CDT + GDT: Flagg Ranch to Old Faithful Village – Picking up the rhythm

Reference 21 | Flagg Ranch to Old Faithful Village returns to the separation of the waters

Day 83, 36.5 miles.

Today I arrive in the middle of my mileage for the combined walk, which means that I am also close to finishing the CDT. That is honestly crazy. Although I have almost three months, I am not sure that I have really hit me that I am walking along this path. I returned to the CDT today. I wanted to see a remote place called the waters on Two Ocean Pass, where a river called two Ocean Creek divisions into two. One flows to the Pacific and the other flows to the Atlantic. I had to walk and return to about 20 additional miles and make a 2000 feet climb twice to see it. It was worth it: I feel that I could see the true meaning of the continental division. Every great idea begins humble, and this is how it felt to see this stream knowing how far that water will travel. He reminded me when I saw the headwaters of the Río Grande in the San Juans while walking along the Colorado path last year, when it was a stream that could rise and not yet the powerful river that separates two countries. Or when I saw a mountain spring near the crest and I realized that this came out directly from the ground, it didn’t flow from any other place. I washed my face with that water and felt baptized by the earth. I ended up making about 36.5 miles today even with more than 7000 ‘elevation gain and had no ankle pain. So I hope that this is good news when I approach Idaho and Montana.

Day 84, 42.3 miles.

I developed an eruption this morning or maybe I had so many bites of inflamed mosquitoes while seeking an eruption. I’m not sure. I simply put tiger balm and kept walking and an hour later backed down. A small part of me feels bad for mosquitoes because I know that they are all female mosquitoes that border the blood protein for their eggs. But there are vegan ways to obtain proteins! Horses are all muscles and eat grass. Today at Yellowstone Backcount, I could see hot springs and a hot river without any other tourist not even any barrier. If I had been cooler, I would have loved to stop and soak a little, but it was so hot that I immersed my fan and used it wet. I looked at my phone and laughs because it reminded me of a propagation of Cénline. As soon as I stopped today until lunchtime and had music almost all day to keep up. I can reach and save everything in this package without having to remove it. I really didn’t want to stop anyway because there were many mosquitoes and horses. It was fine until the afternoon when I discovered that there was no water during the next 11 miles and that I only had 250 ml. Then I diminished the speed, mainly because I was trying to avoid eating so as not to be thirsty and drink my water. But you can’t walk 11 miles without eating something. I found some puddles that solved my water problem and took the pace again. I had to run some of the last four miles not to walk too much in the dark. But I reached 42.5 miles for the day without any physical complaint. That is a good sign for Idaho ahead, I would love to push bigger miles there if I can.

Day 85, 13 miles to Old Faithful Village, at a mile around the town, 12 miles away.

I must be allergic to something in Yellowstone, or I only have a lot of insect bites. My whole face felt itching and inflamed, especially around the eyes. I soaked my fan in the streams and used it as a cold compress. I kept sneezing and having to blow my nose a couple of times every half mile. The mucos was bloody, which will be important later. I walked through a deep swamp today in which I sank to the edge of my shorts. I am sure that this is where all mosquitoes are. I also walked through the Shoshone basin that had many boiling speakers and springs. The path is literally right next to them and you can observe them without any other tourist. Once I arrived at Old Faithful Village, he was overwhelming despite the fact that today is a working day. I honestly forgot how to move through a multitude of people. I picked up my refueling box in the post office and complemented outside the hiker box. Then I went to the lobby of the inn to wash things and load my power banks. I sent a text message to my friend who was in the winds a week after seeing how I was going and said he was in Old Faithful. It turns out that I was also in Old Faithful. For this happy accident, I could spend a couple of hours being social, which is weird on this path. She is married to my secondary school friend, so we send her a selfie. He offered to buy my dinner and at first I said that not because I really had a lot of food, but I ceded when he said: «The true trash of the hiker would never reject the food for free.» So I ashamed to eat this tuna and milk sandwich. When I came out, I turned my nose a little too strong and I nasal bleeding that lasted an hour. I would simply not coagulate because there was much mucus. I went through all my toilet paper and began to use my gloves to stop dripping. It is not easy to climb with a single free hand. Nor could I re -apply insect aerosol. I had wanted to spend Yellowstone’s limit, but I decided to camp and discover permits later. If you saw me in those last miles to camp, I would have been holding two bloody gloves in my nose, trying to eat a bar, hit mosquitoes and climb awkwardly on fallen trees with my trekking posts hidden under one arm. But I succeeded.

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