Continental Divide Trail hike- Idaho & Montana

I chose to hike 221 miles of the Continental Divide Trail so that I can experience and see the official route that I bypassed in 2016 on my thru-hike of the CDT. 

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That year I experienced a painful knee injury that slowed my progress enough that I might not get to the northern terminus in Glacier National Park before autumn snowstorms set in.  Two days after departing the tiny, dusty town of Lima, Montana in 2016 the long-running fatigue of hiking on less than two healthy knees caused me to fall and scrape my arm very badly. After patching the wound I soon arrived at a lovely and inviting creekside campsite. I immediately used my Garmin GPS unit to design a route on mostly dirt roads through Montana ranch lands.  I estimated by hiking the bypass I would arrive in Anaconda, Montana in seven fewer days than if I struggled along the rugged, mountainous official route. 

The choice to hike the bypass route was difficult because I would not see the spectacular divide between the states of Idaho and Montana, and I would miss hiking through the Anaconda-Pintlar Wilderness.  But I decided that safety and finishing the hike in 2016 was a priority. If heavy snows fell in early to mid-October I could be forced off the trail without reaching the Canadian border.  At the creekside camp I slept soundly in my tent with a good plan.

The bypass worked!  I arrived at the Chief Joseph border crossing on October 3, 2016.  A few days later the snow began falling on the CDT in norther Montana. If I had not hiked the bypass I might not have finished that year.

Even though I considered my 2016 CDT thru-hike complete I vowed to soon hike the official route from Lima to Anaconda. In 2019, while training for the hike I experienced a severe knee injury that put the CDT hike on hold.   In 2020 I hiked the first segment from Lima to Bannock Pass (103 miles).  I intended to continue for 221 more miles to Anaconda while averaging 20 miles per day.  But for some reason my body could only come up with 15 miles daily,  and I risked running out of food.  I thought perhaps my trail diet was the cause for the fatigue and under-performance.  After all, used to hike 30 miles per day years ago.  But I suspected the real problem was atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that I knew I had but never thought it slowed my hiking pace.  Apparently it did.  Moreover, the new trail diet I tried was very bad!  I was not having fun on the hike and went home. 

It is 2022, and I have began my third attempt at completing the section of the CDT from Bannock Pass to Anaconda, a 221 mile hike.  Thanks to a chance meeting with CDT and soon-to-be Triple Crown hiker, Ghost Hiker, I shared the ride from Lima to Bannock Pass.  Without that 60-mile car trip from Lima I would have had to hike over 60 miles of trail I had hiked in 2020.  I was elated knowing I would not have to repeat those miles.  

At Bannock Pass on a crisp, clear morning I began this 221 mile section hike.  By starting on July 9 I hoped the weather would be cooler than August 2020, when the heat was very rough at times. I got my wish.  The forecast looked great and the hills and mountainsides looked greener than I remember. The northern part of the section I am hiking still has snow in the peaks, and I assume the snowpack is enough to cool my feet and provide melt-water rather than an obstacle.  Montana desperately needed a cold, snowy winter and rainy spring to let the forests and rangelands recover from many years of drought.

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