Let the navigation begin
One of the best things of our hotel is it was directly across the street from the laundromat. Very exciting stuff for a thru hiker. Before doing that, however, we must eat some more! So we head to a diner a couple doors down for some breakfast before starting our chores.
In no particular hurry, we eat our breakfast and make our way to sort our laundry. Hobo Toe checks in with a few other hikers who are in town and we all plan to grab lunch together at a pizza joint on the main strip.
The six of us eat a ton of food and have some local huckleberry beer (not nearly as sweet or over powering as you’d think). This area of Wyoming/Montana is known for its huckleberries, and they have it in e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. It’s like green chili down in New Mexico. So when I’m Rome, try the local goods.
We then head back to the hotel to do just about nothing but rest, sort some gear, and plan for the hike ahead.
The day finishes off with some steak (which sadly wasn’t worth the price, but the protein is appreciated) and another hiker joined us for dinner.
To answer Scott’s question about trail names, they can come from just about anything. Maybe one day you tripped on a stump, so everyone starts calling you stump. Hobo Toe wears toe socks, and his big toe always breaks through, thus Hobo Toe was born. Two Taps (who joined us for dinner) got frustrated on the AT and smashed his poles against a tree, and over time began just tapping the trees twice as the trail began continued. I’m Dusty because when I hiked the AT I had to wait out some bad weather (and also got dumped by my girlfriend at that time — 2 for 3 losing ladies on the trail! Only managed to keep my girlfriend on the PCT) and I was working at the gear shop next to the hostel cleaning to pay for my stay, and they called me dustbuster, which I shortened to Dusty. Trail names can come from anywhere and anything.
The next morning we wake up and pack up our goods slowly. It’s once again pretty chilly. Dirty Bowl told us the other day that when she finished the CDT, it was September 10th and already a lot of snow. Ughhhh. Not what I wanted to hear.
We grab some breakfast and make our way to the edge of town to get a ride to the trail we’re going to take to get us to Big Sky.
We’re not waiting too long before a fella picks us up in his pickup, and we’re on our way.
The trail we decided to take was actually gorgeous. A few climbs up and down, but lots of beautiful views. When we get to the top, full 360 degree views of all the mountains around, and a ridge walk that was pretty amazing. We don’t know exactly the distance since we’re stitching together trails. We have this one marked, generally speaking, so we don’t get lost, but overall it’s not exactly what the trail is so we zig zag a little bit. We even saw a moose!
After about 25 miles, we make our way down to a highway. Our route accidentally brings us through some private property on a guest ranch. The fella there wasn’t particularly pleased as it seems it happens quite a bit, but overall not terribly upset.
We get down to the road and make our way to a trailhead parking area where we decide to camp for the night. We have a 3 mile road walk to get to the next trail that’ll bring us to a couple others and into Big Sky.
When we get in we see a bunch of horses and trailers and chat with the fellas who own them. They’re out for 6 weeks and roaming around. Eventually we tell them where we’ve been and they were around the same area riding not long ago. Ironically, they were in the same meadow where I dropped off Tucker, and actually saw the wrangler bringing him down the trail! What a small world.
They kindly offer us each a can of chicken noodle soup. He comes over with his wife who is carrying a tray with soup, crackers, candy bars, a whole hiker feast. What a kind crew, and great way to end the day.
We’ve positioned ourselves to get into Big Sky tomorrow! Another 25 miles and we will be in town. However, as it’s as expensive - if not more so - than west Yellowstone, we’re planning on taking a free bus into Bozeman and spending a day there.
Making progress! The countdown hasn’t yet begun, but we are rapidly approaching the time to do so.
