Continental Divide Trail: Days 116 - 128

Day 116

Forward progress: 15.0 miles

Total distance on trail: 1,701.8 miles

I can feel my motivation slipping. Town feels too comfortable, hiking feels too exhausting, filtering water feels too annoying.

We spent several hours yesterday mapping out the remainder of the trail. If you would have asked me even two weeks ago if I would consider taking the Big Sky Cutoff, which routes the trail such that it removes about a few hundred miles, including basically the whole part of the trail that straddlws the Idaho/Montana border, I would have said heck no. But yesterday, when it was brought up as a serious option, I found myself voting in favor of it. I'm more homesick on this trail than I've ever been, and if I have an option that allows me to finish the trail in a legitimate way and also come home earlier than anticipated, then I'm going to take it. Fortunately, both Vibes and Shadow were interested in this cutoff, so we're mapping out the rest of the trail with this in mind.

We got a ride out of town around 12:30 from a local woman who works at a shop on the main strip of Dubois. I was definitely dehydrated when we started hiking; when I'm in towns, I drink way too little water because there are other beverages available. This morning, I had my two remaining cans of Fanta from my zero day grocery haul, a mug of hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream, and a vanilla chai. No water to be seen. And I felt it before getting to a creek and chugging a liter of water before filtering. Of course, after this break is when I saw posters nailed to trees about potential toxins in the water. That's cool.

We are now decidedly in grizzly bear territory. We have been since Lander, but now we're seeing comments on FarOut and hearing stories of people seeing them.  Anytime I'm hiking alone and out of eyeshot of other people, which is often, I find myself talking to myself or singing along to whatever playlist I might put on, since human voices often deter grizzlies. As we move further and further north, the grizzly population will become more and more dense. I wonder if I'll ever get to a point that I'm not on edge when I'm hiking alone or if the entire rest of trail will be at least a little scary all the time.

I'm super paranoid about food storage in a way that some people I'm hiking around don't seem to be. Especially in grizzly country, I diligently place my scented items in my bear canister, eat away from my campsite, and stash my food away from where I eat and sleep. I'm glad Vibes and I are camped about a quarter mile away from some of the others who don't care as much about food storage. At dinner, Shadow, who set up his tent with some of the others because it was a quarter mile less distance, seemed unenthused about their lack of concerns. Vibes and I are camping with a SOBO who said she heard a bear hanging around her campsite at night, and she ended up packing up around midnight and leaving. Personally, I think I would have stayed in my tent and let it swat at my food instead of getting out and packing up, but she hung her food super far away and went to bed while Vibes and I went to the other camp for dinner.

Day 117

Forward progress: 28.7 miles

Total distance on trail: 1,730.5 miles

Today was definitely a "just get through it" kind of day. It didn't help that we added 3 miles to the end of a day, even though we agreed in Dubois that we were done with anything over 25 miles. In our defense, we were none of us in favor of staying up on a plateau during a thunderstorm, so we figured the best thing we could do was continue on.

We had more elevation gain today than I was ready for in this section. In the Cirque or Knapsack areas, the elevation gain was rewarded with beautiful views. Today, we were rewarded with getting to the next ridge. It was exhausting, and with how much food I have, my shoulders were often the limiting factor for when I needed breaks.

Pretty cool reminder that we are on the continental divide

The (what was supposed to be) last 4.2 miles saw 2,000 ft of elevation gain. I was taking a break with a Swiss hiker called Mountain Goat at the river before the climb, noticing the thunder in the nearby clouds, when the wind picked up and knocked over a tree some 30 yards away. Like we just watched it fall. We looked around and saw a bunch of dead trees, but going up meant reducing tree cover which is not good during a thunderstorm, so we found a more alive patch of trees with only a few dead trees that would fall in the other direction if they fell, and waited out most of the storm there. When we deemed the storm adequately past, we began the climb. We were planning to stay at the top of the climb by a lake, but with the unpredictability of the weather, we all decided to descend a few extra miles.

The best part of today has been my food situation. I packed out a bag of Hawaiian rolls and a bottle of honey for breakfast; my lunch is legit charcuterie with crackers, Laughing Cow cheese, salami, and a drizzle of honey for elevation; for dinner, I have pasta with garlic alfredo sauce and hickory-smoked Spam (it tastes like ham); and for snacks, I have a ton of sour candies and plenty of protein bars, as well as a bag of protein powder that I add to my water twice a day. Honestly, pretty satisfied with all these meals. Just don't tell the FDA, because none of this is shelf-stable and we all just act like it is.

