St. Ignatius to Lincoln, MT
[Note: see my YouTube playlist for the latest videos, starting with June 12th]
Hi all! I’m taking a zero day (no hiking, thus zero miles) and doing a quick update from the wonderful public library in Lincoln, Montana. No Unabomber artifacts in site.
This stretch of the hike has been fairly challenging as the route choices through the Rockies (to meander up and over the Continental Divide) are limited. Whereas in Washington and Idaho I rarely had to walk highways, my recent days have been exclusively hiking along a couple of Montana roadways with narrow shoulders and cars, trucks and RVs towing other large toys, flying by me very closely. The posted speed is 70, but many exceed that and put a good scare into me when they whoosh past. Luckily, this will only continue until Great Falls, Montana, after which I’ll be able to fall back mostly to country roads, local streets, trails, etc.
Similarly, whereas I had mostly great weather through Washington and Idaho, things have been colder here in Montana and in fact, the miles I hiked yesterday were covered last night by snow. Down in lower elevation in Lincoln, it rained all night and was 34f degrees this morning. It’s now midday and a relatively balmy 50f degrees. Rather than hike in the cold rain and wind, I’m taking a break today (Monday 6/17) and tomorrow (Tuesday 6/18) and will resume hiking east again on Wednesday from the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) Roger’s Pass trailhead. Hopefully much of the new snow will be gone by then.
In the “it’s the simple things that mean so much” category, the tiny screw holding the right ear bow of my glasses in place came loose and not having my eye glass repair kit with me I was worried I’d have to wing it until I got to Great Falls, but to my great relief, the little grocer in town here had a little fix-it set, and between that and a simple YouTube video on how to replace a hinge screw and I’m back in business with glasses that feel good as new!
Thanks again for following along on this hike. This time around- possibly because it’s so much more of a solo effort than hiking on the well-traveled Triple Crown trails- the comments and well-wishes have meant a lot to me. Happy trails to you and I’ll update again soon, hopefully from Great Falls. All the best, Max
