Total Weekly Mileage: 249.9
“I’m 40”
I had a day to make it to Leadore. I think it’s Idaho—could be Montana. This part of the trail weaves its way from Montana to Idaho, then back to Montana, then Idaho, and then… well, you get the point. I could never tell the difference, except for the fact that it’s illegal to hitch in Idaho and legal in Montana.
I was able to get ahold of Jen P. and book a pickup at the pass for a ride into town. People do wing it and hope to get a ride, but it’s on a back road to nowhere, so confirming a $20 ride each way was better for me. I made it there early, and she was early too. Another dude named “True Grit” hopped in with us. A couple of Cokes later, I was in Leadore by 2 p.m.
This was a quick two-and-a-half-hour turnaround: eat, charge, resupply, organize, and go. I forgot that I was in Mormon country. The young girl at the counter at the store—Lexington—was nice, and before I left, I told her I was headed back out to find a female hiker to “soak” with. She said, “Oh my god!” Believe it or not, soaking is something Mormons do, and it’s too inappropriate for me to explain here. Google it!
There are a lot of people who are jack-of-all-trades and masters of none. I’d put myself in that camp—except it’s more along the lines of useless knowledge, which comes in handy for random conversations, especially in small towns.
Jen P. (Lexi’s mother) dropped me back off just before 5.
105 miles to Lima—pronounced like the fruit, with an “a.” I crushed this section. Water was tough in the cattle troughs, but I hit the 100-day mark with over 3,200 miles. Finally got service. Just so you know, I have cell service about 25 percent of the time, so no more texting that you haven’t heard from me for a while. This is why I have a website.
I scheduled a ride to get picked up in the morning at 9 a.m., not realizing that where I thought I was to be picked up was actually 2.5 miles farther than I thought. That morning, I was doing a nice 8-mile run. If I hadn’t done a 45-mile day with 4.5 hours of sleep, it might not have been so bad. I made it, and Josh picked me up and whisked me into town. Shower, laundry, charge, box, and 1:30 back on the trail.
Six miles of road walk uphill in the hot sun was tough, but I was still able to get 30 miles in for the day. The following day: 42. The next morning, I woke up and I was 40. Made it into Island Park, ID around 10:30. Had Subway, resupplied, charged my things at a Mexican restaurant, and ate some strange egg rolls and shrimp ceviche.
Took off and met trail angel Val, who made me a spaghetti dinner. The following day, I made it into Wyoming and Yellowstone and finished out the week getting warm water out of Summit Lake. I bleached the hell out of it and filtered through my bandana. There were still some odd-looking floaties in there, but what the hell—the bleach kills all.
Montana and Idaho had some tough sections. Wyoming has the Wind River Range, but other than that, it should be a quick state!
