Category: Hike

45 2498.5 7/29/2021 sunny, rain, thunder, clearing. Up at 4:30 and on trail at 5:20. Hiking along making my miles. Listening to Outlander. Got to a water spot (a marsh) and couldn’t find water except in cow hoof impressions. Lots of cow pies too. Decided to go on, because I had about 1 1/2 Liters in my Platypus and 0.7L in one bottle. Was going to stop at Guthooks marker named “Outlook”, but passed it by and continued hiking. It was only about 1:15 pm. I went a mile and a half and found a flat spot. I also noticed a broken down cabin. I wondered if this was the one mentioned in some water comments on the Guthooks app. Next I found white rocks farther down the slope and a stream. YIPPEE! I FOUND WATER! I guzzled one bottle and filled up everything: two 0.7L bottles and 1L dirty bottle. Set up my tent and napped. At 4:30 I heard rumbles and there was a rain shower / thunderstorm. It stopped by 5:15 and sun is now poking through. I got my tent doors up but the second zipper failed on my front door. Ugh! I finally got it closed but I think the new tent is now necessity. This is the one that Justin is buying today. Oh boy that is such good timing. Chili-Mac for dinner. Tomorrow I see Justin which is good.

44 2476.9 7/28/2021 sunny, hot, cloudy, rain. Got up even earlier and left camp with Justin at 5:07am. I immediately had a slow 2000’ climb. The end of which went up a stream bed without cairns or poles. Later there was another section where the only marking were in the bark of trees. I’m glad I know about the tree markings otherwise the trail was unmarked but for a few CDT ones. I listened to The Outlander and it’s OK but there were times when it got slow. I felt that even though I was slack packing I was not going very fast. I got to Justin at 1:15 after 20 miles for which I should be proud of doing. Justin said rain was coming so we put up the Jeep awning and cooked and ate under it. Sweet! However more rain is projected tonight so I’m in my tent and he is in his roof tent. IPod stopped by afterwards and Justin talked to him. He’s getting off trail shortly. The rain has cooled things down. We hope it helps reduce the fires and smoke in the air. Tomorrow’s plan is to do a 40 miles section in two days. Water is scarce. We shall see in tomorrow’s log as to how I do. Night night.

41 2416.0 7/25/2021 Smokey, sunny, hot, windy at lake. Woke before dawn and started packing up. Used my headlamp on red. Was on trail about 5:20 am. Still pretty dark so again used headlamp for 15-30 mins. The Advenza app and Pintler trail was easy to follow. It slowly rose as it approached the CDT. No problem making the connection. Did the first climb ok. Switched to the Guthooks map of Northern Montana- the last one! The second climb was miserable, but I did it. I decided to do the third climb to make tomorrow easier. I stopped at Warren Lake because it has a tent-site. I’m considering making the next meetup a stop-and-go to resupply and then continue for more miles. Dinner is a new one… Peak Refuel’s Sweet Pork Rice. 

40 ROADWALK #5 7/24/2921 chill in morning, sunny, very hot. I packed up my tent after 5 days at the Wisdom RV park and headed out. Letting Justin sleep-in for once. The weather was quite cool and chilly. I had my windbreaker and gloves on for the next two hours of hiking. The dirt road was east and the miles flew by. I got to Pintler Trailhead at 12:15 and there was Justin! We took it easy the rest of the afternoon. I did my prep by converting from slack pack to backpack. Food, water, and set up tent all took some time. A guy stopped by the trailhead and we chatted about 15 minutes. Otherwise it was quiet. Dinner was a steak celebration for completing the road walk. As we were eating we saw a puffy white cloud appear over the tree tops. Our antennae were alerted that this might be a forest fire. So we drove a few miles to learn that it was, but on the other side of the valley. Justin is going to Anaconda tomorrow and will investigate. I’ll keep my InReach on to get messages. If I encounter anything I’m returning to this trailhead. Tomorrow will be a very hard day for me with a full pack, bear canister and two big climbs.

