Riding the Great Divide Trail. Day 3

Riding the Great Divide Trail. Day 3. Cedar Creek to Holland Lake.

We made an early start on the Great Divide trail again in the bright morning sun. Jamie made what he called “cowboy coffee” and an oatmeal porridge with some dried fruit mixed in.

I was finding a rhythm, judging each incline and pacing myself.

Sometimes you could  look along clear-cuts and fire roads to the Mission Mountains in the east and the Swan Mountains in the west.

Later in the day we were in some unlogged semi-wilderness areas. In a forest wilderness how few trees make it to maturity. The floor is a litter dead of trunks that never reached the canopy layer.

Jamie stopped and pointed to some scat on the trail, black, cord-shaped, tapered at both ends.

“I think it’s a wolverine,” he said. He looked for a print but did not find one.

The wolverine, largest of the weasel or marten family, is a ferocious, nocturnal, solitary predator. The male has a huge range that may include two or three females with smaller ranges. It’s rare in Montana.

Our plan was to take an afternoon rest break at the Glacier Creek crossing and then head to the Holland Lake campground.

Jamie had decided we would have dinner and breakfast at the Holland Lake Lodge and use their showers which they allowed for a small fee.

Holland Lodge is a wedding and vacation venue with big open fireplaces and cane chairs with fat cushions.

We had access to wi-fi there.

The Ebola virus death toll had reached over 700. Two American  aid workers have contracted the disease. The first had already been returned to the US.

For the third time a UN school has been hit by Israeli artillery fire, killing more than 10 people while they were queuing for food.

A European space craft has succeeded in locating and orbiting a comet.