DAY 119 another Adventure

AUG 10TH

I was up early and soon packed up I made a brew as the others began to stir.

Okay see you up trail guys

I headed out and soon joined up with the main Cdt red line. It was a fairly cool morning but the sun was getting up.

I pushed on down the meandering trail eventually emeringing out of the forest and into an open valley surrounded by hills

Hmm am I going up there?

Indeed I was.

It started of easy but just kept climbing luckily there were switchbacks but it just kept climbing .I had to stop as I was roasting so needed to remove a layer. It was now heating up as

I slung on my pack and continued up . As I climbed I knew others were closing in on me and shortly Pilgrim and Burning-man appeared.

Hows the climb boys I asked.

Lol

I let them pass then fell in behind them.There was still more climbing but eventually we were at the top and passed a resting/just starting sobo

At last the trail headed down and

wow what great views although

the trail couldn’t make up its mind if it was going down or up

Finally it began to level out.

I lost sight of the boys but once over the ridge i could see burning man getting water.

I dropped my pack and filtered 2 litres.as we sat there 5 sobos appeared . It was good to chat to them and get info on towns water and any other advice that was useful

Okay time to walk Pilgrim and Burning man headed off and I followed. The trail was easy as it crossed several meadows. In front was a huge mountain . Mm are we going up ? But to the left was a dirt road . The trail took me to the trail head and surprisingly the trail headed up the dirt road. So easy walking

The two were a little way out in front as I headed off after them .

It was a beautiful day with amazing views all around and the time seemed to be moving fast as well as the miles. In the distance I could see a fork in the road and thought great I won’t need to check my app I’ll just follow .

But the boys had stopped and so I soon caught up.

What’s up guys?

We f*ucked up snail!!

We are miles off trail.

We spent the next five minutes deliberating what to do.

Bushwack North. Go back go on. Pilgrim decided to go back.

Burning man and myself said what the hell we have tents water and food what could go wrong

The cdt has so many options and alternates so this could be a great adventure or a big mistake.

We thought we could follow this road to the next town and then hitch back to the trail head rather than heading 3 miles back making 6 miles.

So happily we headed on down this track .As we were walking we saw another moose quite happily munching on grass and not bothered about us.

Aa walked we were passed by 4 atvs all out having fun. At last we came to another main road (Dirt) we hiked on as 4 cars passed us.

As we got to large tree with shade we decided on lunch.

Okay plan c.after lunch we will hitch for 20 minutes then walk.

So we took up the stance as several vehicles sped past us..

On the 20th minute a car stopped.

He was driving past Lima so result.we were soon at Lima but as we drove past the motel we noticed “no vacancies” sign.

I got out to double check and the owner wasn’t helpful at all in fact a bit of a dick.

So our ride said why don’t I take you to Dillon.

So here we are at the super8.

Once checked in we went for lunch. Burger and fries yum.

After it was laundry and chill.

We met up at 7pm to go grab a beer.

We we’re advised that sparkles was good and just downtown.

So as we walked down town we passed a bar. So a beer?

It was a nice tap room but Montana has some strange licencing laws and most stop serving at 8 pm.. unless it has a certain licence

So just the one… But we met a couple who run a Greek restaurant well more of a drive through so we promised to have lunch there tomorrow.

As most people drive Sparkies was a hell of a lot further than we imagined .

But as last we were here. I was recommended to have the deep fried dill Pickles and wow they’ve really bloody good. I followed that with honey basted ribs which were fantastic finishing with keylime pie.