Here we are, in another Motel 6, this time in Grants, NM. We were planning on heading out today to hike Mt. Taylor and begin the 106 mile stretch to Cuba, but we hit a snag this morning when making future plans. We’ve known for awhile now that we would be flipping past Colorado and the high snow and returning in the fall to finish up but we hadn’t quite finalized a plan. We were planning to flip in about a week, but realized this morning that the timing wouldn’t work out for all the moving parts of buses and trains and rental cars. It’s a quick Greyhound bus from Grants to Albuquerque, where we were able to snag a one way car rental up to Butte, MT. So, we’re flipping now!
We’ll get on trail in Butte and hike to the northern terminus in Waterton, Alberta, then figure out a (hopefully not terribly expensive) way back to Butte and continue hiking south. The snow is melting fast in northern Montana, where it’s in the 60s and 70s and raining currently. The low snow totals and early snowmelt could mean a rough wildfire season up there, so I feel confident that we’re making the right decision. We’ll have a 5ish mile section that currently has 20-30 inches of snow early on, but we won’t be there for a week and hopefully it will have melted off a bit by then. If not, it’ll just be slow going for a few miles. But there will be water! So much water! I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am for lighter and shorter water carries! So off we go, on a short road trip through Utah and Idaho, and on to Montana.