDMBR (Great Divide Mountain Bike Route). Bill also drove Buddah an I to South Pass City, more like a historic monument. Where we saw with Quicksilver, Apache, and Treeman who ended up buying bikes at a Wal-Mart in Rawlins Wyoming and riding 120mi instead of hiking all the way to South Pass City. We all cracked up, it might be a first on this section of the CDT.

- Discovered that little Buddha has done way more hiking and anticipated, he was even the first people to hike the eastern Continental Trail or ECT. He's also good friends with Nimble Will Nomad, a hiker who has been walking for as long as I can remember. He also knew this mysterious hiker Legend who is going to attempt the figure 8 Triple Crown in one year coming up soon, I've heard of him several times. Insane.

Day 85: Wild Weird Horses

33.1mi

- This time, instead of cows following me in the morning, some wild horses were standing on the road I was walking and they kept running away seemingly pissed and would run away to be on the same road, in my way. His happened 3 times. The third time the stallion made a large dookie on the road for me to smell as I finally passed them. Don't be pissed at me, you're the ones that are in my way!

- Crossed paths with Big John, that I caught up to had a phone cord that was malfunctioning so I lended him my cord and hiked with him to the water source coming. I found that he was the owner Moonbow gear, A camping gear company he started Arizona and ran his own. Which is pretty awesome. Even used to so tents for Henry shires

- I think spiky lizards are my spirit animal.

- At the very last part of the day at mile 33.1 I was walking towards the cairn were the final spring was today and fell hopping across mounds of grass and mud went up to my calf. Out of all the water to fall in of the day it has to be the last one. I laughed out loud.

Day 84: Road-walking to the Max

42mi

- Not a bad sunrise either.

- First time passing herd of cows to have them curiously follow behind me for a quarter-mile in the a.m. There had to be around 20 smaller cows. After turning around for too long however they must of gotten scared and ran behind a nearby hill.

- Walked into Lil Buddha around noon and chatted for a bit at the top of our one easy climb for the day. He gave me some Tyvek to help prepare the extension collar of my bag before ripped.

- The longest day yet this trip, wasn't that bad until hammer foot started back up, I should've probably taken more breaks.

- The last part of the day had a surprising 2,000ft climb. I made an audible, "UGHHH!" once I found out.

Day 83: Mojave Green

20.2mi

- A magazine contacted me in France in regards to a few photographs of mine. So I spent much of the day coordinating with my Pops back home and my bank trying to figure out how to wire money overseas.

- After Rawlins is technically considered the Beginning of the Great Divide Basin for the CDT. I'm going to push for 3-4 days to do the 118 miles to South Pass City. After that it's into the Wind River Range

- Came across to Mojave green rattlesnake not too far out of Rawlins. Apparently the most venomous snake in North America.

- Was worried about getting struck by lightning from a thunderstorm front passing. The clouds at the end of the day for sunset made quite a show.

Day 82: Rawlins, WY

- Grocery shopped today and bought WAY too much food.

- Met hikers Bones (who I met towards the end of the Appalachian Trail), Egg Roll, Gentle Spirit, Critter, and Garbelly at a AMAZING Thai buffet downtown. Became absolutely stuffed after almost 3 plates.

- Walking back to the motel I saw some guy, with what seemed to be an entire months worth of groceries on the handlebars of his motorcycle handlebars.

- Quicksilver and I just chilled, literally chilled with the A/C cranked low, and watched Seinfeld and Big Bang Theory while messing around on our phones.

Day 81: Hammer Feet

35mi

- Woke up feeling balloon headed and kind of crappy, guess the cold is on to stage two.

- Met a biker named Ben on the great divide bike route who did the CDT in 2015 from England. We chatted about the West Highland Way that I did last summer and his home. He mentioned that locals near Helena screwed with CDT trail signs near town to mess with hikers his year.

- Ran into hiker Quicksilver on the road walk to town.

- Also ran into Mac and Oppa along road. They ended up switching into town but just barely, because Mac has a hat with a logo on it that says let's make America gay again, and the driver didn't think that was very funny.

- Quicksilver and I walked the last 10 miles on paved road, chatting occasionally from opposite sides of the road trying to hitch into town whenever a car passed by.

- A man pulled over not to offer a ride, but water, which was much appreciated seeing how I only had .5 liters to last those 10mi.

- My Feet felt like someone took a hammer to the balls of my feet over and over for the whole day.

- Ordered a pizza over the phone while hiking to be picked up about a mile from town.