One of the worst parts of the day has been not being able to listen to music or podcasts as often as I'd like because I don't want to be so distracted that I'm unaware of potential bear activity. Made the climbs extra brutal for sure.

At least the extra miles we did will make tomorrow's day even easier than it already was going to be. The elevation profile looks ridiculously chill. Even though we all naturally wake up between 5:30 and 6:00, we've agreed not to begin packing up until 6:30 at the absolute earliest.

Day 118

Forward progress: 20.5 miles

Total distance on trail: 1,751.0 miles

After a big day yesterday, we allowed ourselves a late wakeup. We were still on trail before 7:30, but it felt good to wake up to real daylight.

Today's miles were overall very easy, but going into the day expecting effortless hiking and experiencing literally any effort is always somehow harder than doing a hard day that you know will be hard. That said, the majority of the day was quite straightforward, and I really can't be complaining. And yet I am.

It was nice being able to take frequent and lengthy breaks and not feel pressed for time. We all (me, Vibes, Shadow, Mountain Goat, Daydreamer, and Link) took an extended break at a ranger patrol cabin that had an open-air pit toilet. Obviously we had to give each other plenty of space while everyone did their business, so we just hung out on the porch and enjoyed how little hiking we had to do.

We are officially in the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park! I've never been here and have heard excellent things about this section of trail. I know it's unreasonable to expect the trail to immediately become interesting, but it was kind of a mental letdown to be in the same uninspiring terrain we've been in for a few days. Even the flowers look less interesting. The paintbrushes look dusty instead of bright, the asters wilted instead of vibrant.

Our campsite is... subpar. It's not the worst I've had, but my pitch is really bad because there's simply not room for me in the trees to make things more taut. I could camp in the open grass, but that's just asking for tons of condensation in the morning. At least it's close to a water source and dinner with everyone was enjoyable.

It sucks being at that point where I resent hiking. I love hiking. That's like 80% of my personality. And I'm now pretty over the hiking part. Looking forward to having things to look forward to.

Day 119

Forward progress: 20.0 miles

Total distance on trail: 1,771.0 miles

The first half of today and the second half may as well have been different days for how my mood was.

I was just not interested in hiking this morning. It is now very much a job. I have to start early so I'm not hiking too late. I have to hike when I don't want to, which is often, because the alternative is not making it to Canada in an appropriate weather window. And this morning, I reeeally didn't want to hike. My main motivation was a parking lot with a pit toilet 12 miles into the day.

This morning, we saw a lot of geothermal activity, which is objectively cool. And a really beautiful lake. I just... didn't care. It's frustrating to be in the midst of all this amazing nature and just not want to be in it. I'm not getting off trail, I'm not going to quit, I just wasn't having fun, and I'm supposed to be having fun. I know in a few months, when I'm working a job and washing dishes and having a regular life, I'll feel so antsy and ready to be hiker trash again. But right now, I crave my normal life.

At the parking lot, I stopped for lunch. This is a hitchhiking access point to Grant Village, and we originally weren't going to go, but then Daydreamer and Link decided to go in for a bite to eat, and then Shadow wanted to join them, and we only had 8 miles left to do, so Vibes and I decided to hop in on the plan.

I think this whole morning, I may have been just a super prolonged version of hangry, because leaving the grill, I felt fine, and I really enjoyed my afternoon miles. I didn't require any audio input, unlike this morning, which was fueled entirely by podcasts, and I only threw on music to sing along to when I was feeling weird about being alone. One of our friends, Zoolander, got bluff charged by a grizzly bear when he was hiking alone yesterday evening, and the thought of that happening scares the everliving shit out of me, so I make as much noise as possible when I know I'm not within a quarter mile of anyone.

Our campsite tonight is pretty cool. It's not on the CDT, and we hitched to a different trailhead out of Grant Village than we did to get there in order to streamline the hiking process. The campsite is called "The Cove" and it is on the north side of Shoshone Lake, which is certainly one of the bigger bodies of water we've been on this trail. The tent sites are a little further back because it's bad for the shoreline to camp so near to a lake, but the spot designated for eating and storing food has a beautiful view of the water. This campsite also has an open air toilet, which is high luxury for us.

