Days 21-25: Helena to Anaconda

HD: We planned 4 days for this stretch, but motivated by the promise of a surprise zero day, we averaged 26 miles and made it into Anaconda a day early. It made the days long and more difficult, but the steak dinner we had last night (thank you Uncle Robert!) followed by the giant sandwich and wings lunch (thanks Abby!), made it all worth it. This stretch involved two longer road walks; one leading out of Helena (due to a CDT trail closure for maintenance), and one leading into the sweet town of Anaconda. Road walks are a mixed bag for us; we can travel faster (3mph on average, compared to 2.5-ish mph on trail – may not sound like much, but it means about 3 hours less hiking for a given day) but the walking is pretty boring and it can really hurt your feet. The mountain ranges that we traverse are slowly increasing in elevation – we were consistently above 8000’ in the mountains south of Helena before dropping down into the warmer Anaconda valley (4,500’ and 90 degrees). This stretch was a transition between the first three weeks and the next 3; we’ve headed generally south since Glacier NP, now we are headed west as the CDT makes a big “C” as it follows the Continental Divide along the Montana/Idaho border. Anaconda is at the top of the “C”, and Yellowstone National Park is at the bottom. The towns that we will resupply at over the next few weeks (Darby, MT; Leadore, ID; Lima, MT) are much smaller than the almost cosmopolitan feel of Helena and this neat town of Anaconda, and we will use resupply boxes sent in advance by Mamallama (my mom) instead of grocery stores and local outfitters. We’ll spend these next 5 days in the Anaconda mountain range, oriented Northeast/Southwest instead of the usual North/South. We’ll spend a fair amount of time between 8,500’ and 9500’, with some significant daily elevation gains. And so it is. On to Darby!

MC: Hannon and I had a chance to take a double zero in Helena, and on the second day we decided to go see a movie. Kevin Costner’s new movie Horizon was showing at the local theater, so that was an easy decision for us, as a  significant amount of the movie takes place in the states we are traveling through. Luke Wilson is in the movie, and his character plays the crowd elected leader of the caravan traveling across the plains of Kansas in search for land and a better life. Luke’s character has a quote in the movie that goes something like this, “We are going 14 hours today, and 14 hours tomorrow, and 14 hours the next day, and 14 hours everyday after that until we reach the finish line!” Luke had to instill some reality into a handful of the folks who were slacking at their jobs in the caravan. This quote perfectly summarizes the next 3 days we spent traveling from Helena to Anaconda, as we literally walked for 14 hours each day in order to get to Anaconda a day early and have an unplanned zero day in the town.

The walk on the last day was spent in the heat, and I can only be described as a “little bitch” when the weather gets above 90. But alas, there I was, with only pavement in front of me and hot water in my water bottle to keep me company for the remaining 6 of 25 total miles for the day, and nothing I could do to improve the current situation except walk. As we inched closer to Anaconda, the glorious neon lights of the first gas station we had seen in Montana appeared in the distance. It was far, but it was there. When you’re walking on flat ground, buildings and objects in the distance can play tricks on your mind, making you think they’re closer than they appear, but I knew better. That gas station had to be 2 miles away. Sounds close, right? No. That equates to 40 minutes away by foot. Slowly the signs got closer and legible, and eventually we walked inside and immediately purchased a huckleberry slushie, which was inhaled with great speed. Delicious. Our hotel was across the road, so we played frogger with the cars, checked in early, and finally relaxed. Dinner was fabulous, but the bed was best, we slept for 11 hours that night.