July 31st, 2024
Mile Marker: 983
Miles Hiked: 30
We woke up this morning around 6 AM to get our bags packed and down to breakfast by 7 AM. Even though breakfast opened at 7, there was already a mass of people filling their plates.
We rolled out around 8 and were so thrilled to see clear skies and no smoke. The rain yesterday seemed to have cleared out the smoke and we were able to see far into the distance. Bummer we didn’t have that a couple days ago, but so happy for it now.
We decided to take the blue line (Mack’s Inn Alternate) out of Island Park, Idaho instead of the red. The red line had a 30 mile water carry and I don’t have enough carrying capacity for that. So we decided the blue line would be best with only a 14 mile water carry and it was on road/gravel so we could travel fast.
It felt so good to be starting the day out in new shoes and we cruised along the highway for a short bit and then turned onto a less used paved road.
Eventually we turned onto a gravel road that continued on for the first half of the day. I was loving it as we were able to cruise at a 3.5 mile per hour pace with ease.
Journey and I plugged in Peter Attia’s book and found it simple to let our minds wander with his words and forget about hiking.
Today was a strange day, we had spent the past week or more with these grand views and now we were in the trees for most of the day. It felt dare I say, a little boring. It was as if today was just a day to get from one place to the next without much else to do but put your head down and hike.
Around 14 miles in we ran across a giant arrow pointing us to where the spring is. It seemed as if the FarOut icon for water was inaccurate on the map, thankfully people take the time to mark where it was.
It is a bit disappointing to pay for a map on the FarOut App and have it be inaccurate or not as clear as the other two. It definitely could use some work for the CDT.
We took a shorter lunch and met two other SOBOs named Catmandu and Just Mike. Catmandu has already hiked New Mexico and Just Mike hiked New Mexico and Colorado already so he is almost done! They are moving quickly and have finish deadlines they hope to be done by. Catmandu hopes to finish Colorado by September 20th before his 61st birthday. He claimed that remaining active in his life has allowed him to be able to do the things he wants.
Around 3 PM we hit the Yellowstone National Park boundary and were a bit let down when it was only this teeny tiny sign up in the trees. We figured for a national park that it would be a bit larger but I guess they keep it mellow out here.
Then shortly after, we ran across a small sign someone had created to make the Wyoming border. Small but sweet, we are finally out of Montana/Idaho and into a new state! I didn’t feel too much excitement here but when we crossed a couple of NOBOs and asked them how Wyoming was, their expressions made me giddy.
They let out an expression that said they missed it and it was so beautiful and told us to have a wonderful time. This got my hopes up so much, I’m so excited for what’s to come.
Also, we saw about 10 NOBOs today which was unexpected. We must be hitting the front end of the northbound bubble!
Our campsite is at Summit Lake which had baby ducks swimming all around. Journey and I stood here for a while watching them, just adorable.
We made it to camp, set up our tent, and went out by the lake to wash off and eat dinner. This lake also has leeches, gross! 🤢
Dinner with a sunset view was lovely AND there was hardly any mosquitoes. Finally!
There is about 10 people here tonight at camp, the most we have ever camped with! It’s a nice change for once.
We got a flat spot and it’s starting to get chilly, time for some sleep!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 