I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get another air mattress. The difference is just night and day. I had been putting my down jacket under my hips to provide a bit of padding since most of my natural padding is gone…but sleeping on the new Gossamer pad last night was wonderful!

Another smokey day, another day without the views I knew were lurking beneath the layers of surrounding forest fires. That’s really ok though, it’s a small price to pay to have a muted horizon and not have to be threatened by all the destruction that’s currently sweeping the west. I hear big portions of the PCT are closed, and some fire fighters even lost their lives this week. Heart breaking.

I made it to Lemhi Pass for lunch, and got water from a spring that is the headwaters of the Missouri River, a spot that Sacajwea took Lewis in his search for the Columbia river in 1805. I’ve enjoyed visiting all the historical spots the trail passes through. While I was there I met Renee, Laura, and Beau. We chatted for a few minutes and Renee (a former nuclear engineer!) got me thinking about working down at the South Pole, she had done a number of seasons at the big base down there. Oh you know, there are so many adventures to be had!

Straddling the headwaters

Renee, Laura & Beau

I downloaded a new audiobook, another Stephen King novel, The Long Walk…you know, the title grabbed me, but after listening for a few hours I became disconcerted with the dark story where those who stopped walking would die. I found I wanted to walk less and less, the story must have hit a nerve. I took a long afternoon break complete with nap, and even when I switched from the dying walkers to some podcasts and music, the afternoon dragged on and I just wanted to be done.

I had set a goal of 25 miles today, and the minute I reached that mileage, I found a flat spot in the woods to plop down.

Not sure what this is about, but some animal didn't approve.

Man, oh man, I had a some awesome pasta from Backpackers Pantry…ever since connecting with them at the OR Show and getting some meals (with more coming to my town stops up ahead) I’ve been eating well. I can’t tell you how much better they are than ramen and mac & cheese. I’m so stoked to have their support.

So camp was earlish tonight, but I’ll read and just relax, it doesn’t do to force more walking if you want to be done for the day. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll be in a more walkable mood.

I was successful in not doing much of anything yesterday, so today had to resupply, mail some stuff, patch my tarp, and manage a few other odds and ends.

The morning passed quickly and soon it was check out time and we were on the porch hanging out for a few more hours. Delightful had texted, they were going to get to the pass about 2pm, and to save Sam a few trips we decided to wait to leave until then.

We had lunch at the restaurant, I did regret the greasy fried food soon after as it sat REALLY heavy in my stomach. I knew some hiking would help that out though.

Dan, G Funk, and I got back on trail at 2pm, and I spent the afternoon walking some very pleasent tread through trees and a few open balds. As I tend to do, I made camp earlyish (well, earlier than the guys like to) and enjoyed some down time to drink a beer I packed out, eat some dinner, and just putz around with my camp.

So looking forward to sleeping on my new pad! Air is where it’s at. None of this ridgerest stuff for me anymore!

Oh blessed air!

I had picked a nice flat campsite, and the night was filled with crazy dreams…some all too real. A few hours before dawn I woke to go to the bathroom and saw an orange light flickering in the distance, shit! Was that a fire!!!!! I stared at it, it was only one small spot, and then it moved, and I realized I was looking at car lights on the near-by road filtered through the smokey air. Phew, so much smoke still makes me on edge.

Smokey morning

I only had a few miles to walk this morning, and by 8am I was at the gravel “highway.” Thankfully I had arranged a ride with Sam, the owner of the Leadore Inn, because only one car passed in the 2 hours I was there…going the wrong direction. I wasn’t sure how soon I would make it to the road, so told him 10am for a pick up.

G Funk arrived shortly after I did, and we drank coffee and chatted while waiting. Once Sam rolled up, we piled into his pickup and headed towards town. He is a stellar dude, having just purchased the motel a year ago, and once we arrived, found it to be one of the coziest, nicest places I’ve stayed on the whole trail. Leadore doesn’t even have a stop sign, but it has everything a hiker could need. Post office, gas station/convenience store, bar/restaurant, and motel. Perfect.

I showered and spent the rest of the day laying in bed watching a mixture of cable and netflix on my phone. Thankfully my credit and debit cards arrived, and I also got my new sleeping pad from Gossamer Gear and a big cuben patch for my tarp where I melted it in my fire accident a while back. It’s been holding up ok, but Ron and Brandon wanted to send me a patch so it would pitch better.

Dan, G Funk, and I went to dinner at the bar, met some hilarious locals, and devoured some cheesesteak sandwiches.

When I returned to the room I found the movie The Matrix on TV and soon after fell asleep.

Good nero!

