I woke up at 4am, put my socks and calf sleeves on, then took a quick nap until 5am when I started packing. I had a long day ahead and, though it might be harder on only 6 hours of sleep, it would be harder still if I couldn’t get it done before dark again.
I was ready to go shortly after six, which is about the time Windy was emerging from his tent. I started hiking not a minute after he came out.
I immediately arrived on the shore of Lake Shoshone, which looked like a rainbow reflecting the pre-dawn sky. I only got to spend a minute there before the trail went into the woods.
At 8am, I pulled off the trail to take a snack break and saw Windy come right up and pass me, sniffing and snorting but saying not a word. So apparently he hikes so much faster than me that it only takes him two hours to catch up from packing up after I had left, even when there’s a lot of hills to climb.
And yet somewhere I passed him again. A northbound hiker told me he had mentioned me, so he was ahead of me there. A mile later, I came to the ankle-deep Moose Creek crossing and spent maybe 20 minutes trying to turn it into a dry crossing, but couldn’t find a tree strong and supple enough to support me. So I gave up, took off my boots, put my sockwas on.
Ten steps later, I changed back into my boots because it would be 2.7 miles to the next wet crossing.
Coming down the hill to the shore of the Shoshone Lake outlet/Lewis River, I saw Windy hiking up behind me. I stopped at the end of the gravel beach to change back into my sockwas, but he just came down and walked straight into the water. I asked how I had passed him. It was the same way I passed him on our first meeting: he had stopped to cook breakfast. Anyway, he was soon in the water up to his hips and away and gone down the trail on the other side.
“My shoes are always wet,” he said.
“Everything is in waterproof containers,” he said. “It’ll be fine.”
“See you down there,” he said.
It was only ankle-deep where I crossed. I’ve got some things I don’t want wet.
When I made it to the far side and stopped to put my boots back on, I first grabbed some water from the river and started it filtering. It was the last good water for quite a while, and it was about time for my second morning break anyway. It was 11:11 when I hiked out again.
I passed 3 day hikers coming in on the way out. One told me that she had passed Windy 40 minutes before, so it seemed he was over an hour ahead of me at this point. I kept going without slowing but doubted I’d catch him.
The Dogshead Trail was the direct route out of the woods. It went straight for the road but didn’t really do anything scenic. It was low rolling hills for the first 3.4 miles, then a gently graded half-paved road for the last 1.3. I arrived at the road about 1pm, but, after chatting with some guys about to enter the woods, I decided to take lunch at the Heart Lake Trailhead just down the road.
The best spot for such an undertaking was a log in the trees overlooking the parking lot currently occupied by a couple from Colorado about to begin their own hike to Heart Lake. I chatted with them for a minute, particularly about features of the trail to come, where I expected to see them. Then they left and I spent the next hour roughly making and eating lunch and dumping all my trash in the last conveniently placed trash can I would encounter for a few days.
I started to hike out about the same time as another couple, apparently day hikers judging by their gear, was setting off dish the trail. Given that the first point of interest along the trail was a solid six miles away and it was already 2 in the afternoon, I assumed they must be fast hikers, planning to practically run down the trail to do the 12 or 15 miles in and out before sundown, so I let them go ahead. But when I told them I expected them to be faster, they said they preferred a chill pace. I think they were probably not making a good choice of trails.
Anyway, I did the next six miles as fast as I could without stopping. It was predominantly level and easy to speed along. Finally, I started to come out into the open hillside opposite Factory Hill, the Witch Creek drainage. There were some dry thermal features near the trail near the top of the ridge, but as I descended, the trail came within feet of several hot springs. After a few switchbacks, I came out into the open meadow and there were hot springs everywhere. At the second Witch Creek crossing there were three people waiting: the Colorado couple and Windy. The couple were soaking their feet in the creek and Windy said he had laid in the creek for ten minutes earlier. Upon my arrival, there was some conversation, but as soon as I mentioned the lake being said to be swimming pool temperature, they all started getting ready to leave. They were hiking down to the lake by the time I had my shoes off. I had the creek to myself. You can see in the video what happened next. I only laid in the creek for a few minutes because I was also eager to get to the lake.
1.5 more miles down the hill, I passed the ranger cabin at the lake shore. A volunteer ranger named Richard hailed me before I went any further. He was staying in the cabin with his wife and had been working in this part of the park for around a quarter of a century. But his role here was to talk to people who were staying at the lake campsites. Not necessarily to turn away people without permits, but at least to give them some direction. I know this because Windy had talked to him and admitted his lack of any permit, but he let Windy go on with his plan to hike around the lake and on to Snake River campsite some 6 or 7 more miles away. I, of course, did have a permit and my campsite was only 1.5 miles away. Close enough to get to bed on time. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Eventually, I wrapped up my conversation with Richard, who was as eager to go for a swim as I, and headed down the beach to where Windy was just dressing to hike after a nice skinny dipping sesh. He chatted with me until I was ready to go for a swim, then hiked out to another 6 miles as I paddled out into the luxuriously temperate water on my inflated mattress. I did not expect to see him again; he does much bigger miles than me.
I left my mattress on the beach to dry, got dressed, and started making supper right there on the beach. Then, I saw that my mattress had blown into the water again, ran down to the water, took off my shoes etc. as fast as I could, and waded in after it. After I retrieved it and got my shoes on again, I deflated the mattress and hung it on a bush to dry, then went back to finish dinner.
It was around 6:30 or so when I set off around the lake, an easy smooth walk to my campsite. Just before the turn-off, I crossed Beaver Creek. I grabbed a bag of water to filter in my campsite, then set off down the side trail into Beaver Creek Meadows.
It was a sweet campsite. An island of trees in the middle of a meadow with a couple of bear boxes of a design I had never seen before. There was a toilet up the hill that I never visited. I put all my food in one of the boxes, started the water filtering, then started setting up my tent in the meadow away from the island and on the opposite side as the creek. But it was slow going because I was so sleepy and barely moving. Even the sound of thunder and a distant flash of lightning didn’t much hurry me. The storm cloud ended up missing me anyway.
I thought I might feel better with another drink of water I had just filtered, so I stopped making camp to sit in the bar box and drink water and eat candy. I think it worked because ten minutes later I was in my tent. And I was all turned in and off and ready to sleep by 9, just as planned.
Trail miles: 22.7
Distance to Dubois: 66.3 miles
west end of Lake Shoshone 
This would be 1000 miles from the northern terminus on the official route, but I had done well over 1000 CDT miles so I get to celebrate too 
I saw tons of huge mushrooms this day 
Crossing Lewis River at the outlet of Lake Shoshone 
east end of Lake Shoshone, several miles away 
approaching Heart Lake 