At the visitor center in Grant Village, we saw a bottle of huckleberry wine for $20, and we're going to be at Old Faithful Village tomorrow, so Vibes had the idea to get the wine for tonight's camp because we can toss the empty bottle tomorrow afternoon. Dinner was super enjoyable and relaxed, overlooking Shoshone Lake with a little bit of a buzz. We decided to switch up our camping permits to get into Old Faithful Village tomorrow instead of the day after, so we could eat extra food for dinner, which included my charcuterie lunch, which paired very nicely with the wine. Moments like this are what I'll remember, long after I've forgotten how miserable I was this morning.

Day 120

Forward progress: 23.1 miles

Total distance on trail: 1,794.1 miles

Dang, I forgot that I sleep terribly when drunk. And it says a lot about my decreased tolerance (or perhaps increased dehydration? Or both?) that a third of a bottle of wine constitutes drunkenness.

Eating breakfast by the lake was beyond beautiful. The sunrise was subtle but warm, with shades of orange and pink punctuating the clouds. A faint rainbow presented itself for a few moments, and we watched a bald eagle fly over the water.

We saw a bunch of geothermal activity on the trail today, which is super neat! I took a quarter-mile side trail to Lone Star Geyser, which erupts every three or so hours. I wasn't sure if I would catch it, but I figured I would regret not checking it out just in case. A tour group was there, and the guide, who immediately clocked me as a CDT hiker, gave me some of the extra snacks she had in her pack. One of the older ladies in the group gave me a few Werther's Originals, which I found incredibly endearing. I sat with the group, watching the geyser sputter for a while before erupting about an hour after I'd arrived, and it was spectacular.

From there, I only had about 4 miles until Old Faithful Village, the main destination of park goers and the location of the famous geothermal wonder. The trail goes right onto the boardwalk, so if you've ever been there, congratulations on hiking a section of the CDT! Me, Vibes, and Shadow spent several hours in this area, stuffing ourselves at the lunch buffet and resupplying at the general store and, of course, observing the eruption of Old Faithful.

Our two options from there were to backtrack 4.5 miles, which is where we had originally gotten permits to camp, or push forward 10 miles to a different campsite closer to the edge of the park boundary. Even though we were all feeling very bloated, and many of our friends are camping at the earlier sites, we opted to push forward. Backtracking is always very frustrating, and we didn't want to be tempted into spending even more money at the lodge than we already did today, and going back would certainly include paying for another buffet.

Our campsite tonight is pretty but soo windy. As I'm writing this, the sun is almost gone, and that usually is when the wind dies down, but it's howling louder than ever. Being so close to a lake does that. I'm trying not to think of the trees swaying nearby. Unless the sound dims soon, I foresee this being another largely sleepless night.

It didn't even hit me until this morning, but tomorrow, we will be officially done with Wyoming! It feels like we just got here. Actually, we kind of did just get here. We did roughly 500 miles and just over three weeks, and that feels like a pretty cool statistic.

Day 121

Forward progress: 26.2 miles

Total distance on trail: 1,820.3 miles

Very exciting start to the day: saw my first grizzly bear! I was packing up my tent when I heard Vibes ask, "Am I crazy or is that a bear?" Our tent sites were in the clusters of trees around the lake, and about 70 yards away in the meadow parallel to the forest was a large brown something. Based on the shape of its shoulders, we could tell that it was a grizzly bear and not a brown black bear. It appeared to be sunbathing, although maybe I was just projecting because it was freaking cold this morning. When it noticed all of us watching it, it bolted the other direction. Man, those things can move! For how big and bulky they are, you'd think they would be a lot more clumsy, but I was immensely glad to be watching it move away from us rather than toward us.

Today we entered Idaho! And it became immediately apparent why its nickname is Drydaho. The water we collected from the lake we camped at this morning was our last water until where we are camping tonight. So we did a marathon without being able to filter any extra water.

Fortunately, the weather was cool enough to allow for strict rationing. I didn't take a sip of water until lunch, and my sweatshirt stayed on almost all day. For the first time in ages, when we searched for break spots, instead of looking for shade, we sought out sun.

All in all, can't say too much one way or another about today. Including lengthy and frequent breaks, we finished our miles by 6:15, and we didn't aim for an early start, either. I had enough service to call Mitch for a little, which greatly boosted my mood! I found some wild thimbleberries, and even though they were a little underripe, I ate a fair few.

At a campsite that for sure is just crawling with bear activity, but there's not much we can do about it. Access to water after the day is too important.

Day 122

Forward progress: 15.0 miles

Total distance on trail: 1,835.3 miles

Another day, another day.

We left Idaho and entered Montana today. That was fast, huh?

