Day 2: Dry Creek, ID to Forest Road, MT

Two blue food sacks hung from a nearby tree. A beautiful sight, proof that the bears did not steal our food in the night. We would eat for another day. 

Food and water. The two essentials. With food in hand, it was time to search for water. The data book indicated that it was almost 13 miles between Summit Lake and the next water source. But when we reached the promised creek last night, it was dry. Undaunted, we continued on toward the other two creeks listed, the last water for another 20 miles. The first "creek" had no flowing water, but two large puddles provided sufficient water to replenish our dwindling stores. The last "creek" consisted of a series of small, stagnant puddles. I wondered how much water would be left in late July, when the CDT thru-hikers typically come through. 

By mid-afternoon we reached Montana!  Our third state in two days. The CDT straddles the Idaho/Montana border for some time, so we will be crossing back and forth several more times before we finally leave Idaho behind. 

Most of the day was spent in dense, scruffy pine forest, with occasional forays into meadows dotted with wildflowers.  Beautiful hiking, but mediocre camping. So much brush and downed wood littered the forest floor that we eventually resigned ourselves to setting up our tent right on the trail (a section of abandoned forest service road). 

Hanging our food was even more challenging. The thin branches on most of the trees could barely support the weight of our nearly empty food bags, and the branches were so close together that it was difficult to get a rope over the right branch. After much trial and error, I managed to get the food hung, and am hoping it is still there in the morning.