All Work and No Play is No Way to Hike — Adventures With Samson-The-Bear

On 7/13 I took a zero in Butte, MT. On 7/14 I did 13.4 miles to just before Big Hole Pass. On 7/15 I did 21.3 miles to just before Mountain Pass. On 7/16 I did 28 miles to Pioneer Creek. On 7/17 I did 30 miles to just before Lemhi Pass. On 7/18 I did 26.8 miles to just before Bannock Pass.

Listen to. "Unbound" by The Last Revel. It fits the folk theme of this post and is how I feel walking the ridges between Montana and Idaho.

I made it to Chief Joseph Pass on the 12th. It was a hard push to get to there on that date and I was really thrilled to hit my goal, but physically getting there was just the start of the fun. Once at Chief Joseph I had a lot of hitching logistics to manage. First I had to walk a mile down HWY 43 to Lost Trail Pass and then hitch 13 miles down HWY 93 to a small store that I sent myself a package to. At the store I was able to get a shower and do some laundry and then rushed back out to 93 to hitch back up to Lost Trail Pass and then walk another mile back to Chief Jospeh Pass. The two hitches, shower, laundry and resupply took less than 2 hours. Once back at Chief Jospeh Pass I tried my luck at a 100 mile hitch to Butte, MT and fortunately the trail gods smiled on me and the first car that passed stopped and was going to Butte, so I was in luck!

Side note 1: I wear a pink shirt hiking because I obviously look fabulous in it; but also pink has been proven in the Baker- Miller study to calm people down which I hope makes them more likely to give a stranger a ride. The reality is, people in Montana are pretty friendly, but I like to think the pink shirt helps.

In Butte there was a folk music festival in the historic downtown. Frizzle was coming up to Butte on Saturday so I spent Friday evening exploring the old mining town. People from Butte love to say they are from Butte America and not Butte, Montana since the city was there well before the state was formed. The city has a ton of original mining relics left in place including many head frames which lowered workers down into the tunnels and pulled out the ore. I think it is really cool they were left up and give the city a very unique feel.

I think hiker hunger finally set in because at the festival I ate 4 dinners on Friday night and was way more interested in the food trucks than the music. I spent the night in a city park that allowed camping for the festival. I didn't get a great nights sleep since I was kept awake by the constant firework blasts throughout the night which is used to scare birds off from landing in a contaminated open pit mine next to the park.

The next day I met up with Frizzle and Dylan and it was awesome! I hadn't seen her since just outside Steheken in Washington State on the PCT. There was a ton to catchup on and we spent the rest of the day hanging out, checking out shows, dancing, imbibing and of course eating. I hadn't seen her in 3 years but we picked up where we left off and stayed up way past my bedtime checking out the local nightlife. The festival was eclectic I saw blues rock, regaee, beat boxing, Irish folk, western swing, cuban dance and more. The main stage was actually built under one of the mining head frames which was super cool. The next day they drove me back to Chief Joseph Pass and joined me for the first 3 miles back on trail. The weekend flew by and it was sad to say goodbye. They were going to walk 3 miles back to their car and I was going to walk to NM for some reason that I haven't figured out yet. When they turned back around I waited until they were out of site and found a tree to nap under because I was beat and maybe a little hungover.

The next day I got up and started up a pass where I ran into a trail crew. It was the Idaho Conservation Corps. I was suprised to see them and asked if I was in Idaho and they said it depends on which side of the ridge I'm on since the continental divide is the boundary between ID and MT for the section I'm now hiking. I figured there would have been a sign marking the entry into Idaho but I guess you just have to check the maps to know. I can now check Idaho off the ever growing list of states I have hiked in.

I mentioned above that hiker hunger kicked in, but I was not aware how bad it was until I got back on at Chief Joseph. I am now constantly hungry and waking up in the middle of the night wanting to eat. Luckily my food bag is hanging so I cannot blow through my rations in my tent but I still ate more than I should have and walked to Bannock pass with no food in my bag at all. Usually there is few items left in my food bag when I resupply but I was completely empty. I wish I had a leather belt since I could have chewed on it as I did my final push to the pass without food. I tried to drink a ton of water to give my stomach the impression it was full but that didnt really seem to help. I'm going to be bringing significantly more calories out of Leadore with me to account for the increased appetite. Who knew walking 25+ miles a day burned so many calories?

The weather has still been kicking my butt. I don't get hailed on every day like I used to, now just every other day, but when it's not hailing on me its still thundering and lightning. I usually get hit by 2 storms a day one around 4pm and the other around 8pm. On the 16th I had to cut my day short by a few miles because I got caught in a lighting storm and had 2 strikes within 100 yards of me. It was so loud and fast it scared the crap out of me. It was just a regular rain storm with no thunder and then BAM one right after another. It is a really eerie feeling after the strike and you know your just kind of screwed. There was pile of talosed rocks a few feet in front of me and I jumped on them and sat on my backpack. Its about the only thing you can do and I just waited. The storm moved past me relatively quickly but I was done and just set up my tent right there.

Hanging out a Folks fest with Dylan and Frizzle

Frizzle joining for a short stretch on the CDT

This picture represents the CDT thru and thru