This was a strenuous trip -- but we did it! 96 miles of trail in 7 days. We hiked in the heat of July. To beat the heat, we'd get up at 5:00 a.m. and hike until it got too hot. We laid around the whole afternoon (we called it a siesta!). We'd finish up our hike at the end of the afternoon/early evening. The goal was to hike 14 miles per day.
There were a number of other obstacles, besides the heat. One day we had to bushwack around an impassable creek. We also had a very close encounter with a rattlesnake. The snake was coiled on the trail and I did not notice it until I was about 2.5 yards from it. My legs shook from the close call for the next hour. That was when we reached the Little Missouri and I had something new to think about. How where we going to get across this river?? But we did.
We did not see many people on the trail. We saw some horse back riders and a couple bikers -- but no hikers the whole week. That was fine by me! We had the whole trail to ourselves. We enjoyed a thunderstorm from a distance one day. The storm's grand finale was a rainbow. We
We did not see many people on the trail. We saw some horse back riders and a couple bikers -- but no hikers the whole week. That was fine by me! We had the whole trail to ourselves. We enjoyed a thunderstorm from a distance one day. The storm's grand finale was a rainbow. We
We hiked 12 miles the last day of the hike and ended hike around 11:00 a.m. Our feet were sore and mine were blistered -- but wow, what an adventure. I was happy that I was going to finally go eat some real food (at Buffalo Gap Ranch), but I was sad that the adventure on the Maah Daah Hey was over.
So far, this has been my favorite hike -- I'm very drawn to the North Dakota scenery. Also, you don't see many people which gives this hike an even wilder feel. Forty new miles of trail have been added to this trail and I hope to go back and hike them in the near future.
Two hikers: Becky, Kirsten. Chuck is going to be our resupply guy.