Much of the trail today was paved. We followed a Rails to Trails path into the town of West Yellowstone, where we spent several hours loitering in the beer hall because they have a surplus of outlets upstairs. (I know it sounds unglamorous and so 21st century, but we've been having a really hard time finding spots to charge our battery banks and phones. Like none of the coffee shops or diners have had accessible outlets since we left Dubois, and I use my phone every day for my map and taking photos and writing this lousy journal.)

Because the Big Sky Cutoff has a ton of potential routes and we have to use a different navigational tool that I'm not super familiar with and is way more complicated than FarOut, we spent ages mapping out a route that suited everyone's needs and comfort levels. The easiest route is just a highway walk, but none of us are too keen on walking 100+ highway miles, so we pieced together a series of other routes to get us where we need to go.

I fear we're all a little exhausted of all the planning. At our campsite, dinner got pretty tense. I don't think any of us are actually mad at each other, but we're all tired of making plans and re-making plans and trying to accommodate each other when we all came into this journey alone but, for better or worse, prefer each other's company.

The plus side is our campsite has a privy, bear boxes, water spigots, and good internet service. We paid $26 for a site, which is way more than we normally would pay to tent camp -- we camp every day for free, so paying to do it is mentally difficult -- but someone gave us $20 at breakfast to pay for part of our meals but we forgot to use it, so thinking of the site as $2/person was a lot easier to swallow. And you really can't put a price on a bathroom nearby when you don't want to dig a hole.

Day 123

Forward progress: 24.5 miles

Total distance on trail: 1859.8 miles

We woke up to a) the most beautiful sunrise and b) much lower temperatures than we were expecting. It's August and we're below 7,000 ft for crying out loud, so why was it 20° when we got out of our tents?

The first 10 miles or so were highway miles. They were flat and boring and uneventful, but actually kind of pretty and I was able to pass time by calling my parents. They're coming to visit me at the end of the trail, and I get a little teary-eyed thinking about that. We have about a month left, so it's too early to really envision the end, but I'm definitely fantasizing about it already.

I'm impressed with us for doing the day we did. It wasn't the hardest hiking we've done, but we did about 5,000 ft of elevation gain on the back half of our mileage, and we still got to camp early. We would have targeted more miles, but we're about to be on a steep ridge that likely won't have good spots, so we decided to stop where the topography lines on the map looked wide enough to indicate relative flatness.

This is my first time relying pretty solely on a topographic map app (it uses GPS to track location and has a network of trails on it, but unlike my usual navigation app for thru-hiking, there isn't really an indication of water outside of rivers or lakes, and there isn't crowdsourced information about camping). It's a lot harder for me to navigate this type of route-finding, and I'm definitely realizing how much I appreciate FarOut for its excessive available information. But it's also inspiring me to take a navigation course when I'm done.

Our campsite is not very good, but it's flat, and we will take that. I can anticipate lots of condensation in the morning, as we're in a meadow with tall grasses near a creek.

Day 124

Forward progress: 27.5 miles

Total distance on trail: 1,887.3 miles

I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up by the temperature. I was still chilly, but not nearly as bad as yesterday morning, which is confusing, because we're over a thousand feet higher. There also was only some condensation and not absurd amounts of condensation on our tents, and it's always nice having less than expected!

The first 11 or so miles before lunch were really pretty. The first time in a while that we've been up in the mountains and not just seeing them from afar. First time in a while that I've been hiking with joy and not just out of necessity. That went away when we dropped back in the trees and the mountains were out of sight.

At lunch, we decided it was time for our trio to split. Vibes and I both painfully miss our partners and home lives, and we're honestly looking for ways to make this experience go by as quickly as possible. We've landed on a hard target of a 3-day range for our finish date, and we're willing to do whatever it takes to get there; especially on a route designed to be a cutoff, we don't mind taking shortcuts, even if it means hiking the highway sometimes. Shadow has no such magnet pulling him to the finish line, and he hates road walks, and even on this cutoff, he wants to make the route longer to see more scenic stuff. And I totally get his perspective. If I weren't so homesick, I think I'd be wanting to take the scenic route more, too. Fortunately, he has his box of winter gear in our house, so I'll for sure see him before he heads back to Germany, even if it's not on the trail. But saying a potential trail goodbye was hard, especially since we've been hiking together since the canoe trip.

