Day 83 (July 17, 2021)

1298.4 to 1315.6 (17.2)

As warned by hikers ahead of us, this day/segment was tougher than expected as we wanted to get 20 miles but ended up less.

Just Jim and I got hiking first. Our campsite had taken us slightly off trail, near Loch Lomand via a dirt road. Our maps confirmed a trail from near our campsite, also mentioned in Guthook, that reconnected with the CDT. It was there, and we started what was a big climb to the summit of James Peak. It was tough/steep, so I am glad we did it first thing in the day. The weather was gorgeous and so were the views. James Peak is popular with day hikers, as we saw with several already in their way down. But we saw many more on their way up as we descended the other side. (Saturday crowds.)

Just Jim had seen several comments about taking a short alternate route at the bottom of the descent to avoid some trail both not well marked and apparently hard on your feet due to its sideways slope. We took the alternate path which was a faint track at first but then a dirt road that joined up with a very well maintained dirt road that led back up to Rollins Pass. This main road was very busy with mountain bikers, Jeep enthusiasts, and OHV tour groups. Wow. The road went all the way over the pass so was accessible on both ends. But it wasn’t steep leading up to the pass so we still liked our choice. (Feral, hiking behind us, reported the other route was not fun. He bailed on that route toward the end and came downhill to the road.)

We ate lunch at the top of the pass, watching all the people. Of particular interest, we saw some folks hiking in and out with skis! We asked about this. They were hiking to a nearby mini glacier. They would ski down and hike themselves back up. That is some serious dedication to skiing!

By now the usual afternoon storms were developing as we got back hiking. Our next concern was a large area of blow downs during a large descent. Literally most of a small valley had been damaged last September by an intense storm. Earlier CDT hikers had had a rough time in the area either navigating through the piled up, broken trees or figuring out a way around it. However, mostly volunteer trail crews had been ou slowly clearing the trail, so we had some hope.

We did end up getting some rain during the mid afternoon, but nothing severe.

Seeing the blow down damage from above the valley was horrible. Trees were piled up across about 2/3 of the area. Yuck. The good news is that it was obvious some work had been done on the first section of trail we encountered. Though the tree trunks were still there, the limbs along the path had been cut to make getting over them easier, and small flags had been placed designating the trail where it was difficult to see. We got through that fairly easily (people my age aren’t meant for some of the maneuvering required to get through/around/over/under blow downs!) when we ran across some volunteers clearing the trail. Yeah! They were working their way up the valley, so the trail was cleared ahead of us.

Earlier I said the trail clearing was going slowly. That was not meant as a criticism. This area is designated as wilderness. By law, that means no machinery or motors are allowed except for rescue operations and certain fire fighting. So these crews have to use hand tools like cross cut saws (see the picture). Yes, even with this much devastation. The amount of work required is staggering just for this area, much less all the other trails in wilderness areas. I cannot thank these volunteer trail crews enough!!!

After descending further through the cleared blow downs, we paused to figure out where to camp. Between the initial long climb, some rocky trail and the (now) short section of blow downs, we had not got the mileage in we wanted. We selected a site just a couple of miles ahead near a stream. It is a good site in the trees, but also lots of mosquitoes. Oh well, you can’t have it all.