We made it. We are in a very nice hotel in Big Sky and I cannot be happier.
The road walk wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever had to do, but it wasn’t easy (they never are). Nick was much faster than I - we left at 7am and by 7:15, because of all the curves in the road, I could no longer see him ahead of me. This was fine with me - my plan was to go slow and take a lot of breaks, and Nick’s plan was to get to the post office for our resupply package before they closed at 1pm.
To keep my mind occupied while I walked, and to make sure I was paying attention to the vehicles that passed me (the shoulder I was walking on was extremely narrow), I started counting each one that passed me as they drove towards Yellowstone. From 7-8 there were 100 vehicles; from 8-9 there were 160; from 9-10 there were 206, and from 10:20 - 11 there were 169. That makes 635 vehicles that passed within inches of me (as I said, the shoulder was dangerously narrow). It would have been more but I took a little break around 10am when I came upon Red Cliff Campground, where I stopped to use the bathroom and to get more water from the river.
the view was wonderful, walking on the narrow shoulder was not
Since walking on such a narrow shoulder wasn’t what I’d call fun, I was ELATED when I saw a gravel road running parallel to the highway. It turns out that Big Sky is awesome and they have bike paths! I wish all towns and cities had them. I immediately moved to the much safer bike path, stopped counting vehicles, and put on some music to help with the rest of the journey.
After a few miles, a guy riding his bike on the bike path (imagine that!) stopped to chat, which was nice. He had an extra ticket to the Indigo Girls concert that’s happening tonight and asked if I wanted it, but I politely said my husband and I would probably be too tired to stay up past 7pm. Even nicer was the storm that blew through - it was very hot walking along the road with no shade and the pouring rain was extremely refreshing - I love walking in the warm rain. My only complaint is that my shoes and socks got soaked, which of course aggravated my stupid blister. However, by then I only had 2 miles to go so I did what I could to put the pain out of my mind - I sent video messages to some friends and then called my mom. :)
With about a mile to go, some rad human in a car honked and yelled, “you’ve got this!”. That helped, too. So did the view of this mountain - I was obsessed with the way the lines on the hill in front perfectly lined up with the line of the mountain.
And now I am here, in this marvelous room, clean from a fantastic shower and about to sleep on this comfortable bed. Nick was so fast that he picked up our resupply AND went to the grocery store for dinner supplies before I got to the hotel. He made us a perfectly cooked steak, sautéed mushrooms, pan fried potatoes, and salad for dinner (this room is so marvelous we have a kitchen!)
Along the road:
