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Montana-Idaho Border

These sap-filled bore holes are telltale signs of the presence of pine bark beetles, which are a natural part of the Western forests but which have been allowed to prolifically spread in recent years because humans have taken away nature's two defense mechanisms: human-accelerated global warming allows more beetles to survive the winter, and strong fire suppression policies allow beetles to travel from pine grove to pine grove, instead of getting taken out by a wildfire. I'll say more about pine bark beetles in Wyoming and Colorado, where the damage is catastrophic.

A young grove of lodgepole pines, which will fight with each other for sunlight and water, inevitably resulting in winners and losers, the latter of which die and decompose, returning nutrients to the soil that will be utilized by the winners.

The Continental Divide "Trail" often makes use of little-used 2-tracks in the absence of a real hiking trail. And because the Divide often serves as a political boundary -- e.g. between National Forests, between states, between grazing regions -- there is frequently a 2-track atop if for management purposes.

Smoke-filled skies outside of Anaconda, MT. Without a strong wind, the smoke tends to settle in the valleys, which creates problems for those with respiratory issues. For me, it just obscured all my views for about 500 miles, ruined most of my pictures, and stole about 30 minutes of daylight each day for 2 weeks.

The smoke-filled skies were fitting when I walked through the town of Anaconda, formerly home to the smelting operations of the Butte copper mine. "The Stack," just visible in this photo, is 585 feet high and 75 feet in diameter at its base; the Washington Monument could fit inside it. In 1983 the smelting plant was declared a Superfund site, which is a convenient program whereby polluters exploit the planet, poison innocent civilians, and claim bankruptcy, and the federal government cleans up their mess with revenues raised from taxes on petroleum and chemical companies.

From Anaconda I went my longest stretch without a resupply, 380 miles, to Macks Inn, ID, on the Henry's Fork of the Snake River just west of Yellowstone National Park. The reason I went 380 miles is because it was more time efficient to do so: all of the possible resupply points are WAY off the trail, usually 20-50 miles, and are accessible only from low-traffic mountain roads. In the picture are 10 day's worth of snacks and 9 dinners -- I was confident enough in my abilities to not even take a dinner for the 10th day.

My pack with 10 days of food in it. My, my, it's big! And it weighs a whopping 33 pounds without water.

The CDT in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness, a beautiful and lightly traveled area west of Anaconda.

If you are up for it, the CDT through the Pintler's offers some exciting cross-country opportunities, including this ridgewalk over the mountain. The official trail, which I took because of water availability issues and because I was carrying such a heavy pack, drops down off the Divide.

The CDT does not get nearly the thru-hiker traffic that other popular trails like the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails get. Nonetheless, their presence is often noticeable, including instances in which they clarify instructions or provide route-finding clues for other hikers.

An alpine lake in the Bitterroots, another spectacular place that I will have to get back to when the skies are clearer.

The high summer temperatures, lack of summer rainfall, and blustery winter conditions result in numerous parks and open forests.

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