I woke up to rain coming down on my tent. Did someone turn on the sprinklers? Nope, it was a quick moving cell that showed up for my morning session of getting ready to hit the trail. I have had the best of weather since Blue arrived, and darn it she had not worn her rain poncho or used her umbrella! So it was perfectly timed to make sure everything was brought for a purpose. Nothing worse than carrying something on your back for miles and never using it!

So with all our rain gear on, umbrellas up and deployed, we marched down the trail. A little mud, a little muck was nothing new to this dynamic duo. Blue and I trekked the Appalachian Trail together and the CDT has nothing on rainy cells. There is nothing worse than Vermont to Maine. If you want to know what rain is all about, that’s where they study it! Montana rain is child’s play. Well except for that brief encounter in Glacier.

We walked to what on my map appeared to be some outbuildings or possible forest service cabins. As we headed over the ridge, down into the valley, across the meadow, through the sage bushes, sure enough we found our refuge from the rain. It was a full on dude ranch with mules, tack and a forest service cabins.

Out walked the ranger and her brother. She is an archeologist for USFS and hiked in for the week checking on artifacts and historical buildings. Quite an interesting career. They let us move into the porch, make some hot tea and enjoy the weather from a perfect perch.

The sun came out and we headed over the ridge again, across the stock bridge and up the knoll. It ended up being a glorious day. No fallen trees, no dead forests, just long open meadows, fields and wildflowers. We saw a few people out for the day, a group of horseback riders and several section hikers.

As we were looking at our CalTopo map, thanks to my dear friend Atsuko, we found a shortcut. Now I have been known to find shortcuts that have ended up to be “not so good”. My biggest concern was the blowdowns and if this trail would be clear like the Sun River Trail. We took a leap of faith and veered off the trail and took another unknown route. All was good until it wasn’t.

The North Fork of Moose Creek was our obstacle. Being we had a good amount of rain last night and this morning, and the fact it was late afternoon, the river was roaring. Well now what? We’ve made it this far, I guess the only option is to go across. The first half of the 50’ wide river wasn’t bad, but the last 20-30’ was intense. I would’ve never done this alone but there is safety in knowing someone else is going down with you. Natalya headed across and the river reached the bottom of her pack. I waded across, poles vibrating, shorts wet but all was good. We lived to hike another day. Nothing but fun on the CDT.

We followed the Moose-Firman Trail for about five miles before we stopped for dinner, then camp. This should be our last night on the trail together, me and Blue. We celebrated with Mexican bean soup and pasta. It was a perfect end to quite a memorable experience with Blue. Tomorrow we will match out of the Bob Wilderness in search of Burgers, Fries and Beer!

As I look back on these past days with Blue, I have to reflect on the amount of suffering, pain and sheer agony that we both experienced. Yet, without the hard work, we would’ve never truly appreciated the glory and grandeur that was ahead. God refines us, sharpens us and builds us up so we can learn to see who He is.

“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭3‬, ‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