39 ROADWALK #4 7/23/2021 cool, sunny, puffy white clouds. Today Justin drove me 20 miles to where I had ended yesterday just south of Jackson MT. I started hiking about 5:25 am which is even earlier. It was quite cool this morning so I wore my windbreaker. I listened to The Last Town and started on The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue. I found the latter slow so far. I met Gaia SOBO thru-hiker after Jackson. I finished in Wisdon around 12:15. Ate lunch and prepped for tomorrow. Then Justin and I took showers since we are paying for them. I’m uncertain what to do for a new air mattress. I’m going to try to make do with the super short one I have left. The rest of the afternoon we just chilled and chatted. Dinner was pork tacos, corn chips and bean dip. They were filling and good. The fire is dropping ash on us. I’m trying to get to bed earlier today. Tomorrow I’ll probably start hiking before light – a first on this section. I’ll be using Avenza app for the first time too to get to the Pintler Trailhead. Night night.

38 ROADWALK #3 7/22/2021 cool, sunny, puffy white clouds. Because I’m getting closer to Wisdom MT it’s taking less time to drive me to the start point. Today Justin drove me 40 miles to where I had ended yesterday. I started hiking about 5:45 am which is early. I met Breezy and Ridges on my way up Big Hole Pass. Otherwise I saw no one else. I was zooming along at 3 mph slack packing. I got to Justin at 12:15 and sucked down a Coke. Then we drove 20 miles to the RV park. He suggested that we buy pizza for lunch at a local bar/saloon. We walked over and went in. We ordered beers and a pizza. We talked to the bartender and 2 motorcyclists at the bar. He and his girlfriend were characters as was the bartender, Tad. The pizza was very good. We came back to the RV park and sat in the shade. We tried to repair my two air mattresses that have holes. I think I need to buy yet another air mattress. I’m slowly writing this log and nodding off. So I took a nap for two hours. Then had tortilla soup with some extra chicken. I talked to Katie on the phone and told her we’re excited about her hiking in Glacier NP. It’ll be an adventure!

37 ROADWALK #2 7/21/2021 sunny, hot. Got up again at the butt crack of dawn. Drove 60 miles to start. I decided to go from 324 to Bannack Bench to 278 and forgo the walking shortcut that was shorter but more complex. Listened to Infinite audible book. It allowed me to just walk and ignore the route. The time flew by. Got to Justin about 1:45 pm. We were invited to Greg’s front porch to chat while I drank my cold sodas and ate my lunch. Greg had allowed Justin to park on his property while he waited for me to arrive. Afterwards on the way north to Wisdom RV park we stopped to give 7 sodas again to all the SOBO hikers from yesterday. And two more to “Breezy” and “Ridge”. We got back to my tent which had partially blown down having pulled out a pole stake. We can see the smoke of the forest fire rising from the mountains in the distance. Justin made each of us 2 cheeseburgers with onions. I finished with 2 cherry tootsie roll pops.

36 ROADWALK #1 7/20/2021 sunny, hot.  Left Best Western hotel in Dillon at 4:50 am. Got to Bannock Pass at 6 am and started hiking about 6:20 am. Made great time and completed 8 miles in 2 1/2 hours. Listened to audible books to pass the time. Got to Justin at mile 20 at 1:10. I was zooming! Afterwards Justin drove tomorrow’s route. I was a rough dirt road. More a trail than a highway. Then we got on 278 and went through Jackson MT. Justin saw some hikers and pulled over. He said to me “Ask them if they want a soda”. They did. We met and talked to the following SOBO Thru-hikers: “Blue”, “Dine and dash”, “Sliders” (a woman hiker), “Rugg”, and finally a few miles further we gave a Coke to “Water boy” in the rain. Just got a campsite spot in Wisdom MT RV park. He made a chicken and corn chowder mix which was nice, spicy and filling. Tomorrow I’ll be doing another 20 miles road walk #2 slack pack.