We took a selfmade alternate from Jackson towards Pinedale through the Gros Verde Wildernis starting with the Cache Creek Trail and then going on the Highline Granite Trail. This turned out to be basically a 10 mile bush wack through dense vegetation on a tilted trail and made hiking not only slow but also painful with the potential to twist the ankle a lot.

We bashed through the trail though and took the Horse Creek Trail down the mountain to escape but this trail was even worse at times with virtually no existing trail. We hiked out off the Wildernis using the little granite creek trail which was only a little better and looking at the map when we exited the forest we found that the horse creek trail was not even marked on the map.

We made our way into Pinedale by hitchhiking, to avoid any more crazy bush wack and got lucky with a guy called Josh who turned around to pick us up part of the way but than exclaimed: “Well I will just drive you to Pinedale – it is just 40 miles anyways”. We were very glad for him to go out his way and found out that he visited Hamburg in ’95 while riding a hand cranked bicycle (he was in a wheelchair).

When we got into town we went to get some groceries, ate a burger at the local brewpub and headed to the hotel where we went right to sleep.

Tomorrow we will hitch out back to the CDT into the wind river range. Out next stop will likely be Lander, WY

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Already before reaching Yellowstone I knew that I wanted to hike through the Grand Teton National Park because I had heard a couple of hikers talking about it. It is normally not part off the CDT and requires your own route from and to the park if you want to connect it to the CDT.

We hiked it northbound due to the permit situation and campsites being booked out, but it turned out pretty fantastic. We also did an additional loop through Open Canyon and Death Canyon which was well worth the extra miles.

Going over Hurricane Pass rewarded some of the best views on a mountain chain I have so far seen in my life. The whole national park is way mire suited for hiking as you basically need a car in Yellowstone to see all the highlights.

On our last day we went down Paintbrush Canyon and met two older ladies that we talked to and later got a ride with all the way to Jackson were we are currently camping in the back yard and already enjoyed a warm shower. This morning we will resupply and then continue towards Pinedale on our own route through the National Forest surrounding Jackson, WY.

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After we got our ride from Lima back to the trail we started out in the heat of the day going up a forest road with no shade. We found a nice camp spot with shade and Ninja went to find some water bit the creek was dry. Later on a forest service vehicle came in and told us they were trying to locate a forest fire and hiked up the mountain to do so.

I decided to scout the other direction of the ridge for any water and was able to find some after about 30 mins of walking on different directions to check on the streams displayed in the map.

The next day we had a very nice hike that was a little bit during a burned section but in the afternoon it starting getting cooler due to storm clouds coming in. We did an evening run to reach a parking lot with a pit toilet just in case the hail and lightning would get too bad, but we were lucky enough and the eye of the storm passed by.

On the following day we decided on another off our Selfmade alternates and went down into the valley to hike a forest road, which was very hot but features some cool streams. We also got offered a cold seltzer water by a passing car. We got into a small village with a gas station a little after 7pm but it was already closed – fortunately we were able to score a flavored soda in a kiosk across the street. Ninja is now promoting Mango Cola as the future for the soda industry. We slept in a national Forest close to a ATV road but only had some elk doing their weird noises and got a pretty good sleep.

The next section was part of the Macks’Inn alternate and we met two forks on the road towards the border of Yellowstone. As we were getting walk in permits for Yellowstone and the office closes at 4:30pm with a 19 mile walk from the park border, all hikers that day camped right at the park border to walk into Yellowstone the next day. That meant we had a little hiker party with a total of 10 sobo thru hikers sleeping at that campsite.

We made it to the Yellowstone Backcountry office the following day by about 1 pm but could only score a campsite on Mallard Lake 3.2 miles north of the CDT as all CDT campsites were full. We hiked out some red wine and enjoyed the evening anyways.

