5…..

With only about 50 miles into Butte, we are now sub 500 miles on the trail. It’s still a bit of a guess as we’re not yet back on fur hooks with exact mileage, but this is what we’re going with. 

We pushed out of Ennis pretty early in the morning after a quick breakfast. After a bit of time hitching we got a ride back to the trail and pushed on. Most of the day is going to be road walking, so relatively easy and much to zone out to. 

The highlight of the day was making a “cold drinks” sign that we would hold up when cars passed by. We ended up getting a bunch of drinks, and even some watermelon! Funny enough, there were two folks from Simsbury, CT, where Brendan (my stepdad) grew up. 

Towards the end of the day we scramble up a section of blow downs only to find we should have stayed on a split in the dirt road rather than follow our GPS route, but oh well. The joys of not being on Guthooks. 

We ended the day on a pass. It was so crazy smoky and our throats were beginning to hurt a bit. It also killed all the views!

Over the night a wind storm came through and started ripping our stakes out. We made it through the night but had to wake up a couple times to adjust lines and stakes. When we finally did get up for the day, we packed up and made our way down the pass. 

About 40 minutes into the hike, hobo toe realizes he left his Fanny pack up at the pass where we camped… he dropped his stuff and started to jog back up. I sat down and started watching a movie unfortunately downloaded to my phone the other day. 

The next few days were more road walking. We got a ride into Whitehall, and had some great food and then made our way to Butte, where we were officially back with the trail. 

We double zeroed. One day because our bodies were ailing with the smoke and just overall fatigue. And the second day because it was my birthday! Yay. 

The night of the 17th (night before my bday) a bunch of hikers and I went out to a cool speakeasy in town. About 10 of us in total!  

My birthday itself was spent relaxing and having a delicious steak dinner my mom got hobo toe and I. Mary (Tuckers mom) even gave some to pitch in to dinner as a thanks for finding her pup!

All in all, a few solid days of rest and relaxation. Back to the CDT, we go!