Day 118: Nero in Helena

Mileage: 4.7 miles (2233.3-2238)

I slept 'til 7:30 and went out to breakfast for Huckleberry Pancakes with Commado. It was nice to be eating with someone else for a change. I then grabbed a care package from Laura, which had a morel mushroom-shaped candle, a postcard, and a miniature bear we'd gotten together in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It's our protector bear and I was glad to have it headed into bear country.

Then I went back to the room and burned the candle and did yoga inside the Motel 6, perhaps the first guest ever to do so in its history. I suspected this by the look of the other guests, most of whom were monthlies, smoking cigarettes, and were pretty heavyset.

I couldn't imagine any of them secretly burning candles and doing yoga in their rooms, but who knows. Around 11am we checked out and went to another hiker's room across the street and swapped stories. Her name was "Chosen" and she had a thinly veiled false humility, you see in a lot of hikers. She'd not so subtly drop into conversation about all the publicity she'd received and how many people were inspired by her and so on. It made me want to barf. She was nice to let us stay in her room while we waited for our ride, but like many hikers, it felt like she had something to prove, even though she was sixty-five and been hiking her whole life. Me and Commando had a ridiculously large lunch at Wendy's after not really being hungry when I walked in. I didn't really realize how much I had eaten until I saw the large pile of trash afterwards.

We then hung out with Chosen, and I helped her plan her route south on the Big Sky Cutodf, until some trail angels in town, Mark and his wife, took us back to the pass. We hiked a little under five miles on the road and then setup camp and chatted awhile before heading for bed. I cowboy camped under the stars, hearing the whistle and chugging of a nearby train as I fell asleep - the first time camping with another CDT hiker in months.

Day 117: Biggest miles on the trail

Mileage: 41.2 miles (2192.1-2233.3)

I woke up early after sleeping under the stars. I was tired, but whiled away the early morning by messing around on my phone. With my head down, I heard a loud clattering down the trail. I looked up and I saw a huge brown figure running down the trail. It was a big bear, maybe my first grizzly, but it tumbled down the trail so fast I never got a good look. He had a light brown collar around his neck, but that's the only notable marking I saw.

He left no prints on the arid ground so I'll never know if he was the biggest black bear I've ever seen, or my first Grizzly. Trying not to think about it too much I pushed on past Leadville, an old mining area, on newly built trail that skirted around the old camp.

I got down to twisted dirt roads for miles and miles. I skirted down and around mountains and wound down to the streams and valleys below. The gentle grassy divide gave way to forests of spruce and pine. I soaked my feet in the cold streams three times that day, each temporarily soothing my aches and cooling my hot spots.

I only had one thing on my mind: make it to Helena. I'd miscalculated the mileage from Whitehall to there, so instead of 90 miles I had 100+ to make it all the way there. That basically meant I'd need to do  my biggest day of the trail, over forty miles to make it. I texted Commando midday asking if he'd pick me up at the pass, as I was afraid it'd be dark and nearly impossible to hitch if I didn't get one. 

Luckily, Commado was happy to do it and just told me to shoot him a text when I got there. I pushed on and on, without really any breaks besides to soak my feet. I got closer and closer, creating over the final hill before the pass, which would lead me to the highway and Helena. My feet were killing me but I tried to ignore it. I'd told Kasey 7:30pm and I aimed to be on time. I walked out onto the highway at 7:28, waited for a few minutes and Commando have me a big hug. We joined some other hikers for Chinese Buffet, and then split a room at Motel 6. It was good to be with other hikers again.