June 21
Mileage 25
895.5 miles hiked

I’m bored of writing about hiking. Is that ok to say? Are you guys bored of reading about it?

Benchmark Ranch is a log cabin in the woods. We walk there, sit at a picnic table in the sun and organize our resupplies while the flies land on us. The owner kindly runs the generator so we can charge our phones in exchange for a few dollars. His wife finds a ziploc baggie of vintage tampons in a drawer.

“They belonged to my mother in law,” she says as she hands them to me.

I’m saved! I can hike all the way to Helena! The Helena challenge is thus: 250 miles in 8.5 days. If we make it it will, I think, be the fastest I’ve ever hiked 250 miles.

After Benchmark we’re headed out when a group of older dudes at a cabin hails us over and gives us beer and soda, respectively. We sit around on logs and shoot the shit for a while and then walk on, down the dusty road to the trail.

Camp is on a small shelf on a steep mountainside, the forest around us burned to a crisp. A cold wind blows as the sun sinks. We try to come up with alliteration for a Wyoming challenge- no wipe Wyoming? Whatever it takes Wyoming?

Photos on instagram