Sagebrush personal hiking blog
Continental Divide Trail
CDT Montana 2016
Day 4, July 9, Saturday
Start 04-149WT Rock Spring, on top of Big Table Mountain
Stop 05-100M On border fence Montana-Idaho on Continental Divide, 2 miles from Modoc Creek.
Miles 1 + 2.3 + 4.5 + 7.5 + 7.7 + 2 = 25
Going down Table Top Mountain, we get views o| surrounding landscape.
Back up on Little Table Mountain, the path goes along one edge, so one can enjoy views the whole way.
CDT Montana 2016
Day 3, July 8, Friday
Start 03-270M somewhere in the Centennial Mountains and Targhee National Forest
Stop 04-149WT Rock Spring, on top of Big Table Mountain
Miles 1 + 5.9 + 4.9 + 7.4 = 19.2
Leaving the Experimental Sheep Station and entering Targhee Forest, the landscape is a mixed patchwork of grass meadow and forest.
The trail passes Aldous Lake, and a few other small lakes during the day.
Skeeters and those flies that like to circle around you a hundred times are present in large numbers until a breeze an the afternoon cancels flight operations.
A number of trees are standing dead, assumed from beetle kill. Burned standing trees are also a frequent sight.
Late in the day the trail climbs up a steep ridge with good views.
The ridge broadens into a broad flat-topped area called Table Top Mountain. We follow what on the map is marked as an old pack trail.
Near Rock Spring is an old drinker, now dry, built so long that I wonder if it was built to service sheep herds.
Rock Spring now is a piped spring coming out of a pile of rocks.
A bear box is located near the spring, so I stop nearby to camp, glad not to hang food from a tree for one night.
CDT Montana 2016
Day 2, July 7, Thursday
Start near 03-075WT where Mack’s Inn route merges back with main CDT route, just inside Montana border
Stop 03-270M somewhere in the Centennial Mountains and Targhee National Forest
Miles 4.5 + 7.2 + 4.9 = 16.6
After breaking camp, I found real built trail to walk on near the campsite that was not visible yesterday.
A sign describes the Experimental Sheep Station, active in July and August. No sheep were seen all day.
The trail heads westward all day long along the border between Idaho and Montana. The states use the actual Divide to determine their borders here.
Four people out day-hiking were surprised to see me coming the other way.
The trail climbs up high, near almost-10k-peaks, and I need to put back on gloves and windbreaker.
The trail merges onto an old road bed, wide and level, which follows along the top of a ridge for miles of great views.
The trail turns south into lower grassy rolling hills, still marked on the map as Sheep Station.
I make camp in a stand of trees. Skeeters lay siege to my tent.
[finished audiobook Dark Currents, book 2 in the Emperor’s Edge series, by Lindsay Buroker]