Day 125: Love from Butte

Miles Hiked: 28.1

Total Milage: 2173.4

Yesterday I looked ahead at water sources and realized that we have a very dry stretch ahead of us. Almost all the water sources have dried up and the ones that haven’t are questionable. I noticed some Guthook comments about a water cache that seems to be empty now. I ended up posting on the CDT Facebook page to see if anyone was still maintaining the cache and to give other hikers a heads up about the dry stretch. Within an hour multiple trail angels from Butte were commenting on my post. They worked together to put water caches out at some spots that we really needed them! I was so so thankful. It’s awesome to feel supported by total strangers who genuinely want to help hikers out. A little bit of water can go a long way. Not only did I have water to look forward to and not stress out about today, but one of the trail angels also left some treats in a cooler for us to get at the very end of our day. Some motivation to do the miles! A special thank you to weatherman, chickadee, and Lora from Butte!

I left camp around 6:40am this morning. The trail today was on some narrow and sandy mountain biking trails almost all day long. There were blown down trees absolutely everywhere I looked around me. It must have taken an incredible amount of effort to get these trails cleared again. There were so so many large logs that had been cut in half and moved off the trail. I imagine all that work must have taken a solid year to complete. I’m so thankful for whoever came out here to do all that work! The bad thing about so many blown down trees is that there isn’t much shade left. Today was very hot. I could tell early on when I could feel hot gusts of wind blowing early in the morning. I was extra thankful for the water.

My first and only really long break of the day was at pipestone pass where weatherman left a cooler filled with ice cold water. The best part? It was cold and I didn’t have to filter it. I drank so much water because it was so hot out. For lunch I ate a PB and J wrap. For the second day in a row I hiked nearly 20 miles by 2pm. Apparently my legs are feeling great. 12 pack caught up to me here and we had lunch together. I then continued hiking another 9miles along more sandy single track mountain biking trails. It was still crazy hot out and I was dripping sweat going up a very long but well graded climb. Once I got to the top I cruised to the bottom until I crossed interstate 90 over a bridge. My feet were hurt but I knew that treats were waiting for us. I didn’t want to take a break one mile away from my destination so I Sucked it up and kept going. The magic that Chickadee left for us was glorious. This has happened maybe 2 other times on the whole CDT. On top of the much needed water, there were cold drinks and lots of snacks that I was craving. I had a beer and I actually loved it! I plan on trying it out in town to make sure I really like the beer and that it doesn’t just taste good because I got done hiking so far. I also had some Cheetos and lots of cookies. For dinner I made a beef stroganoff mountain house meal. My mom sent it to me almost two town’s ago but I’ve been holding onto it to reward myself on a day like today. It was delicious. 12 pack and I sat there for well over an hour just enjoying the treats and relaxing. I’m really proud of myself for hiking 60 miles over two days! Eventually we packed up and walked to a campsite not too far away.