In the morning we went back to Old faithful Visitor center which now officially has the worst burgers and breakfast I have ever witnessed and got out food package from the post office. There we got offered a hitch from Jam and her husband who hiked the PCT last year and thought we are desperate hikertrash ( which we are btw. )

This way we got to see a good chunk of Yellowstone that most CDT hikers won’t be able to look at while staying on the trail. We hitched into Jackson for a good nights sleep in a hotel and got picked up by two young girls in a Toyota Prius with a DIY bed in the back and squeezed us plus our gear into the car for a fun but uncomfortable ride into town. We will hitch back tomorrow and start our trip through the Grand Teton NP which I am very looking forward to.

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We started out on the CDT and hiked for a couple of days which were pretty brutal in the hot sun with little to no shadows. Ninja still found it hard to push up the mountains with the heavy pack out of town but we did pretty good miles nonetheless.

After about 3 days of this decided to do another medical check and hiked our own route with shortcutting a descent chunk of the trail down to the highway. We walked on the Great Divide bicycle route on a random chance and met a few bikers.

At the end of the day we went full hikertrash and Ninja went into a private ranch and asked if we could camp out on the property. The first ranch nobody answered the door but in the second ranch the caretaker Harry was OK with us camping out front next to the barn. He also told us the first ranch we tried was build by a millionaire and used to be a weekend party getaway but recently changed the owner. He apologized that he had no beers for us but later on he came to our tent to chat and had gotten some beers from the neighbour.

He was very kind and made us coffee the next morning and let us use his shower so we would not smell too bad when going to the Walk in clinic. He also needed to go to Dillon – a larger city 50 miles away – and graciously took us along in his truck.

We spent the night in Dillon with no serious issues found from the lab results and after dealing with Ninjas travel insurance we hitched towards Lima to get back to the CDT.

The ride to Lima was not to hard to get, we made a sign and after about 30 minutes an older couple picked us up and asked us a little in wonder: “what do you want to go to Lima to?!” and after we explained that we are hiking the trail they told us they were just wondering as they live in Lima and there is basically nothing there. When we got close to the Inn they offered is to camp in their yard, which we graciously accepted and after we out up a sun umbrella we were offered some beers and chatted through the afternoon. In the evening they offered us to sleep in their old RV and take a shower in their house in the morning and then drive us back to the trail.

All in all a very fun section with a lot of kindness that we received.

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We decided to hitch to Gibbonsville and do an alternate back to the trail. When we rejoined the CDT we met Catwater already camping and decided to stay the night at the same tent site. Our luck had it that a trail crew was on the way but their truck broke down and they decided to walk into the same campsite. They also needed a tow truck to tow their vehicle and this turned into a loud endeavour that lasted well into the night including repacking their stuff.

This meant a short first night for us and we struggled that next day to push for miles. Further along we met Toroto from Japan and a few hikers that we did not meet before: Twig and Relentless as well as Animal and Towny.

We took a Selfmade alternate to the highway to hitch into Salmon, as Leadore would have been the same distance but is way smaller. That alternate included bushwhacking down a steep hill, but ended at a nice cold spring.

Our plan was at the end of the day to sleep at a public hot spring, but several people from the nearby town decided to show up for a late night session and we continued on and slept a little further down the road.

We will hitch back to the trail at Leadore tomorrow morning and continue to Lima.

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The section from Anaconda to Wisdom started with a long roadwalk but the final connector to the CDT was very scenic going up into the mountains with elevations above 9000ft. The trail contained quite a few up and downs that were a bit exhausting. The weather played along and it seems to finally be summer, making the trail look even more scenic.

Sadly Ninja has not been feeling well so we took our own route with a few side trails over the Mussigbrod campground and connecting forest roads to Wisdom where we spent the night to get some rest.

We decided to see a doctor in Salmon today to get checked up and ensure that there is nothing serious going on. We got a really lucky ride from Wisdom right to the Walk in clinic and will probably stay another day here in Salmon before heading back out.

Next stop will be Leadore but the section will also be quite demanding with mountains up to 10000ft and likely a bit of snow and about 5 days of hiking to get there.

