GDT kms: 32.5

We woke up from our campsite tucked in between the trees and realized it was far too bright out; we majorly slept in until nearly 7am. We had planned to sleep in a bit to recoup from La Coulotte, but not nearly that much. This late start meant we didn’t hit the road (literally for most of today) until 8am.

We descended our Jeep road as it gradually got in better and more drivable condition. Just as we got to an area with a clearing and signboards, we saw a large group of teenagers with huge packs off on a trip – the first people we’d seen since we left Rob at the top of Sage Pass. It was a bit shocking to see so many people all at once.

Our Jeep road then turned into a gravel highway. Thankfully it was a relatively cool day, so we weren’t getting too hot on the exposed roads. As we made our way down the road, a couple women in a Alberta Parks truck pulled over and offered us a ride. When we declined, they realized we were GDT hikers – so cool to actually encounter people who know what the GDT is – and told us there was a trail we could follow up the hill we were approaching rather than going straight up the cutline as suggested by the GDT app. (For future hikers, at km 99.7 don’t follow the app’s direction to go straight up the cutline, instead follow the road/trail a little bit further, you’ll see pink flagging tape, at the third or fourth flag, you’ll see a trail ascending the hill over your left shoulder, follow this up, it’s flagged and switchbacks up the hill and I assume is much more pleasant than the suggested route.)

At the top of the hill, we unfortunately had to get off our very brief trail and back onto a Jeep road. The roads are sometimes nice and honestly a very welcome adrenaline-free route for today, but they are killer on ankles and knees as they are often rocky, hard-packed and uneven in weird ways.

The highlight of today came at the very end when we got to walk through a cattle grazing area with several adorable calves in the herd.

Two more days until our first resupply in Coleman!