June 23
Mileage 11
936.5 miles hiked

Here’s what happens: we wake up early in our beautiful meadow on the ridge where we camped amongst the tiny flowers: it’s cold and I don’t have enough fuel to make hot tea. I have to save it for my dinners. Only a couple more days until Helena, right?

My god, is my body tired today. Day seven since leaving East Glacier, without even a half day off. And these are no easy miles- passes, blowdowns, streamcrossings, mud. This morning we’re ridgewalking and it’s beautiful with all the earth falling away to each side- pacific vs. atlantic- but the trail takes us straight up to the highest point of each mountain, in scree, and then drops us down the other side. I witness Spark taking multiple breaks on the way up- usually Spark is so much faster than me on the climbs that I don’t even see him- and that’s when I realize that I’m not the only one who’s tired.

Ok here’s what really happens- we get to Rodger’s pass, where one can hitch into the town of Lincoln, and realize that it’s noon and we’ve only gone eleven miles. We stand there debating and then maybe we put our thumbs out and then maybe someone stops to pick us up… we’ll just go into town for lunch and then hitch right back to the trail, right?

The ubiquitous trailtown burger. I eat a whole bag of fruitsnacks from the gas station. Another hiker, our friend Buck-thirty, is in town and he lets me shower in his hotel room- I finally get to wash all the dirt, oil and sunscreen from my hair. Afterwards I try to walk but feel as though I am asleep on my feet. I find Track Meat and Spark and the library, and we reluctantly hitch the 20 miles back to the pass. Our ride has a jovial labradoodle who licks all our faces. At the pass we stand there uncertainly, finally decide to flip a coin, the coin lands heads up so we turn around and hitch back to Lincoln.

Now we’re eating frozen pizza in the campground on the edge of town. We’re about to smoke hella weed and play on the swingset. And then we’ll cowboy camp in the long grass, letting the ticks crawl on us. 190 miles in 6.5 days isn’t bad, right?

Life is so good.

Photos on instagram