I didn’t end up picking the flattest spot last night, so spent most of the time sliding into a bush. I have a tendency at the end of the day to say “I’m done, this is good enough,” and throw down where I am and make it work. Tonight, camped in a very small flat section close to where a ridge drops off, is much better. I feel much more successful.

Coffee always makes a bad campsite better...or maybe it's the morning that makes the site better

Ahhh, another day of high ridges, smoke from nearby fires, and vast distances of space. I have to say, after the Wind River Range, I think this week has been one of my favorites. It’s hard to put into words, but maybe it’s my love of walking ridges, or being able to see trail ahead and behind, or the huge rocky mountains around…it could be the remoteness or the pleasent temperatures, but I’ve totally dug it all (minus the fire scare). I am, however, ready for a nero. I have just a few miles to go in the morning to Bannock Pass where Sam from the Leadore Inn will pick me up and take me to town. I have a room reserved at his hotel, my credit card is there, and I’m going to buy lots of food and watch lots of cable while eating pizza, drinking beer, and laying in bed (I HOPE there’s a TV, some of these small towns don’t have them…)

Look! That's where I came from!

I’m missing home. I’m loving the days out here, but still missing home. You can want to be in two places at the same time, can’t you?

This has encompassed so much of my life, heck it IS my life right now…it’s hard to remember what it was like to go to an office every day, and come home to a hot dinner and a bed and a loving boyfriend…I know all those things are there, but as I lay down for yet another night sleeping in the dirt and listening to distant cows mooing, it’s hard to visulize, just as in a few months tonight will seem like a blurry dream.

So while I’m missing home, I’m doing my darndest to be present….who the heck knows when I’ll be on another 5 month adventure. But at least pizza and beer are amazing both on the couch and on the trail.

I woke up about 4am, and seeing ash in the beam of my headlamp made me freak out. I started trembling and couldn’t stop, so I decided to pack up and move up to the top of the saddle where I had gotten a tad of reception…I had to do what I could to figure out if this was a fire I needed to worry about or not.

I was slowly able to bring up a fire incident map and was 90% sure the smoke was coming from a fire between Lima and Dillion, on the other side of the highway I crossed a few days ago. That put me at enough ease to where I was able to lay down and get a little bit of more sleep.

Smoky sunrise

When I woke at 6:30 I tried to check the sites again, but just couldn’t connect to the internet. I spent the morning playing the game: Where will you run if the fire comes? Not one of the more fun games on the trail. I spied rocky outcroppings that would work well, and also thought I could wade a lake.

I could stand in the middle of that if I had to

I finally stopped obsessing over the fire, that takes a lot of energy! I kept trying my phone for reception all day, but didn’t get anything until the evening. I learned we were in the clear for this section, but there are a few closures up ahead. Phew, I just wanted to know that I would be ok for this section, and relief felt amazing.

The hiking today was wonderful, although full of smoke. When I reached the divide again this evening, the mountains and cliffs towered over the grassy ridges, just awesome, awesome hiking.

I made camp above Tex Creek and just have 30 miles left to the pass where I’ll go into Leadore. I will wait and spend one more night on the trail to have as close to a full day off as possible.

What a week!

I’m at camp, The air started to get hazier towards evening, and I started to get nervous that yesterday’s thunder storms may have ignited some fires in the area…the valley to the south of where I’m camping is super socked in now, and I’m getting very faint whisps of smoke smell, but the valley to the north seems much more clear.

I walked up the hill to try and get service to see if I could find anything out, had just enough juice to leave a message for Teresa at the CDTC to see if there was anything to worry about, and was able to check the Montana Fire Incident website and saw yes, there are some fires, but I have no idea of how close they are or again if it’s something I have to worry about.

Forest fires are a huge source of anxiety for me, but talk about something that is out of my control…I only hope the smoke is traveling a long way and will not get close to the trail. Not sure I’ll be able to sleep tonight…

The winds last night kept me up…but I had a late night visitor, I heard some grunting and something was climbing up the tree near my shelter….a weasel looking thing was hanging to the side of the trunk and I had no idea what it was! It didn’t seem scared of me, but didn’t seem threatening, so I lay back down. I met another new hiker later, G Funk, who said it sounded like it was a Pine Martin…I’ll have to look it up when I get reception.

I woke late (finally falling asleep in the early hours of the morning) and got back on the divide for the last few miles of this section of ridgewalking before the trail dipped down to a creek.

The next bit wound in an out of cow land…poop and misleading trails were everywhere, but I made it through to the next big climb where half way up I met Trail Blazer, a southbounder. We chatted for a few minutes, and I continued another 1,000′ up the climb. On the other side I stopped at a creek for lunch and met G Funk, a northbounder from Austria.