The highway walk was about 14 miles long. At the beginning of the trail, a 14-mile road walk into Silver City was just about the worst thing ever; now, a 14-mile road walk into Big Sky is barely something to blink at. It was very scenic, and the hiking was fast. We got stopped by an older couple, Dale and Kathy, who gave us water, burgers, and beer for the road. They did the PCT in the '90s, so they were excited to help out a newer generation of long-distance hikers. I bet the PCT was so different back then. They probably look at us with our lightweight gear and our navigation apps and scoff at how easy we have it.

We were told by some SOBOs to avoid Big Sky and resupply in Bozeman, since it's way more affordable there. There's a bus that goes between the two towns many times a day, and we were aiming for the 7:45pm bus. By the time we got to the junction for the road that went to Big Sky and the highway that went to Bozeman, we decided to try our luck with hitching, since it would be way quicker than waiting around for the bus. We successfully secured a ride from a guy named Dustin, and we got to Bozeman before we would have even boarded that bus in Big Sky. We figure we can resupply in the morning, but tonight, our main goals have been showering, laundering, and eating. It's been since Dubois since being clean.

The only benefit to Shadow not being here is he doesn't like white noise when sleeping, which includes fans. Vibes and I cranked the AC as soon as we got in the room, stoked on the cool air and the constant stream of sound.

Day 125

Forward progress: 17.0 miles

Total distance on trail: 1,904.3 mile

I slept like a baby. My goodness did that feel nice. Clean clothes, clean body, clean sheets... So nice.

After packing up our gear, we resupplied at the Walmart across the street. We got a plethora of snacks and drinks while waiting for the bus to come, which conveniently stops at Walmart.

We only had 13ish miles planned for the day -- after that, the next many miles are up on a ridge and don't lend themselves to good camping -- so we spent a little time at a coffee shop in Big Sky before heading back out. The road walk continued before becoming a trail again.

And my goodness was the trail part so beautiful today! I'm obsessed with big mountains and valleys and snowmelt streams and wildflowers, and that was lots of this afternoon. It was lovely, and I was genuinely so happy to be here. It's been a while since I've felt so happy to be here.

I listened to a podcast today, an episode of Backpacker Radio where an Instagram friend of mine was the guest. She was on the CDT this year and decided to get off trail about halfway through Colorado, and the whole interview was about what went wrong and what was going through her head when she made the decision to leave. One thing she said was that she wanted to get off trail before she disliked thru-hiking and she didn't want to push through and resent the trail. It was kind of hard to hear that, because I've found myself feeling those things, but I'm doing the opposite: pushing through, no matter what it takes. I'm wondering if I'm doing a detriment to my love of hiking by forcing this journey through to the end. To me, part of what makes a long trail like this what it is is persevering when you really don't want to. But maybe if I let myself go home for a bit, I'd be on the Idahontana border and not the Big Sky Cutoff, even though I'm finding this section to be so beautiful. Anyway, lots of complicated feelings to sort out for myself later.

Day 126

Forward progress: 23.6 miles

Total distance on trail: 1,927.9 miles

Despite getting to camp fairly early and going to bed before usual, I slept far less than I wanted to last night. It was too cold to not cover myself with my quilt, but I was sweating like a pig with quilt coverage. When it started drizzling overnight, I had to get out of my tent to bring my shoes into the vestibule; I've taken to putting them on the outside to reduce the smell of feet in my tent while I'm trying to sleep.

Usually, I can rely on mornings to be sunny, or at least storm-free. This morning, almost immediately, we found ourselves taking cover in a groove of pine trees because a thunderstorm was rolling by overhead. It's not the rain that bothers me, although I don't love it, but rather the danger of lightning as one leaves the tree line. Almost all of our incline for the day was done in the first 5 or so miles, and I didn't feel very comfortable continuing upward while we could see lightning strikes.

When the sun came out, it was decidedly very hot, and we took an earlier lunch break than we'd planned because I was losing too much water from sweat and feeling a little woozy. The humidity from the earlier storm wasn't helping.

Most of the trail after lunch was pretty straightforward, save for one 1.5-mile bushwhack that took us ages to navigate. Sometimes we would follow a cow path for a while that clearly people had tried using too, only for the compass to indicate we were going the wrong way partway through. I would have preferred just straight bushwhacking to trying to piece together trodden paths interspersed with bushwhacking. But once we got back to consistent trail, it was smooth-sailing to the dirt road at the bottom.

We had hoped that we could camp at one of the parking lots along the road that had privies and picnic tables. Unfortunately, without crowdsourced information, we weren't aware of all the "No Overnight Camping" signs in these lots. Ok, no problem, we found an RV park along the road, too. "No Tenting Allowed." So we kept walking the road, which was fine because that helps minimize our mileage tomorrow, but frustrating because like... where do we camp in McAllister, Montana without trespassing?

