Scout to Skeebs
Here we go, back to the fun!
As it has been a moment, days will have blended, little details will slip by, but this is the tale of my last few weeks, starting with the addition to Hobo Toe and I’s trail duo, Scout.
Hobo Toe and I left Butte where a decent group of folks were. It was nice to spend my birthday out with a group of trail folks, in town, warm and dry. The smoke was pretty intense around the area, so it was a welcomed break for our throats and bodies overall. There was a stretch of trail that circumnavigated around Butte, so our first day back on trail was essentially walking around the town on the ridge line. We had heard rain was coming, but didn’t pay much attention to it, and throughout the day it stayed clear and dry.
Towards the end of our hike, it started to rain, the temperature dropped suddenly to reveal the moisture from our breath in the air. So we headed the warning signs and ended our hike by a small water source and pitched our tents not more than 15 minutes before a torrential hail storm began. Hobo Toe and I weren’t more than three feet from each other in our tents, but the DCF (the material our tents are made out of) sounds like a tin roof when taught with the hail bouncing off it, to the point where we couldn’t hear each other talking, even though we were so close.
Even though it was on the earlier side, we ended up going to bed for lack of anything else to do!
The next morning, we woke up and heard some voices off in the distance. Not quite sure if it was our groggy morning brains, or actually other hikers, we weren’t particularly keen on starting a conversation with some day walkers. However, eventually we spot the culprits, and notice that it’s in fact Tape Worm and Scout. They apparently arrived a little whiles after us, but setup during the hail storm when we couldn’t hear anything and didn’t see us down the hill. It’s amazing how close you can be to someone, when out in the woods, and have zero idea, thinking you’re miles from the nearest person.
So we ended up all heading out around the same time. Tape Worm was a bit of a racer/high miler so he eventually sped off and Scout started to hang with us. At first, it was more of hiking to the next spot together, then it changed to the next town, and sure enough, we ended up all finishing together.
And now there were three.
It was a grand addition having Scout as part of our crew. She added a positive bright spin on the world that Hobo Toe and I were currently missing. We were a bit down and out in our misery of trail woes. We were pushing each other through, but pushing, not gallivanting gleefully as we were once Scout jumped in. Once we reached our first town of Helena together, we realized that the plan was going to be to finish together, and the Cosmic Keeblers were born.
Similar to trail names, Tramilies come up with team names. Folks come up with all sorts of things to occupy their brains while endlessly hiking for days and days. During one long stretch of brainswirls, the three of us were chatting about dyneema fabric, and how there must be little keebler elves int he woods with rolls of it stitching together all of the hikers ultra-light gear. Follow that up with a group purchase of a cosmic printed fanny pack (which is part of the new thru-hiker uniform, the fanny pack that is) we became known as the Cosmic Keeblers.
Scout had her trail name given to her down in New Mexico, but not in a terribly exciting or eventful moment. Just one of those things that kinda stuck out of any more unique experience that some have for their trail names.
Between Helena, and Lincoln, our next stop, we grew as a family. Once we left Lincoln, the crew was in full force. We only made it a few miles out of Lincoln when we stumbled upon a yurt on the trail. A generous donation by a local club for scientific research (or for hikers to use to shelter from the wind when not in use). There was an old CDT trail log, dating all the way back to 2014. Only a few entries here and there, and then nearly 3 full pages for 2021. The trails are definitely getting more popular.
As we sign the trail log, we sign Scout in as “Scout Master Keebler of the Cosmic Keeblers”. Squish it all together, and thus Skeebs was born.
With the Cosmic Keeblers now consisting of Skeebs, Hobo Toe, and Dusty, we set forward to complete our journey, now only a couple short weeks away. The feeling of approaching our last town was starting to hit. It was surreal. Couldn’t happen fast enough, but also, the thought of finishing was daunting. A mix of wanting to be done, but never wanting the journey to end. But the miles must be hiked, and everything that has a beginning must have an end.
