We did the planning, got the permits, mailed the boxes, and did all of the other chores. God, that took forever, but we did it. We forged our own route through Yellowstone NP and Grand Teton NP! This is basically the route, folks. We had to plan 16 hiking days in advance for this stretch, so let’s hope everything goes according to plan!
Backpack 2.0
I had to walk across a city to get it, but here’s my next ULA Ohm. The one I’m retiring (for now) has waaay over 3,000 miles on it, and the shoulder strap padding is almost paper thin and failing. Hope this helps my shoulder pain!
Spanish Peaks – Ennis to Big Sky
Post coming soon…
Tobacco Root Mountains – Whitehall to Ennis
Post coming soon…
Big Sky Alternate part 2
This is our rough draft of the second leg to Big Sky and eventually Yellowstone. Woohoo!
Birthday in Helena!
We made it back to Helena! And just in time for my birthday! Usually I would prefer spending my birthday on trail, but this time around I was just hoping for a relaxing town day for once. We ran around Helena and ended up downtown eating a delicious burger with beef fat potatoes, then we ran into Dragonsky, Lavender, and Jenga, some CDT friends we met in Glacier. It was awesome catching up with them for a moment!
Later in the day we met up with Pretzel and Snags (Martha and Trevor), the AT thru-hikers we met last time we were in Helena, and Pretzel offered to have us over for a birthday dinner. She made grilled salmon, grilled veggies, a grain salad with delicious lemon herb yogurt sauce, and a homemade carrot cake! We were going to rent Asteroid City and watch it on their big projector screen, but we ended up just hanging out on the deck talking trail and enjoying the cool evening weather until late in the evening. I wouldn’t have changed a thing, it was so good to spend more time with new wonderful friends.
A couple of days later we hiked through this little town called Mammoth on the Big Sky Alternate and managed to snag a nice campsite on a stretch of road full of first come first served sites. As I was waiting for my cold soaked ramen to be ready to eat, Smarts pulled a surprise out of his food bag. Instant cheesecake with cherry topping! I got to have a second birthday “cake” on trail thanks to the sweetest partner I could ever hope for. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve such amazing people in my life, this was easily one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had. I’m a very lucky girl.
Almost got chased out of camp by a herd of cows…
We got the tent pitched, started making dinner, and here comes the herd tramping through our little meadow valley. I had to take down the tent but stand my ground and keep two bulls and a herd away from the only flat spot around. It’s Saturday and the weekenders have all the sites. They’re in the hills across from us making all sorts of noisy moos right now. We won. We pitched our tent again.
Ok shit. They came back. I had to give em some “Heya… Git!” And some hand claps. Got them turned away again. This is what victory looks like.
Starting the Big Sky Alternate
So we’re going to do it. We are taking the Big Sky cut off and heading straight for Yellowstone. We are not sure if we are going in via Mammoth or West Yellowstone, but we are pretty sure we have a route through Grand Teton National Park! We will figure out how to reconnect with the CDT south of the Tetons but before the Winds. This is exciting as f***!! Above (in red) is the first part of our route on the way to Big Sky.
We Found Some Hikers in Helena
We ran into Dragon Sky, Lavender, and Jenga downtown and Helena!
Shoes v3.0
Somewhere around 1,000 miles and counting.