GDT kms: 25.1

It was quite dark at our usual wakeup time this morning – I think we’ll need to push our start time back at least 30 minutes before we get to the end – but we managed to get ourselves awake and dressed. By the time we were ready to pack up the tent, it was reasonably light out.

I went down the trail to retrieve our food hang (we had too much to fit in our Ursacks and hung the extra) somewhat nervous as I am every time we hang food. It’s so hard to do a proper hang (especially with the trees along the GDT, they are horrible for hanging imo) and I’m pretty skeptical of the concept overall. You are supposed to hang on branches that won’t support a bear’s weight, but couldn’t a smart bear just figure out to break the branch? Anyway, I was happy to find our food bag intact.

The first few kilometres were delightfully muddy and viewless. We eventually popped out of the forest and got some moderate views though as we went over Miette Pass; everything was still somewhat hazy from smoke, but less so than yesterday.

The rest of the day, the trail disappeared whenever we entered an open meadow and then reappeared when we entered treed areas. It was easy route finding though and nice gentle terrain.

The prettiest view of the day came shortly before we reached camp as we were descending Grant Pass. To the southwest, there was a beautiful glacier with a waterfall and stream coming down.