ZERO - Moseyed around the motel for most of the day. Fishing out snacks from the vending machine on occasion. - Had breakfast with a few hikers at the cafe, I had great breakfast burrito. - Saw a movie at the theater called Dunkirk and ended up feeling a little hopeless afterwards. - Joined Bones, Prophet, Kyle, Lunchbox, and a couple others at Jester Bar for some live music.
Day 119: Helena, MT
7mi - Mac and I woke early and started cutting down a forest road towards the highway into Helena, MT. - Got a hitch from a truck that rolled up with Tennis-Steve in the passenger seat wondering if we wanted a ride to Macdonald Pass, turns out he was going into Helena so we hopped out the hopped right back in. - The three of us were dropped off at a grocery in town. We resupplied then had a hiker trash breakfast next to the shopping carts out front next to a 5¢ casino. - A lot of hikers ended up saying in the Budget Inn Express in town, perfectly located near everything a hiker could want.
Day 118: Old CDT
35.1mi - Left the glass covered campground and up uphill back to the CDT. - Met Griggs again, he's hiking all of the official CDT this year apparently, a beast. - Hiked a lot of the old CDT route today and zig zagged around the trail using forest service maps. It was fun. Passed though a "town" according to the maps, only a single caved in cabin was found.
- Looks like we have some fire closures coming up heading into Lincoln, MT. OH BOY...
Day 117: Choose Your Own Adventure
"32.5mi" - Packed up at the Grizzly Den Motel and made a few phone calls in front of the McDonalds at a picnic table. - Bought a couple scratch offs at the Conoco gas station and won $6. - Hitched out of town to the down of Deer Lodge was to catch back up with the trail off a forest road. This trail is like a choose your own adventure book. Also, almost lost my phone after jumping a barbed wire fence and running across a highway median. - Got a hitch to a primitive campground with glass all over the place. After putting all our food in a bear box we watched a storm flickering off through the trees. Hope it isn't starting any more fires.
Day 116: Anaconda, MT
15mi
- I realized that I totally forgot to pop my blister last night. Was a mistake.
- Storm Lake Pass made my jaw drop with the morning sun raking across.
- Decided upon a 10mi road walk from Storm Lake at the base of the Pass. Mac & I were beat by Moist & Appa when they hitched and passed us. We were furious since today was a town day after this challenging section. Passed an abandon SUV that looked to have either struck a tree or was struck by a tree, couldn't tell.
Day 115: Bears? Where?
32.3mi - Smokey day today, it's probably from the Lolo fire that was only 7% contained when in Darby, MT. - Lots of climbing today too, a little rough on the lungs. - The others all saw bears I however, did not, what the hell. - Massive blister formed on my left heel making me limp a little for the latter half of the day. - Anaconda tomorrow, WITH a McDonald's.
Day 114: Totally Partial Eclipse
34.1mi - Hungover just in time for the solar eclipse. - Appa recognized an older hiker friend "Maine-Man" who he met while hiking the PCT.I handed the guys eclipse glasses in preparation for it at 11:20-ish AM. Somehow I found myself and Moist off trail and got separated by the rest of the group and we watched the eclipse separatly. - Saw the eclipse in the shadows of the trees. - The crazyiest part to me was that the air became substantially colder once it reached close to 90% complete as Moist and I took turns looking through the glasses listening to Vangelis.
Day 113: The Goat Ranch
5mi - Woke to the smell of breakfast at our host Lisa's home on a bottom bunk. - Herded the goats from the pasture to their pen with Appa as a chore in the morning. - After Lisa and her husband dropped us off at the end of their road we found a bar on the corner. Spent way too much time there. It was worth it though. - Eventually got back to the trailhead, saw 5 northbounders, going north, on the highway from Leadore, Idaho for some unknown reason. Guess people are beginning to become restless. - Stayed up late carrying a 18 pack of beer into the wilderness with Appa, Mac, Moist, and I.
Day 112: Darby, MT (Kevin Costner?)
- Woke to cars flying by on highway 93. Hitched 40 miles up to Darby, MT while rocking out to Disney OST's
- Ate the "Trapper" at the Montana Cafe, basically a double cheeseburger but instead two buns, they're replaced with grilled cheeseburgers. Here I overheard that Actor Kevin Costner was filming a new TV series called "Yellowstone" at a ranch down the street.
- Hitched again to Hamilton, MT. Mac was on the hunt for a new battery pack for his phone. An older couple gave us a hitch an invited us to stay with them back near Darby at their goat ranch.
- The other two, Appa & Moist(ure), met back up with us back at the ranch where pizza's and stories awaited.
Day 111: Nearing the Fires
32mi - Mac and I decided to take a more adventurous route to highway 93. A road walk on a forest service road. After eating dinner alone set the road some hunters drove by in the truck and we got a hitch down the last 6 miles of road. - Smoke was thick towards at the end of the day. The normally orange hue to the setting sun seemed to have shifted towards Red. - We were surprised to find a all you can eat Mexican restaurant at the road intersection. - After dinner Mac and I walked north on 93 and camped alongside it tentless in an open field a ways away. Houses were everywhere, I was worried about waking up to find myself in someones front yard since the light was nearly nil once everything was said an done.
