July 12th, 2024
Mile Marker: 619
Miles Hiked: 27
We woke up today with the start of a sunrise peaking through our tent.
As much as we wanted to get out and enjoy it, the mosquitos were outrageous and waiting patiently for us to exit the tent so we watched it through the tent. 😅 This picture doesn’t do it justice of how bad the mosquitos were.
We hiked out of the Anaconda Pintler Wilderness and almost immediately saw CDT signs again.
The trail took us over some exposed hills and I was surprised to see that there is still snow around! With how hot it is, I would have expected it all to be gone.
We then spent the majority of the day walking through burn zone. Journey and I moved at a quick pace as the terrain wasn’t too hilly and also to search for shade for lunch.
It felt like we were on a treadmill, burn zone after burn zone.
Around 1 we found ourselves walking into an area that had a few live trees that provided a little bit of shade. The ground wasn’t comfortable to sit on but we figured it would work for a short lunch.
I decided to put music in today as I was feeling a slight blister from the new shoes and socks and needed something to keep me moving.
I was thrilled. I have gone 27 days without listening to music on the trail and I have so missed it. Instantly I was moving at a quick pace and able to maintain.
A reoccurring thought during this time was “holy smokes, we are doing this dang thing.” Yes, it’s hard but we are almost a month in and we are still moving South and getting it done. I felt proud of us for not giving up and I’m getting excited for what’s to come.
For the last 5ish miles we were back in a forest and came to a camp location. We sat around discussing what we wanted to do and decided we would hike 1.5 more to the highway and hitch to get into town.
We were cooked from the sun and a cold shower and big meal sounded too nice.
We also found ourselves at the border between Montana and Idaho! For the next 400ish miles we will be going back and forth between the states.
We stuck our thumbs out and after about 5 minutes had a man and his dog pull over to take us into town.
His name was Scott and his dog’s name was Bech. It was a beautiful drive down to Darby through the mountains. Scott was headed up towards the border so he had a long drive ahead of him, I hope he enjoyed the company for a bit! We also passed by the area where they film the show “Yellowstone” as we saw big tents, crew, and security.
We got into town, called a few motels, a lot were filled up with crew members for the TV show. Once we found one we then headed to 406 Saloon for a burger and beer.
The restaurant had a big open area and as we walked in with our backpacks I could feel eyes following us. Some tables even had people turn around to look at us.
Today, I feel like a thru-hiker. We are stinky, sweaty, and don’t really care who looked at us. We ordered beers and cheered to the past section and our accomplishments. We are doing this dang thing.
The waitress chatted with us and we ordered water with no ice so that we could drink it quickly as we are rather dehydrated. When she came to check on us she asked “Would you like more chuggable water?” Journey and I got a good laugh out of this and enjoyed her personality.
I then ate a delicious hamburger that is my favorite so far on trail. We also split a cheesecake. My goodness, it was such a good meal.
After fully bellies we went to the motel and decided we would stay in town tomorrow to get town chores done.
We are starting to find our own groove and it’s feeling good!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 