Leadore-Lima, snowstorm included.

Day 40, July 26 Well, last night was funny, surprising and really really fun. We had heard from some locals that there was a barbecue at the tiny Catholic Church in the evening. I, Scalliwag, and the Swiss couple wandered across town to the church and saw that indeed there were a bunch of people outside. We walked over, and a lady said hello and, “are you here for Mass?” Us:”Uh…we heard there was a barbecue here this evening?” Lady (somewhat testily): “there is a potluck after Mass…for people attending Mass.” We all looked at each other, shrugged, and went into Mass! It was very nice. The priest, Father Dot, was incredibly kind to us; he is from Vietnam and has FIVE congregations in Idaho that he rotates between. It reminded me of the “circuit rider” preachers of the Old West. The potluck was a whole lot of unbelievably delicious food, and we got to get to know some Leadore locals. As we were leaving, we saw a Jeep filled to the brim with the rest of our hiking buddies, with a local guy driving. We hopped on the back, and he took us to this converted garage that a bunch of the guys in Leadore have set up. It’s essentially the coolest “man cave” I have ever seen–TVs, couches, a jukebox, darts, a working tap, and a huge variety of decorations. We hung out with the guys till about 11, then they drove us back to the motel. Sam drove us to the trailhead at 7 this morning, and we all hiked out. Did about 20 miles, all along the Divide. In the evening, I saw that Scalliwag was stopped ahead of me, talking to 2 northbound hikers. When I caught up, one of the hikers took his pack off and wordlessly offered me a bag of broken Oreos. Then I realized–it was Mark Trail! I met Mark Trail in 2011 when I thruhiked the Long Trail, and he was on the AT. He burst into our campsite at 7 in the morning, all smiles, and asked, “who wants breakfast cookies?!?” He also hiked the PCT my year; we met in Washington and he gave me Oreos again. He is in his sixties and has one of the most infectiously positive personalities of anyone I’ve ever met. So, it was so great to see him today. He had started the CDT northbound with all the others in April and had taken a really, really bad fall in the San Juans off a slick slope. Luckily, he had his ice axe and self-arrested about 200′ down, but he lost almost all the skin on his left hand in the process. It looks much better now. We camped soon after that; hoping for an early start tomorrow. I had “suddenly Pasta Salad!” for dinner with some butter that I packed out, which was delicious. Re supply in Leadore was a little rough; the one store was essentially a gas station, and there were about 10 hikers, all trying to buy 5 days of food from that gas station. Day 41 and 42, July 27-28 Today…there aren’t words to describe today. We woke to rain and got moving about 7:30. We were high on the Divide, going up and down rolling hills. Visibility was getting worse and worse because of a thick fog sitting on the mountains. I had walked about two and a half miles, and noticed that it was getting colder and windier, and the rain had changed to sleet. I also realized that my old rain coat had soaked completely through, and my pants were also soaked, and I was getting colder even though I was hiking. I got to a clump of trees and huddled under my groundsheet, waiting for the others. Scalliwag and Veggie came along about 10 minutes later and got under the groundsheet with me while we tried to figure out what to do. We were at 9500′, which was pretty high on the Divide, so it would be best if we could get to lower ground. But, I was getting colder and colder and was having a tough time thinking clearly. Finally we decided to set up Scalliwag’s tent and get warm and dry, because I couldn’t hike down in that condition. I was shivering uncontrollably by this point. They threw the tent up and we all piled inside. The sleet changed to snow, which changed to a whiteout blizzard. It took me 2 hours to get warm again. It snowed on and off for the rest of the day and into the night. I stayed in that tent for 22 hours, until the next morning. When I got up in the morning, everything was frozen–our hiking clothes, backpack, shoes. The Divide was beautiful, coated in a blanket of snow. The sun came out and everything slowly warmed up, thawed, melted, and finally dried. We hiked 23 miles to a creek. Food is short, but manageable to Lima, the next trail town. I am so grateful that my friends were there to be with me during this unexpected July snowstorm. Day 43 July 29 We hiked 26 miles today; the trail was just rolling grasslands with only a few big climbs. It was truly beautiful. I like this part of Montana–the Divide is so open, and you can see the mountains for miles and miles in every direction–really Big Sky country. It was hot and sunny; probably 90s. Day 44, July 30 Another hot day. This was a section called “the Roller Coaster”, because the Trail just follows the Divide, up and down, up and down. In the afternoon, we got a little split up, and I wandered up a riverbed, following a herd of 50-60 elk, grazing on the sides of the mountains. Then I realized that I was off trail, so I scrambled up to the Divide, which was hot, sweaty work. We all reconnected on the Divide at about 5 pm. I was utterly exhausted from my unplanned scramble. We had to keep going, because there was no water up on the Divide. We took an alternate off the Divide, after the sun had set, so we had to scramble down a gully in the dark about 1200 feet. We got down to Modoc Creek about 11 pm, made some food, and passed out. It was a 15-16 hour day. Day 45, July 31 We hiked 11 miles to Interstate 15. Mike from Mountain View Motel in Lima picked us up. But, the motel was full, so we got a cabin at the diner across the street. All the power in the town went out for a few hours, but the kind folks at Jan’s diner served us anyway. We re supplied and relaxed, and in the evening we went to a bar/restaurant where you cook your own steaks on a huge grille. We got 16 ounce steaks, which were unbelievably delicious. Lima is great little town for hikers.