Dubois

Wet wet wet. Putting on wet shoes and socks and a wet shirt in the cool of the morning is definitely not an enjoyable chore. But alas, what else is there to do? Got miles to do. This day was my prep day for entry into Dubois. My plan was to land 3 miles before the road which was a 26ish mile day. Main reason for not pushing to get to town, which would be doable, is because I have to wait until Monday to get some packages. So I don’t want to have to spend 3 nights at a hotel. As it’s now the tale end of the trip, need to be conscious about how I spend the dwindling funds!

Walking along the tall grass still wet from the rain made my shoes and socks even more wet. I had on my rain pants, so at least my legs were dry. But wet feet is no fun for hiking. 

Rolling hills up and down. All fairly small, but numerous and on the steeper end. Seemed very much like grizzly country. But no sightings as of yet. I did, however, see the two southbound section hikers I saw leaving Lander. Now my third time! They informed me it would also be the final, as this was the last bit of their section for now. Funny to see them over and over, interesting to really see the linear nature of a northbound thru hike (or south).

One of the coolest part about the hike, I saw some big ol wolf prints. That was neat. Looked fresh, too. I would later find out that a hiker saw a wolf around this area only a day prior. 

I was taking one of my breaks over looking a beautiful snaking river down a small valley, and noodling on guthooks. Looking at comments for things ahead for anything of note or interest, etc. I then started looking at the town of Dubois on guthooks, and in the comments I saw Money post that you could stay in the church for free and they take up to 8. 

Well, shoot. If I can spend the same amount of money on a place to stay in town, as I can on a dirty mousey yurt on the trail… onwards I went. 

A few miles before the road, I get a ding of service. As my body’s on auto pilot these days, I just was walking along while messaging Money to see if he was still in town. Eventually, I looked at guthooks and noticed I was a mile off trail and there was an intersection I missed. Oh brother. But wait! One of the comments back at the intersection says to keep going, it eventually  links with a road that links to the highway. 

A bit risky since the trails not marked on the map, but better than backtracking a mile and adding 2 extra miles to an already long day… but onwards I went. Viola! JP4 (the comment poster and someone I met way down at Doc Campbells) was correct. 

I get to the road, and start getting setup to hitch. The first car rolls up and it’s a red ambulance/fire truck type thing. Most likely won’t pick me up, and I usually just wave. But I threw out the thumb and boom. He pulls over. Turns out this guy, Kyle, bought this and has been living out of it for the last year. It was super cool. 

He drops me off in town and it’s a block away from the church. So I go down and I’m lucky number 8! I drop my stuff and start to sort my stuff. Nono is there! One of the hikers I spent the night sharing a room with in Chama with Roger That and Sunshine. Also, Animal, who I had seen a few times over the last couple days. 

Not enough time to do all my chores, but I definitely want to shower. Unfortunately, the church doesn’t have a shower, so I head to the KOA. They even have laundry there, so I’ll do that as well while im showering. 

Feeling clean, with clean clothes, I start to make my way back to the church. I run into Animal, who was headed to the saloon to find some other hikers. With no plans for myself, I decide to join him. 

Oh man. The night goes on and on. We meet another hiker who’s a sobo, Pilgrim, and the three of us have quite a few drinks. As it’s Saturday night, it actually starts to get a bit busy. We made friends with the bartender and the owner of the bar, who inherited it from his dad. They even gave us a little nip of whiskey to bring out on the trail! But yeah, the night wears thin. I can’t say we had a ridiculous amount of booze, but being this far into the hike, it really doesn’t take much. 

Animal and I head back to the church and everyone’s asleep. It’s just one big room and you can setup a cot in it. Not having been there since I went to shower, I had not cot setup. Nor did I want to blow up my airpad and wake everyone up. A carpeted, most importantly - flat, floor. I just grabbed my sleeping. Bag and curled up in a corner. It was a late late hour of 11:30pm. 

At about 5a, another hiker left. He was a cool fella named Jiggy who I had dinner with the day prior. His first time in America from Israel, and straight to the CDT. Bold move! Anyway. He had a cot setup. Since he was gone, and I was awake, I hopped on it and actually got an hour or two of decent sleep. But holy tomole. I was the most hung over I’ve been in some time. Yowchy. Animal didn’t look like he was doing too well either, and had hurt his hip sleeping somehow. He was headed out that day, but luckily I was headed to a hotel. Which i called and asked if I could get in early so I could have privacy and sleep on a comfy bed forever and ever. 

And so I did. Sunday was a big ol waste of a day. But also of sleeping a recoup. Which I’m sure did something positive for me other than cure my hangover? Maybe. 

Monday comes around and I’m right as rain. I do my shopping and errands and get my resupply sorted. Review maps for the alternate around the fires I plan to do, and ate plenty of food. I saw a bunch more hikers at the pizza shop including River Dance! We had split when I did my over achieving 30 mile day to get to the campground. 

I went to get my packages and only one had come. Thankfully it was my sleeping pad, so now I don’t have a leaky pad and can actually sleep through the night a bit better. Sadly, the other package was my bear bag. Yay. Honestly, it’s nothing terribly important. It’s just a bag made out of Kevlar so if a bear does try to get at it, it won’t be able to cut into it and get the food. I do have some hang rope thanks to Jennifer, so I can still hang my food. I just have to use my stuff sacks o currently use and be a bit more careful not to get holes in them. I’ll have my bear bag bounced ahead once it finally arrives to the PO. 

With my food ready to go (I now have both strawberry AND grape uncrustables for each day…!), my bag packed, and all my gear clean and dry, off to bed I went. Oh, and one bummer thing from that night. I went to grab some food and was leaving my hotel room and spun around with my foot under the bed. My shoe got caught on the steel bed frame and tore a 2+ inch hole in my new shoes I got in Lander only 160 miles ago. Ughhh.