The forests south of Glacier National Park represent some of the most pristine wilderness in the lower 48. These forests have also been subjected to extensive fires over recent years and that means lots of fallen trees across the trail (deadfall). Although sad and starkly beautiful, these burn areas are a pain in the biscuits, literally. The 8 mile stretch of the CDT south of Glacier consisted of relentless scrambling over down trees fallen across the trail which took much of the day to cross. Added to the numerous holes in my pants from crawling under barbed wire in New Mexico were now some huge tears from getting snagged on the deadfall. Part of what made this frustrating was a cleared road visible below that paralleled the trail but was nearly impossible to get to. Aaaaarrrrggg!!! Fortunately, the only thing getting snagged was my pants. Could be worse. Later that day, I met Cricket and her little dog Chip who had made the same mistake as I and had decided to camp just after the worst of the deadfall. We immediately hit it off and started to hike together.

We decided to take the beautiful Spotted Bear Alternate which took us close to the Pentagon and Trilobite mountains.

It’s pretty typical for thru hikers to get out of sight of one of another. Unbeknownst to me, Cricket, who has been ahead, had missed the turn at the Gooseberry Guard Station while I added a couple extra gears to “catch up” to her. The effect was that we got increasingly separated.

A snowy climb through Switchback Pass

As the altitude increased, the snow patches started to join up until the snow was continuous but it was still easy to stomp and bare boot through and over Switchback Pass until the Chinese Wall appeared on the other side of the pass.

Since it was only me now, I decided to make a 32 mile run for the trail head where I could hitch a ride to Augusta MT. Having reached the trailhead by 6p, I waited and waited for a ride then gave up and started walking down the road. There were zero outbound cars going more than a mile or two down the road during that time. Augusta was 30 miles away and I was just about out of food so what choice did I have? I spoke with a woman in one car (heading the other way) and she said that I might be able to get some phone reception about 10 miles down the dirt road and maybe I could make a call. The map indicated that there was an airport on the way too. Hey, there had to be traffic coming in and out of the airport. After a few miles, I reached the “airport” which turned out to be just a long dirt runway with a tractor and a little run down building the size of a privy but unfortunately not a privy. OK, more walking. After a couple of hours it was getting dark so I decided to camp and try again in the morning. The next day, after walking a few more miles, the first outbound car picked me up, yay!!!!

The rancher had lived here most of his life and was pretty proud of his town. He gave me a ride all the way to Augusta, gave me a tour, and dropped me right in front of the Bunkhouse Inn. Every Montanan I had met was incredibly nice and generous. No one was there at the Inn but I was able to call Terri Lee who ran the Bunkhouse. Since the rodeo was in town, I wasn’t expecting much but it turned out someone had just cancelled and she would hold the room for me, score!!! Pacer (who was camping in someone’s back yard) was already there and so was Mister Fish. It was nice to see some familiar faces.

While eating a double breakfast (eggs, toast, kitchen potatoes, and a large stack of pancakes with OJ) at Mel’s Diner across the street, I met the nice couple who had canceled their room at the Bunkhouse. These coincidences happen in small towns. A parade followed with floats and music, and candy, frisbees, and beer cozies being tossed to the kids. It was great!!!!!

Cricket and Chip showed up after the parade, woohoo!! Terri was ok with us sharing a room for the next couple of nights and we fought over who would get the floor. The compromise was that Cricket would get the floor the first night and me the second. Chip was so excited he just rolled around his back on the bed for about 5 minutes!

It was pretty clear who was in town for the rodeo and who were hikers. The rodeo folks were wearing their blue jeans, cowboy boots, and cowboy hats. I, for example, was wearing my long underwear and rain skirt since I was doing laundry. Pacer was wearing his Grateful Dead t-shirt. Cricket had her leopard print top on and sandals with ace bandages on her feet. The next couple of days in town were just a big party because of the rodeo.

We were able to get a ride out of town and back to the Trailhead with Terri Lee.

The next few days, the trail followed the beautiful ridge line of the Continental Divide.

Cricket was able to connect with a couch surfer in Helena named Tyler for both a ride into town (otherwise a 20 mile hitch) and a free place to stay.

Tyler is awesome and fun and generous and cool. He showed us around town and brought us to the best breweries, ice cream shops, let us crash on his floor, and was generally just a genuinely kind super generous and caring guy. Helena has been an awesome town but I am eager to get back on trail again. Next stop, Anaconda MT. It will be nice to be back on trail.