CDT Days 107-109: Leaving Butte

Day 107: 5 Miles

We got up pretty early this morning and took the time to make hot coffee before we started our road walk into town. Officially we could have stayed on trail a few more miles and hitched from the interstate, but that just sounded like a hard time, and walking in and out of town would be similar miles but eliminate the need to hitch.

We did laundry, got new socks, resupplied, and headed to the pizza buffet to hang out and eat as long and as much as possible. Hotels were affordable so we decided to sleep in town for the night. It was so nice to have a shower!

Day 108: 23 Miles

It was great to sleep in a comfortable bed last night, and I would have liked to sleep in, but it’s hard to do when you’re used to walking up at dawn every day. We took advantage of the continental breakfast before walking out of town and up the side trail to rejoin the CDT. We made it up the ridge and found the rest of the day to be full of ups and downs.

Motivation is always a challenge on days leaving town, and today was hot and muggy so no one was in a great mood. At the high point of the day, the clouds were piling up and the weather looked grim. As we descended, the lightning started, followed by the rain.

We would have liked to hunker down but dropping in elevation was more important so we walked in the rain until we had descended to a spot that looked decent enough to camp. The rain stopped but by that point we were cold and everything was wet, so we got in our tents and changed into warmer clothes. Hopefully the rain helped with some of the wildfires, and lightning didn’t start any new ones.

Day 109: 34 Miles

It rained in the night, and since we hadn’t really taken the proper care when we set up the tent, we found a nice puddle of water inside this morning. We packed up our wet gear and hit the trail, hoping to set everything out to dry in the sun later.

Unfortunately, it was overcast pretty much all day and even rained a few more times. It looks like this is good news for the fire burning North of us, but it means we had to set up a damp tent tonight. I don’t think we’ve had to do that since the AT. We had a pretty easy day today, alternating between trail and dirt roads, passing through herds of cows. We might have gotten some really nice views if not for the haze and the clouds, but it did clear up a little in the evening.

We hunkered down to wait out a storm for an hour or so around 6:00, then hiked a couple more miles after the rain stopped to set up camp.