Thursday, July 25th

Thursday, July 25th. Day 37

Today's miles = 17.5 Total CDT miles = 529.2

Baboon and I left the motel at around 10:30. We got a hitch after about 30 minutes from a recovered drug addict who was recently divorced and traveling around Montana out of his car looking for work. He was also listening to Christian sermons on tape in the car. At first I didn't know what to make of him but after the 30 mile hitch my opinion of him was kind of high. He had the softest disposition and a very kind heart. He was just trying to stay clean and make money to send home to his kids.

By the time we got to the pass it was almost noon. We had to road walk on the highway for a while to get back to the trail. The trail followed a beat up old and narrow car trail for a while before turning into a trail again. Upon the trail resuming I saw a sign that read, "Closed, fire hazard". Next to it was another sign explaining the closure. It was dated for July of last year. It was either a typo or really from last year. I figured it couldn't be a typo as it said that date on two different spots on the paper and decided to just continue hiking. A few miles in I saw fire equipment on the side of the trail. This is when I began to think maybe the trail was really closed due to a fire. The closure was only for a ten mile section of trail and I was almost though it so I thought it best to continue on. I don't think the closure was for this year despite all the smoke I saw and smelled. The smoke seemed to be really far away and parts of the trail had looked like they had been burned already; perhaps last year.

I hiked later tonight than I normally do. I actually had to use my headlamp for the hike before I got to camp. I camped at a pass on the side of a car trail. It was a decent spot. There was a fire pit and wooded logs for seating. Also, there was a piped spring only 100 or so yards down the hill.