I was confused at first when he introduced himself because I was just hiking with G and Funk, and now here was G Funk…sometimes trail name overlaps happen!

The afternoon hike was beautiful, these open ridges and mountains were lovely to walk through, and I throughly enjoyed myself.

After a long open section, I rounded a corner to find Dan and G Funk talking to some guys in an ATV. They could not believe what we were doing, and marveled at the idea of walking so many miles. They gave us a Mt Dew which we all happily split.

Then more walking. Dan and G Funk are taking an alternate and I’m on the official trail, up on a saddle just north of Bannock Pass, and am trying not to be too freaked out by the smoke in the air. The wind isn’t too crazy tonight, and I don’t see flames anywhere, so hopefully it’s far off. I’ll climb back up in the morning to get reception and see if there is any news…

Still, it’s going to be a long night….

Today marks not only my 4 month trailaversary, but I passed the 2,000 mile mark! Dude! Celebrate!

We started the day by sleeping in…turns out we stayed out till about midnight, a very rare occasion on this trail!

We all went to breakfast across the road and I had a huge ham steak with hash browns, eggs, toast, and lots and lots of coffee. Ahhh, this is the way to start the day.

Delightful, G, and Funk had decided to take a zero day, and since it hadn’t even been a week since I took my week off, I wanted to hike out.

Mike, the owner of the motel arranged to give me and a few other hikers a ride back to the trail at about 11:30, and by noon I was hiking again.

The forcast was for potential heavy thunder storms, and I could see the storms clouds brewing, but most of the afternoon remained quite pleasent.

2,000 mile mark!!

Again the trees were absent for the most part, and soon I was climbing up a ridge line that just kept going and going and going. Looking at my maps I saw that I’d be up high for many miles and soon realized that might pose a challenge when I wanted to camp tonight.

I climbed up one steep section to find Dan, another northbound hiker…his phone wasn’t working and the wind had just whipped his map out of his hands…that sucks! We hiked together the rest of the afternoon, and soon were walking into dark clouds, brutal wind, and fat raindrops. The rain was intermittent, and at about 5ish we found a spring down on the side of the ridgeline. It was just a trickle, so we tried to form little pools to make it easier to scoop.

I had decided to camp near as the nearby trees were the first I had seen in a long time, and I wanted the protection from the rain and potential storm. Dan hiked on, and as I was making my way to a clump of trees, rounded a corner to find a nice cow tank with spring water pouring in. Doh! Oh well.

I made my way up to find a little spot among some trees and had a bit of trouble setting up my tarp in the crazy strong wind. I was finally in and cozy, but twice the flapping tarp ripped my stakes out of the ground. Uggg, this would be a sucky night. At times I was worried the whole tarp would rip apart, but just a few minutes ago the wind died down, and now I might just have a still and pleasent night afterall.

Over 2,000 miles and 4 months on trail, celebrate!

I love cake, and I love my PCT hiking partner NEMO! Best of both worlds (other than having her on trail with me)

I swore I heard huffing in the middle of the night, I woke with my heart racing and gave a little whistle and stopped to listen to the night. It was still, nothing moved…could it have been one of the others? Whatever it was, I didn’t hear anything else and eventually fell back asleep.

I heard G get up early early…it was just after 5am and still dark, but we all were eager to get to town, so I began to make coffee and pack up, making it on the trail while I still needed my headlamp, something I have only done one other time so far this trip. I really wanted to make it to the post office before it closed at 4pm, and had 24 miles to hike along with a 20 mile hitch. Lets go!

The morning was still and as I traversed the grassy ridgelines I could see the big climb I had coming up. Sweating I climbed, climbed, climbed to the spiny and rocky ridge of this range, and found golden meadows of long grasses swaying in the breeze on top.

I kept hiking, feeling strong in the cool of the morning, to a tiny little trickle of a creek which would probably be my last water source of the day. G was there and we chatted for a few minutes before he was on his way, his desire to get to town was even stronger than mine! I found out later he jogged a good bit of the next 16 miles to the highway…now that’s dedication.

It was a bright day, and as I made my way down a big ridge to meet up with yet another 1,000′ climb, I took a much needed break in the shade and drank my liquids.

Hot climb! Even hotter on top, the rest of the day had almost no tree cover, and while I loved the views and walking on top of everything, I was drinking my water much faster than I had anticipated.

By the time I got to a dirt road I would walk the rest of the way to the highway I was THIRSTY and had almost no water left. Darn! I’ve been so good about carrying plenty of water so far on this trail, but today I failed….failed that is until I noted that there were some potential sources on the Ley maps that didn’t appear on the Guthook app. They had been dry in previous years, but I crossed my fingers. Rounding a bend in the road and seeing trees in a ravine, I knew this would be the spot, and sure enough there was a little creek running under a culvert in the road. WATER!!!!! I sat down and drank about a liter and filtered some more….enough to get me to the road.