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The section from Helena to Anaconda has been relatively easy as we were able to walk quite a few forest roads and make our own route towards Anaconda. We are finally meeting more hikers, actually yesterday while doing the resupply at the grocery store we met a group of hikers that I already saw and talked to in Glacier NP.

The day before Anaconda we stopped at a farm where you could camp as the section was through a long stretch of private land. There we met quite a character – an older man called Boston, a funny man living in a trailer on a ranch that started the travellers roost to help out hikers. He made us cowboy coffee in the morning and showed me his gun collection, so I got the full redneck treatment which I enjoyed.

Ninjas joints are not very happy walking on the highway bit at least the new shoes seem to work in terms of avoiding blisters. This means we will have to manage our way out of Anaconda which is another 12 miles of highway walking.

We will do a short trip to the Post office this morning and then head out towards wisdom, which will be a section of about 100 miles. We are thinking 4 days but the section will go back into higher elevation so we hope to not encounter too much snow.

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We hiked the 70 miles to Helena in less than 3 days and are now enjoying a rest day to heal up and relax with good town food.

The trail was pretty steep and hilly and made progress a little slow from time to time but at least the weather played along this time and spared us getting rained on except for a little sprinkling on the last day. We took an alternate to the official CDT to get to the highway before nightfall, bit that caused Ninjas feet to blister up.

That is why we spent time this noon to buy new gear for the coming section. Ninja got some shoes and insoles and I got some new shorts, shirts and shoes to look less like homeless hikertrash – at least for a while. It is almost a little unsettling looking like a normal person for once.

We still need to head to Walmart and resupply and also send out a package with food to Lima – an upcoming town that has no real grocery store. Other than that we will continue to rest our weary bones and are planning to head out tomorrow.

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We took a very late shuttle out of Augusta at 2 pm and arrived back at the trail around a hour later to start Hiking towards Lincoln, MT.

We reached a nice hilltop on that day in a burned area where we were able to set up camp without the risk of dead trees falling on our tents. That day the weather played along but the rest of the trip to Lincoln we had plenty of rain and thunderstorms along the way.

Yesterday we got caught in a big thunderstorm on the top of an 8000 ft high ridge and opted to walk into some lower trees to wait it out. It kept hailing and thundering for quite a while, but we made it out fine if a little cold. At least the storm cleared away the clouds that blocked the view beforehand.

The section was overall pretty exhausting due to the constant ups and downs.

We camped about 8 miles out before the highway today and reached the highway at around 11 am and hitched into Lincoln where we are booked into a historic hotel build entirely of wood.

Our next stop will be Helena in about 70 miles and we plan to head out tomorrow morning to start that journey. We will do a rest day in Helena to resupply and send packages forward to towns without proper grocery options.

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It has been a rough 5 days from East Glacier to the benchmark ranch hiking through the Bob Marshal Wildernis and hitching to Augusta for a well earned night on a Motel bed.

My new hiking partner Ninja is also from Hamburg in Germany and by funny coincidence, she knows an old school friend of mine, that I hiked on the AT with. We are currently planning to hike a longer section as a group.

The Bob Marshal Wildernis can be very beautiful – if the weather allows for views. Bit we had quite a bit of unusual weather patterns for June, even in Montana, and were wearing more clothing layers for warmth than expected. At least we did not encounter any bears and managed to climb over two more mountain passes.

The start of the section gave us the first challenge as we had to climb a great number of fallen trees that were on the not maintained trail after an old forest fire caused them to fall down. At least we had the opportunity to warm up in an RV in the campground before that section were we boldly asked to come inside to cook out of the rain. The elderly couple let us poor hikers in and we even got a cup of red wine to up our spirit. Bit the lesson learned is to avoid any section that had a fire a while ago as this slowed our first two days down quite a bit.

Our next stop is Lincoln which is about 3 days away once we are back on the trail, bit getting back is a tricky 30 mile hitch on a diet road so we might have to rely on the shuttle service of the motel.

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