What a pleasure it is to wake up to a dry tent and dry socks and dry shoes and dry everything (except the socks we rinsed out in the creek last night). Even walking in the itchy, tall grass, which we did until we got to the road around 2pm, didn’t get my shoes wet. It was marvelous.
The entire morning was spent yelling “heyyy OH!’ (me) and “hey bear” (Nick). We hiked near each other and the yelling out helped the person in front know where the person in back was. If I was in front, I’d yell my “heyyyy oh” and wait for Nick to respond with “hey bear”. Or vice versa. There was a LOT of fresh bear poop on the trail so I made sure to yell out anytime I couldn’t see too far in front of me (which was often).
We didn’t see any bears, but we did see two people on horses (who were very concerned that I was hiking alone) and a group of 5 day hikers. Two of the day hikers actually helped us out as we tried to stage our Montana picture (sadly, there were no Welcome to Montana signs on the trail).
we tried to use our hiking poles and tent stakes to make MT, but it didn’t come out as well as I’d hoped in the picture (so I helped it along)
It’s so exciting to be in a new state! So far it’s been beautiful but it hasn’t been easy - we’ve been on the road almost all of the 12 miles we’ve been in Montana. We took a lot of breaks to help with the physical toll of walking on a paved road, which Patrick Duffy was grateful for. Most drivers moved into the far lane when passing us, which was nice, and one guy even pulled over to ask if we needed anything - I LOVE it when people do this, it means so much to me. (His son hiked the PCT in 2019 so he knows). As he drove off, he gave us a parting gift, which we will enjoy later. :)
One of our last breaks was to eat dinner, and we did so watching a storm in the distance- my favorite. :)
eating dinner while listening to thunder and watching the rain in the distance
We walked on the highway until we were out of the park (where you can’t camp without a permit), past some private land (where you definitely can’t camp), and onto forest land, where you CAN camp. Despite being close to the highway, this is a lovely spot right next to the river. I made sure to soak my feet and legs in the cold river water for a while because they needed it. It was nice to sit and relax for a while - the warm wind felt delightful (I think another storm is brewing) and the views were great.
While the storm we watched while eating dinner didn’t hit us, another one just dumped a lot of rain on us. Happily, we are already cozy in the tent so it isn’t too big of a deal (although the bottom of my quilt DID get pretty wet when the rain blew into the tent).
The good thing is that we are ~18 miles away from town - Big Sky - and even though they will be 18 difficult highway miles, at the end of it we’ll be in town, where we will take a much-needed zero. I cannot wait - I plan to do a lot of sleeping when I get there. :)
Along the way:
Camp:
