The trail followed Muskrat Creek for several miles before intersecting Badger Creek. I decided to take the Badger Creek shortcut to avoid the extra 4 miles and a bunch of elevation gain/loss. The shortcut was along a long-abandoned dirt road which has become completely overgrown. It was easy hiking, but probably not as beautiful as the official trail which climbs up to the ridgelines. I’m just feeling a bit worn out and short on time, so I’m taking shortcuts whenever I can find them.
Shortly after rejoining the CDT I stopped at the Badger Ranger Station near the trail. There was nobody there (as usual). The sun had finally come out and it was warm there on the porch. I hung my tent to dry and was laying on my back with my feet on one of the porch posts when Neon and Bamboo walked up and joined me. Soon along came Airplane Mode who recognized me immediately. We had first met at Doc Campbell’s. It was fun to visit with all of them. Before I knew it I had spent more than an hour there. I think this is what they call the hiker vortex.
I was a little past the ranger station going up a hill when I heard someone singing. I slowed down and along came a young girl just singing away. She seemed a little embarrassed and smiled a lot. I didn’t have the heart to tell her she had a little piece of red gummy bear stuck on her front tooth, which I couldn’t stop looking at while she talked 🙂 This is how I met Boot Scoot. She seems really happy and full of energy and was a welcome break from the drudgery of the trail.
I’d heard horror stories of the last 10 miles before Maria’s pass from many of the SOBOs I had run into. Most had taken the Ley Low Water route to avoid this section, but Boot Scoot informed me that they had cleared most of the blow downs and it wasn’t all that bad. I decided to try it because the low route was used by the rangers and all their horses had chewed the trail up into a mess which was aggravating my sore toe.
Well I should have taken the low route. The CDT route is full of PUDs and the 1.5 mile portion of blow downs that didn’t get cleared was truly bad. It’s hard to convey how difficult it is to traverse some of these jumbles of fallen trees when you are tired, can’t see the trail, everything is wet and slippery, and you have a pack catching on every branch. At one point the trail switchbacked up a steep hillside completely covered with fallen timber. It was like a huge pile of pickup-sticks with logs on top of logs on top of logs. It was easier to simply head straight up the hillside than try to follow the trail. Oh well. I wanted a challenge, right?
I’m now camped in the Marias Pass campground and I’m not sure why. It is next to a highway with all that noise, there is a train that comes by every hour or so and makes a ton of racket, there is some sort of construction thing going on next to the campground, the water from the spigot contains red floatie things, the mosquitoes are unbelievable, no trash cans, and Oh – it costs 10 bucks. I would have been much happier just stopping a quarter mile back and camping in the forest but I was hoping I would meet some hikers here. Nope. But on the positive side, tomorrow I will be in East Glacier where I have a hotel room!