Day 73: High Divide Outfitter

I got up at 4 and… out by 5:20 again. I did have to clean up a little bit of water in the corner under my mattress but everything else was dry. I still don’t understand why waking up an hour earlier only gets me twenty extra minutes of hiking time.

Actually, not everything was dry, the inside of my right boot was wet even though only the toe had stuck out into the rain. I guess the waterproofing had failed on that shoe. (Take a look at the bit of ground where my tent was in the first photo. The diamond is the shape of my rainfly, and the toes of my boots are the two bumps sticking out on the upper left side.)

A few miles in, I passed the camp of Rocket and the gang. They were still in bed asleep. And yet, despite input taking twenty minutes for my morning snack break, they still got to High Divide Outfitter before me. They passed me while I was dumping my trash in the Stemple Pass privy trash can and yoinking some free toilet paper.

High Divide Outfitter is a fully stocked gear store with everything a hiker, biker, or skier needs located just a hundred yards or so off the CDT at Stemple Pass. It’s entirely run by Dave Libby who also lives there. Importantly for me, he has a great solar and wind power setup, so I hung out for a few hours just charging my devices. The other three were in and out and gone in an hour, so I spent most of the time by myself.

I didn’t not buy anything. I bought some Butt Shield, which seems to help with chafing caused by sweaty shorts from fast hiking on humid days. I bought some new calf sleeves, a different brand that seems like it might be more resistant to abrasion. And a few extra snacks and drink mixes to get me to Helena. And a whole box of honey buns and some soda to consume while waiting.

I filled my water bag up all the way before hiking out. I knew I wouldn’t be reaching the next water source south that day. And then I weighed my pack before leaving. 50 pounds. That’s the reason I can’t keep up with these kids, folks. I’m surely coming out of town with 60 or 70 pounds in my now hopelessly broken pack. But hey, who needs speed when you can bring all the luxuries?

A few miles later, coming up a hill, I realized my knife wasn’t in my pocket. I either left it in front of the Outfitter when making lunch or it fell out of the worsening hole in my pocket. I think the latter is more likely, since I always put my knife in that same pocket instinctively. It’s not a terrible awful thing to happen since it was broken and I already have a replacement I’m picking up when I get a new pack at the end of the month, but it will be an annoyance for the next little while. Maybe I can get a little cheap one in Helena that’ll last me a week.

At the top of previously mentioned hill was a lookout tower. There was a gate across the stairs, so I didn’t go up, but I did have a snack break under it with a nice breeze and good cell service. I uploaded some more pictures while I drank a quart of Gatorade.

The next bit of trail was really quite easy. A lot of road walk. Only one steep hill. It was 5pm before I knew it, and the promised scattered thunderstorms were moving across the distant hill. I sat down to make supper, but when it started drippy-dropping, I relocated to under a tree. I got finished as quickly as I could, put on my Packa and hiked out into the rain.

I intended to stop at 7, but there weren’t any good spots, and I didn’t really want to take the raingear off and pull all my things out in the rain, so I kept hiking until it stopped raining at 7:30 and made camp. I came out a little bit damp and the cool breeze on the hilltop where I stopped meant I wanted to be in my sleeping bag ASAP, but I knew my body heat would dry my clothes out overnight.

Trail miles: 20.6

Distance to MacDonald Pass: 32.8 miles

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