Ahhhh, won’t do that again if I can help it!

I met a couple of forest service guys driving up to the trail…they had just constructed some new trail that I had just passed through and they had even put in one of those elusive register boxes, it is a nice treat to be able to check in to see where friends were ahead.

Then, highway! It was a busy 4 lane highway, and I jumped the fence between a frontage road and pavement to stick out my thumb. It took about 15 minutes but finally a car with Washington plates pulled over. Three college students were driving back from BYU to Spokane and were awesome enough to give me a ride to Lima and hook me up with some carrots and fruit. They were telling me about their friend who hiked the PCT last year and was on a long trail that went through the Rockys this year…it was Handy Andy! What a small freaking world that I would get picked up by another thru-hiker’s friends!

I got dropped off in Lima only to find the post office had changed its hours to close at 2:30! What kind of post office closes at 2:30????? So I called my bank to get the Fedex tracking number for my card that was supposed to have been delivered, only to find out it was getting returned. I bet they arrived when it was closed and thus returned it. ANNOYING! So I would have to bum $$ off someone for my resupply and stay here. I hate to inconvience others like that. Grrrr.

I found G at the Mountain View Motel, he had gotten a big room and offered to let me stay there, I gratefully accepted and swooned when another hiker, Rhodes, offered me a beer. A cold beer on a hot day was perfect. I showered and started to feel human again.

Soon Delightful and Funk rolled up and we all had a good ‘ol time hanging out, getting dinner at Jan’s Diner across the way, and tieing one on at Peat’s bar down the street. Other than the fact that I seem to have forgotten how to play pool, it was a great night.

Da girls

Here we go again, I sleep well, don’t sleep well, sleep, no sleep. Last night was one of the no sleep days…but I manage to hike and keep it together…

We all woke early with a 30 on our minds…hiking by 6:30? Definitely will be enough time. The day meandered up and down the border of Idaho and Montana, in fact I think we slept in Montana last night, and would have celebrated, but didn’t realize until looking at the maps this morning. Montana! The last state!!

We had heard some grumbing from other hikers that the Idaho/Montana border was frustrating with PUDs (Pointless Ups and Downs), but even though we climbed and descended, much of the walk was along open ridges with expansive views…At one point I could see into 3 states, Wyoming with the Tetons looming in a haze on the horizon, Idaho on one side and Montana on the other. I enjoyed the hiking as it truely felt like we were traversing the Divide.

Since we got an early start and the day started cloudy and cooler, the first 15 miles seemed to fly and once we reached a creek for lunch, were happy at the progress.

The sun came out after, and somehow the humidity shot up a notch, I didn’t sweat so much as ooze during the afternoon. The ups got a bit steeper, and the downs fewer and far between. Blah. We took a few breaks in the shade and after the final push to make 30 miles, spied a stellar campsite at 27 miles near the last water of the day….to stop or not to stop. We were all tired, and the decision was either to go on and having a shorter day into the town of Lima tomorrow, or stay where the camping was nice and our feet were already wanting to stop.

Stopping it is! I made a bomb batch of mac & cheese followed by a devine batch of dark chocolate cheesecake. Lima tomorrow, I hope my debit card made it there.

(So I need to update my next mail drop to Butte…a more realistic arrival date since I just took a week off is 8/30, and Lincoln is 9/7…but even if boxes are already out they should hold them for me!)

It was a slow start this morning. Whenever I hike with someone new it’s always interesting to see how our styles differ, and since we were all in an established campground with a Subway nearby, the morning was slow and included a stop for some footlong subs for breakfast/lunch.

We began with a 10 mile road walk up up up near Sawtell Peak, plenty of ATVs and dumptrucks passed us, kicking up dirt and causing us to dodge the clouds. We never did figure out where all the dirt in those trucks was going, but there must have been a major dig of some sort up there.

After polishing off our subs, we finished the climb and found our trail, but it quickly petered out and we began a few miles of bushwack. Delightful and I found faint tread most of the way. We happened upon two moose; one was a big bull moose, the biggest I’ve seen yet! We walked up and around the big guy to give him a wide safe zone, and soon found ourselves deep in a swampy willowy section where our options were to either swim, or push our way through the willows to dry ground.

We all reconvened near Lillian Lake and started back on some really nice tread. The Idaho mountains were rocky and quite beautiful in the late afternoon sun. A quick squall had us scrambling for rain layers, but it was over as soon as it began and we made camp on a ridge where I can faintly make out the Tetons in the distance.

Very impressive Idaho!