We spent a lot of this section following the Continental Divide along high ridges. We were constantly passing interesting rocks. We resupplied in Lincoln, MT.
Day 122 – Mile 2657.2 – Trail Birthday!
Today was my birthday! I have been lucky to have birthdays on a trail every three years since 2015!! In 2015 we were on the JMT. In 2018 we were on the PCT. This year we were on the CDT! Renee managed to sneak some extra treats into her bear bag all week and surprised me with Skittles and Fritos when I woke up. Woohoo! She also made me a crossword puzzle full of trail questions. We had a lot of coffee this morning and throughout the day. With all the birthday festivities we took a while to get going in the morning. When we hit the trail it was windy and cold, but we kept our spirits high. We didn’t move fast today. We had to go off trail to get water a few times, and we bumped into two southbound hikers that we chatted with for a while. One, named Phish, is hiking >6,000 miles this year on the Great Western Loop. Wow! It was well past dark when we were getting close to done for the day but there was an old fire lookout tower next to the trail that we hoped we could stay in. We pushed on and got there at about 9:30, but a couple had reserved it 🙁 . We went 0.2 miles further and found a nice spot in the woods. Dinner was in the dark but it was very tasty! Overall I had a wonderful birthday. I wonder what trail we’ll be on for my birthday in 2024… -T
Day 123 – Mile 2686.3 – Lincoln, MT
Today we had two objectives — get to Dave’s and then get to Lincoln, MT. We got started earlier than we have been starting lately with the cool mornings and later sunrises. We got to Dave’s a little after 8 am and had no idea if he’d be open. Luckily for us, he was! He has a gear shop just off trail, and we needed a to replace a few things. One of our water filters froze and broke. Our stove also broke. The threads stripped, and it would just pop off the fuel canister. Luckily a nice guy near Butte had given us his phone number on a thin peace of looseleaf paper, and Tim still had it in his pocket. We were able to use the paper to screw the stove into the fuel canister. We also broke one of our tent stakes and somehow lost a second. Dave had everything though! His house/shop was packed full of gear. We got everything we needed and some extra snacks for the day. Next step was getting 26 more miles to Lincoln for our resupply. We called ahead to book a hotel room and shuttle from the trailhead, which we never do ahead of time. We scheduled the ride for 8:15-8:30 pm, which was after sunset. Our packs were light and the terrain wasn’t too bad, so we were able to hike pretty fast. We ended up making it to the road at 7:30 pm. We made some ramen and saw two moose while we waited. We waited for our ride until 8:45 pm and started to get a bit nervous. We had no cell service, but there were some other hikers camped nearby with service. We borrowed their phone to call the hotel. Caleb, who left to pick us up, was missing. Someone else from the hotel came to get us, and we arrived around 9:30 pm. All of the restaurants were closed, but the super nice hotel owners gave us leftovers! There were some other hikers staying at the hotel too, so we socialized a bit with them by the fire. We went to bed around midnight, and Caleb was still missing. -R
Day 124 – Mile 2697.2 – Heavy Ridge Walking
We woke up in our nice and comfy hotel room and felt refreshed. We learned from the hotel owners that Caleb was found and is OK. The police apparently picked him up around 2 am on the side of the road near where he was supposed to get us as at 8:30 pm… We don’t understand what happened and we’re pretty sure they didn’t tell us the whole story. The Lincoln post office doesn’t open until 9, so we used that as an excuse to stay in town a bit longer than we had planned. We went out to eat and I had tons of potatoes. Renee got oatmeal for breakfast which I thought was absolutely ridiculous because we can eat it on the trail… But it actually tasted really good. I guess they know how to apply sugar in Lincoln! We left town with very heavy packs for a nearly 7 day stretch to East Glacier, MT. Unfortunately we also had to carry a lot of water and the trail was always going steeply up or down, so it was challenging hiking today. It was beautiful though — we were walking on ridges along the divide so on both sides of us there was a drop-off and an expansive view. We bumped into a hiker named Butters on the trail and chatted with him while walking for a bit. Eventually we found a nice campsite on a ridge amidst several dead but small trees. We usually don’t camp around dead trees if we can avoid it, but since these are somewhat small we decided that if they fall over they won’t kill us. Dinner was lentils and rice. Yum!!
