September 2-6
I took a zero in Anaconda on Sunday, September 2 with the hope that 5 Star would arrive on the 3rd and we would hike together for the remainder of the trail. He arrived at 9:40 AM and by 11:00 AM we were walking out of town! It was great to be hiking with 5 Star again and I felt a renewed spring in my step. By my calculations, there are less than 375 miles to Canada and I'm beginning to get excited about the real possibility of getting to the border. I'm making tentative plans to go back and complete the 70 miles I skipped, but first I need to focus on the miles ahead.
On our road walk out of Anaconda, we met Storytime and soon after, his parents, who came all the way from the east coast to visit him while hiking the CDT. We also saw them two days later, driving through the mountains to meet Storytime after a day of slack packing. They greeted us fondly as "hiker trash" and gave us soda, Gatorade, and water along with taking our trash! They are amazing trail angels and it was wonderful to meet them.
This section of the trail was relatively easy with both good trail and weather. We saw lots of deer and elk and talked to several bow hunters. I have an orange CDT bandana tied to the outside of my pack to help distinguish me from a game animal during hunting season. One night after midnight I woke to the sound of a pack of howling wolves. They sounded close but after the second volley of howling, I never heard them again.
We quickly hitched into Helena on Thursday morning with plans to be back on trail before noon on Friday. Helena is the capital of Montana and a very nice town with lots of history. It's definitely somewhere I'd like to visit again. For breakfast I had eggs, bacon, hash browns and a waffle with huckleberry syrup...it was AMAZING! We are hoping for three more weeks of moderate weather. There are still two fires affecting the trail ahead, but the detours seem reasonable.
I'm enjoying hiking, but I'm also missing Eva, church, and the comforts of home. I'm also looking forward to getting back to work.
For additional content, check out Flickr for images, YouTube for video, SoundCloud for audio, and the Postholer Map with my most recent location.
Comments