Day 110: Bug Friend
35.4mi - Beautiful sunrise on the ridge, and a nice 15mi downhill in the first half of the day. - Took Lunch on a bridge with Mac and made friends with a butterfly who wouldn't leave me alone. - Saw Recalculating (aka Dumpster Cake) throughout the day, he's doing a huge section on one resupply between Lima and Darby, nearly 200mi.
Day 109: Winter is Coming
37mi - Weather is noticeably colder now. - There was absolutely no wind last night camping. The others must've camped further behind.
Day 108: Burrito Fueled
3mi - Met a girl in the library parking lot mooching slow wifi like me. She worked for the forest service and was called in to help fight the growing fires in Montana. - Got a ride from the Leadore Inn with Mac, least, and Appa in a Truck courtesy of the Leadore Inn driven by friends of the owner. Pretty sure he whispered into their ear to make sure they "Didn't have anything on them." - Had to carve through a herd of cows to reach actual trail after we were dropped off. - Ate a sun thawed frozen burrito for dinner, works and tastes pretty good. Nice to know since I bought 6 of them to eat for the next day or two on trail. - Crazy flickering lightning storm last night off in the distance. Was almost certain we were going to get slammed camping in the Inns backyard.
Day 107: Leadore, ID
13mi - COLD morning after crashing at the base of elk mountain right before the highway. - Called ahead to the Leadore inn to get a shuttle and to Leadore, Idaho. The shuttle dropped off the most hikers I've seen come out of a truck in awhile. - A surprisingly awesome little town that south bound hikers we're strangely talking down. - Immediately ate at the Silverdollar restaurant that was run by and mother who was babysitting her child. The kid kept offering us a spray nozzle belonging to the end of a hose.
Day 106: Cottonwood Peak
28.5mI
- Climbed to Cottonwood Peak on an alternate, it started raining halfway up to the peak.
- Looked like it was going to rain most of the day. Had some pretty brutally cold wind and rain early afternoon. My legs went numb.
- Didn't run into the others until the end of the day.
- Treeman recorded me doing the moonwalk for his video he plans on piecing together after the trail.
Day 105: Spaghetti Magic
37mi
- We took a big shortcut today that cut off 3mi. I was suspicious at first but a believer in the end.
- Towards the end of the day while walking slowly to the chase them I stumbled upon trail magic next to a lake. Ate SO much spaghetti.
- Had excruciating chafing all day. Treeman donated some well needed balm.
Day 104: Storm Chasing
25.3mi
- Ate at Jan's once more and caught the shuttle at the last minute at 9am to hit the trail with four other hikers Flip Flop, Apache, Treeman, and Quicksilver.
- Came across the self proclaimed oldest woman triple-crowner walking towards the storms.
- Raced along a fence line atop the continental Divide getting chased by a lightning storm. Treeman yelled, "IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE!" while facing the surging rain & wind. I was pretty sure I was going to get lit up along with everyone else.
- Took a shortcut that turned into too much a hassle.
Day 103: Pizza Party
ZERO
- Made mimosas with Appa, Mac, and Moist at the Mountain View Motel in Lima nearly all day. We each bought cheap champagne separately at the Exxon station and the cashier wondered what sort of celebration was going on. I joked that we were merely celebrating being in town.
- We took advantage of the kitchenette in our room and each cooked a few pizzas a piece for meals.
- A few hikers went to the school yard nearby and played basketball.
- It was strange seeing Tesla charging stations in this small dry town.
Day 102: Lima, MT
6.5mi
- Woke early in preparation for getting a ride into Lima, MT.
- Mike from the motel called to make sure I was in position for getting picked up around 9am. I was wayyy early. He did mention that there should be two others that should be there as well. Mac and Appa showed up almost as soon as I hung up the phone.
- The shuttle spilled 14 nobo and sobo hikers like a clown car. We quickly introduced ourselves before cruising out to the motel.
- A large group of sobo hikers were said to be filming a part a documentary about thru hiking the CDT.
- Checked out the bar in town called The Peat with Moist and had shish kabobs that we cooked ourselves on a grill.
Day 101: The Lightning Strike
38.8mi
- Last night had it started raining near the top of Mount Taylor while I was cowboy camping and was too lazy to set up my tent so I wrapped myself like a waterproof burrito and fell back to sleep. It worked fairly well until condensation began to build up on the inside.
- I watched some more Rick and Morty in the morning while I had decent reception.
- A whole lot of no trail today and overgrown road walks.
- Tons of sticker bushes today would cover all of my socks maybe I should get gators.
- Closest lightning strike yet today. Almost crapped my pants, the flash and the crack of the both happen almost simultaneously. Layed low in the afternoon waiting for a storm to pass for around an hour, heart pumping.
- Saw an owl staring at me close, maybe like 15ft away on a branch. Caught me as slightly eerie.
- Called Mike at the Mountain View Motel in Lima, ID about getting a shuttle into town tomorrow. I ended my day about 6mi away.
- Didn't realize how far I went today.
