Day 112, above Sheridan Pass to U.S. Highway 26/287

Hobo Toe left camp before Top O' and me. He planned to hitch a ride into the town of Dubois and wanted to get an early start. We didn't need to go there because we had resupply boxes waiting for us at Brooks Lake Lodge. The trail passes the lodge a short distance north of the highway into Dubois.

We just needed to get where we could access wifi to make reservations with Yellowstone's backcountry office. We hoped to do that at Lava Mountain Lodge and Campground.

We camped last night at 9,480 feet in elevation, which was 240 feet higher than Sheridan Pass. I have camped near several passes on my hikes, and I'm reasonably sure today was the first time I walked down to one from the campsite instead of up.

The trail to the pass went down across a rolling, grassy meadow. It was surprisingly well-marked until we got to the pass.

A faint trail turned to the left at Sheridan Pass. This was obviously the new official trail. The Old CDT Alternate connected here and turned to the right.

When Lt. Gen. Philip Sheridan was leading an expedition to Yellowstone, he stopped at this pass on August 13, 1882. He decided it should be named after Robert T. Lincoln, the eldest son of President Abraham Lincoln and the secretary of war at the time of the expedition.

The pass was later renamed to honor Sheridan. Several other landmarks are also named after him, including a mountain in Yellowstone and a town northeast of here in Wyoming.

Sheridan had been a proponent for the preservation of Yellowstone long before his expedition. He advocated using the military to administer the park.

When Congress established Yellowstone as the first national park in 1872, no funds were allocated for its operation. With no way to protect the land and the wildlife, it became vulnerable to poachers and vandals.

Without funding, the superintendent was ineffectual in maintaining order and stopping lawless behavior. The Secretary of the Interior was equally helpless, and in frustration, he turned to the military.

Sheridan responded by ordering soldiers with Troop M of the First United States Cavalry to Yellowstone in 1886, where they relieved the superintendent of his duties and took over management of the park.

Yosemite, General Grant, and Sequoia national parks were later put under similar military control. There was no legal authority or framework to operate parks in this way, but the soldiers were effective in restoring order and keeping out poachers. Military administration of the parks continued until 1918 with the establishment of the National Park Service.

Though we were walking on a footpath that was no longer the official route, at least one CDT trail marker was still standing.

Unfortunately, we didn't see any more markers after crossing Sheridan Creek. We stopped there to collect water, and I fell behind Top O' after we crossed it.

The day had started with a partly cloudy sky but was now gradually becoming more cloudy.

I didn't get far before I began to be unsure if I was on the correct route.
A check of the Guthook app verified I was off the trail and going in the wrong direction.

My next question was whether to backtrack to the trail or find a shortcut to put me in the right direction. Guthook wasn't much help here, so I pulled up the app I used for viewing Jonathan Ley's maps. He plotted more than one alternate for this area, but he also offered some unhelpful advice in the map's margin: "Honestly, I'm not sure what's best to do. I've heard so many opinions and possible routes..."

Ley added a suggestion that made more sense, though. "My advice is to just plunge forth, follow your compass / map, and don't worry so much about being on the right 'trail,'" he said.

That didn't prevent me from spending more time second-guessing my decision. I had trouble reconciling the differences I saw in the maps.

Then I happened to look up and noticed Top O' walking on a different trail. I called out to him, and he admitted he was also lost.

We put our heads together to sort out the bewildering mismatched collection of trails before deciding to follow what appeared to be a snowmobile trail.

We guessed correctly that the snowmobile trail would reconnect us with the Old CDT Alternate, though there was some doubt at first where it became overgrown. We eventually made our way back to the alternate, which was now a dirt road and much easier to follow.

The route we stumbled upon turned out to have a fortunate benefit. We were walking along a ridge with a steep slope to a valley. I could see U.S. Highway 26/287 passing through the valley. This made me think cell service was available up here, and I discovered it was.

I called Lava Mountain Lodge to see if I could make a reservation. I learned rooms could only be reserved with a two-night minimum, but I was able to reserve the last available tentsite in their campground. That was good enough. We could at least take a shower and do laundry.

I fell behind Top O' when I made the phone call, but when I saw the Pinnacle Buttes standing straight ahead I knew I was almost to the highway.

Some logging operations were underway in the last mile or two to the highway. This area has a long history of logging.

Starting in the mid-1910s and for a period of about 30 years, lumber for railroads came from the forests around DuBois. Logs were cut in a specific way to make railroad ties. The men who did the work were called tie hacks. They were skilled at quickly felling a tree, chopping off its limbs, and sawing the log into eight-foot-long ties. Many of the tie hacks immigrated here from Scandinavia.

Tie hacks worked fast because they were paid by the tie. By World War II, their pay was nearly 50 cents per railroad tie. At that rate, a speedy tie hack could earn $25 a day. The need for tie hacks declined as increased mechanization took over logging operations and automobiles replaced railroads.

I found Top O' when I arrived at a parking area near the highway at 3:30 p.m. He was talking with a man named Mud, who was there with his dog Sprout.

Mud's wife was a thru-hiker named Bug. He drove a truck towing a cargo trailer he used as a camper and met Bug at trailheads. This arrangement was similar to how Doggone was hiking with the support of his wife Taxilady.

Top O' told me someone on the trail tipped him off about some cold drinks in a cooler near the highway. He found only two Bud Light Seltzers still in the cooler, so he took one for himself and saved one for me.

Mud had already agreed to drive us to the lodge, and we were on our way shortly after I arrived.

The lodge operated a full-service restaurant and bar. We ordered some beers, and Mud joined us. After he left, we were joined for dinner by Peanut, the hiker I met a couple of times yesterday. A section hiker named Blue Collar and his wife arrived a short time later.

Our stay in the campground could have gone a little more smoothly, but we made it work out. For one thing, no one told us it was possible to get towels, soap, and shampoo for the showers. We also had no detergent for the washing machine.

At least we had a dry place to hang out while doing our laundry and charging our phones and batteries. Heavy rain started falling around dinner time and continued well into the evening. We waited until it ended before setting up our tents, which didn't happen until nearly 8:30 p.m.

The rain only stopped long enough for us to get settled in our tents before it began falling again.