The answer is hitching to Ellis, Montana, about a 15 minute drive away from the intersection. We were frustrated with the prospect of dishing out money for a hotel stay, but we didn't think we had a choice. Our hitch driver brought us to an RV park that he'd stayed at before, and we verified that we actually could tent camp here. I hate paying to set up my tent, but $35 for both of us is way better than the $70 per person we were anticipating. Plus, we now have running water and dumpsters and a general store stocked with ice cream and soda. We even got dinner from a couple camping nearby who were asking us why we didn't have a car, and once we explained the trail, they generously brought us some pasta and brownies.

The danger of having cell service tonight is that I know I'll be up too late texting friends and watching movies, but we have a shorter day planned tomorrow since we did extra miles today, and the general store opens at 8:00, so we obviously have to wait for that, which means I can sleep in, which means I can stay up late... right? Of course right.

Day 127

Forward progress: 15.0 miles

Total distance on trail: 1,942.9 miles

As expected, I stayed up later than I should have and slept in later than I thought I would, but it didn't really matter because it was still earlier than the campground store opened. We took every advantage of the burritos and beverages before hitching out to the trail, which is still a road, but a different road.

The whole trail today was a network of roads. Boring, hot as heck, but easy hiking. I did sudokus and re-read old journals of mine to pass the time. I also had a playlist downloaded of broadway bangers and jammed my way up the road.

About 2 hours from where we'd planned to camp, we rounded a corner and saw a plume of smoke in the distance. I've never been around a wildfire, but even I was able to deduce that it was fairly new and already growing pretty rapidly. Vibes checked an app called Watch Duty, which tracks wildfires and provides up-to-date information about its size and containment, and he actually thought it was a different fire to the south of us that wouldn't affect where we're hiking. I pointed out that the plume was due west -- exactly the direction we were hiking and planning on camping tonight -- and when we were refreshed the app a few minutes later, we saw that the Cloudrest fire had been added only moments earlier.

I feel very lucky that, if I had to be so close to a wildfire, I was in a prime situation to deal with it. I had cell service and was able to gather information and communicate with love ones about the status of my location. We were on a dirt road that tons of people were driving on to get to the lakes, so not only were we able to turn around, but we were able to secure a ride back to Ennis, and even if no one had been there to drive us, the hiking back would've been really fast and easy. So what could've been super scary was actually pretty ok on our end.

We barely had to backtrack a half mile before finding a parking lot with two women. I'd actually talked to them a little bit while they were driving to the lake, so it didn't feel awkward to approach them and ask them to drive us back to town. It was amusing for me to see how nonchalant they were about the fire; I was feeling pretty antsy to get out of there, but they we're totally unfazed and continued to play fetch with the dog and take a few laps in the kayak. Margaret could only seat us in the bed of her truck, and if I weren't so grateful for an easy way out, I would've been perhaps less than enthused by bouncing around on the dirt road, followed by highway driving that made my eyes water and nose run with how fast we were going.

Margaret has a cottage house on her property that she lets hikers stay in for free, or a donation if we feel so compelled. (We certainly did.) It's incredible having a safe and comfortable place to stay while figuring out what the heck we're going to do from here. In town, we found Bushwhack, who just got into Ennis earlier this afternoon, and brought him back to Margaret's place. The four of us stayed up way too late, talking and telling stories, but now it's almost midnight, and I haven't been awake this late in a long time.

Day 128

Forward progress: 0.0 miles

Total distance on trail: 1,942.9 miles

Today was not the day we'd planned for a zero, but this fire closure really necessitated it, just so we could figure out plans.

Becca, the other woman involved with our hitch out, offered to drive us over an hour away to Butte. It's a bummer skipping the miles between Ennis and Butte, but we're not terribly interested in hiking a few days of just highway miles.

I'm staying in a nice hotel room with Vibes, Bushwhack, and Zoolander, and it feels weird to not feel unclean. Vibes and I didn't even bother showering because we like... just showered a couple days ago. We did laundry, though. Clean socks are a luxury we'll never pass up.

We were always planning to zero in Butte, but today wasn't the easygoing, restful zero I wanted. Lots of planning around the rest of the trail and how we want to proceed from here. But it was a zero nonetheless, and I'm not sure how many more of these we'll have between now and Canada.