8/7/21
Daily Miles: 10
2021 CDT Total Miles: 231
Overall CDT Total Miles: 2301
What a night…it was basically a twelve hour assault by the wind. We kept waiting for the wind to die down overnight, but it never did. It was quite cold as the wind just cut through our hammock underquilts. For sure our worst night of sleep. The only silver lining, was that the sky was clear and we could see a lot of stars.
Finally our alarms went off at 5:30am and we were glad to be up and moving. And perhaps just to spite us, the wind died down right away. Well, it seems to be another reminder that we can’t control nature. We just adapt, by putting on another layer of clothing in the cold morning.
We continued walking down the dirt road with clear cutting on both sides. We could see a elk in the distance on the side of the road, but it sauntered off before we could get close.
We ran into another set of southbound hikers, Alex and Jeep, this morning as they were packing up camp. We joked that we will probably keep seeing southbound hikers until we get to the Canadian border.
The trail was mostly really good today, but we had a couple miles with a lot of downed trees. We got a few scrapes and bruises, but it wasn’t too bad. The trail so far this trip has been so well maintained that we figured we couldn’t really complain about two miles of downed trees. And we got to eat some thimbleberries on the side of the trail, which seemed to make it all better.
We saw the most day-use activity on the trail today. There were some mountain bikers and day hikers. We even saw a woman out for a hike with her dog and three goats. She said the goats were in training to become pack goats. The goats were very friendly and seemed to be happy just out walking and eating the bushes. Definitely the first time we have seen goats out for a day hike.
When we got to the road which would take us into Helena, we were able to get a hitch without waiting too long. Jerry and his dog, Ziggy, were really nice and brought us in to town and the grocery store so we could resupply before going to the motel.
In front of the grocery store, we met two bikers, Ali and Racer, who are on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. They are going northbound, so only have another week to go before they hit the Canadian border. It was fun to chat with them about their trip.
We finally got to our motel rooms and got cleaned up. Beardoh was even able to walk down the street to an outfitter who was able to do a warranty replacement for the pole he had broken yesterday. We decided to take an unplanned zero day tomorrow as the weather is looking pretty bad.
Are you all wearing knee high socks for sun protection or compression socks for better blood flow? And do they include your foot? Just curious. Thx!
They are compression sleeves (they don’t include the feet). We like them for several reasons: (1) muscle recovery at the end of the day (2) sun protection (3) protection from branches and overgrown trails.
Thx for that! Would you provide a brand recommendation? Thx!!
Sure! We use Dimok which we just randomly bought from Amazon. We like them and have had several pairs over the years. They have some fun colors!