Day 102: Lava Mountain Lodge

Miles Hiked: 14.5

Total Milage: 1694.6

This morning I woke up around 5am very eager to get to town. Last night I got some amazing sleep a rest. I think I had about 12 hours total off of my feet! I got all my things out of the bear box and made my morning protein shake before leaving camp around 6am. It was a chilly morning and everything was wet with dew. We only had to go 14 miles from camp to the road where my parents were planning on picking us up. The trail today went through a lot of fields with tall grass before it got on a very primitive dirt road. 12 pack and I realized we were hiking faster than expected. We told my parents we would get to the road around noon so we took our time taking lots of breaks to make sure we didn’t get there too early. Although today was very easy hiking, every little hill that we went up felt exhausting. My body is definitely still tired from the last couple of days.

We got to the highway around 11:40 so we dried out our tents while waiting for my parents and I washed my socks in the river. They pulled in right around noon and I was so happy to see them. They had cold Gatorade waiting for us which was amazing. For lunch they took us to Lava Mountain lodge right down the road. It’s also where we ended up staying tonight. At lunch I booked our campsites for Yellow Stone National Park. We will be hiking through the park in a few days and we have to get a permit to do so. I’m so excited to see the park but having designated campsites is a little annoying.

After lunch we drove to the town of Dubois to do some errands. I picked up food for a resupply at family dollar, mailed a package, and we all got ice cream. We also checked out a cool store with a lot of Jackalope souvenirs. I decided it was finally time to buy a new sun hoodie since my current one just keeps getting more and more holes in the back of it. My pack straps are starting to irritate my shoulders a lot since one of the holes is right on my shoulder. I ended up finding a cool one at a fly fishing store. My dad ended up getting it for me as a gift and he got a matching ball cap. By the time we were done running around town and back at the hotel it was about 6pm. We ended up eating dinner at the lodge and saw a couple other hikers at the bar. It was Blind Squirrel, Cheeto, and Flip. They are hiking south at the moment but they also did a flip flop similar to 12 pack and I.

I originally thought my parents had to drive home to Ohio tomorrow but they actually are staying at the lodge another night and asked if we wanted to take a zero and hang out with them. I definitely wanted to. Looking at the towns ahead it doesn’t seem like there are many other places I want to spend time relaxing so I might as well do It with my family who I don’t get to see much! This just means that we have to reschedule our yellow stone permits which may be a pain but I’m willing to do it.

Happy Trails!

-Early Bird