It snowed a little last night with flurries throughout the day.  It mostly melted but higher elevations kept their accumulations.  I worried a bit about sleeping with my food in bear country but I think the risk is negligible since I haven’t seen any bear sign.  Nevertheless I awoke several times wondering if there was a bear outside.  Stupid imagination.

I started off on a Ley alternate to avoid the new CDT route over Bison Mountain.  Too many people said bad things about it on Guthooks.  I can say that the alternate seemed shorter and I was happy to stay at lower elevations with the snow and cold weather.  The peaks are covered in clouds and look miserable right now.  Somewhere on the side of Bison Mountain I scared up several elk that ran across the hillside in front of me.

The next one up was Thunderbolt mountain.  Once again I took a Ley alternate to avoid the clouds and snow on the official route.  I wasn’t as happy with this one though.  I descended a long way down and then had to ascend all the way back up.  It wore me out.  I don’t know – maybe the official would have been just as bad or worse.  It seemed to take forever to rejoin the CDT.  At the lowest point I had to switch trails at a River junction.  The Ley map showed the trails intersecting near the river junction, but I could not find it. I walked through the Blackfoot river and through a bunch of blow downs before finally finding the trail to ascend back up the overgrown valley.

After rejoining the CDT the honeymoon was short lived.  The trail started going up the side of Electric peak.  This also seemed to drag on forever and my upset stomach started bothering me. This has been an ongoing thing recently. I’m starting to worry that I have an ulcer or something.  I took Rolaids and Pepto Bismol and they helped for a bit but it always comes back.  I was also quite cold.  Walking through the wet grass and occasional snow banks keep my feet constantly soaked.  And the cold wind and snow flurries are relentless.  I finally decided to quit for the day at 6:30 when I found a nice campsite at the edge of a small meadow near the trail.  The nearby forest is very dark and deep with occasional snow drifts one or two feet high. It is constantly foggy and drizzling with drops of rain falling from the leaves above. It’s a bit creepy here by myself.

I only managed 16.5 miles today, but with the shortcuts I did 20 on Guthooks. I didn’t see anybody today. I fell asleep for a half hour in the tent, ate spaghetti, and watched an episode of Dead to Me. I purchased a new Western Mountaineering sleeping bag during my break in Golden and it is keeping me quite warm – even though the temperature is supposed to be in the twenties tonight.