Helena to Augusta, MT (9/20-9/27): 125 Miles
The shared water sources with the cows continue, and so does staying on our toes while on the CDT. The weather has been changing to not only cooler temperatures at night, but cooler days as well - so cold that it made us get off trail.
After getting rained on all night, we woke up to sun and blue skies. We hiked all morning, were able to check the radar around 11AM and saw a rain storm coming. We decided to hunker down, eat lunch and wait it out.
An hour turned to 2, then 3…then 4. This storm was not letting up and it was already 3PM. We had just lost 4 hours of hiking. We had 2 options: wait it out all night in the tent or bail down to the town of Marysville for the night. Either way we had to extend our expected 5 nights to 6 because there was no way we could make up the mileage.
We bailed to Marysville, an old mining town that’s now known as a ghost town. A warm meal is what we wanted, a roof with warmth is what we needed. It all came together (with so many details being left out) by the nicest of people:
1. Our dinner was bought by some folks from Traverse City, MI
2. A local guy, Harry, bought us a drink 3. Brian, the cook, let us stay in his cabin for the night with a wood burner to dry out all our gear. We fell asleep listening to the rain hit the roof, grateful to not be under our tents. Just as good were his two pups, TJ and Bella, who waited outside for us the next morning to play fetch.
We avoided risk of hypothermia and now have some special memories from Marysville. Trail Magic at its finest!
Hiking on to Black Mountain the next morning, the top was covered in a few inches of snow - a result from the precipitation the day before. We came across the coolest gear store tucked away in the woods: no parking lot, no big sign - just a trail amongst the pines leading us to a shack on the hill with any gear you could ever imagine. Ross grabbed some new gear, I grabbed the snacks (lol).
Luck came more and more to us after that storm, as the nights were still cold but the days were hot with sun. The Scape Goat Wilderness provided views for miles, plenty of signs from wildlife (this is a grizzly paw!) and surprisingly long water carries.
We got to Benchmark Trailhead by 1PM where we were prepared to sit for a while for a hitch due to low traffic on the gravel road. We even started preparing ourselves that maybe we wouldn’t even get a ride into town because of no cars passing. But after 2 hours, a van scooped us up and brought us 30 miles to Augusta.
200 miles left till Canada 😳🥹😎
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