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.
