Tuesday, July 30th

Tuesday, July 30th. Day 42

Today's miles = 18 Total CDT miles = 619.2

I woke up to rain on the tent. I did not get moving until it stopped. Eventually I got up and made my coffee and packed my things. While eating breakfast I broke my tooth. A quarter of my tooth (no exaggeration) broke off. I had to cut my breakfast short and all my snack breaks today were quite painful. The trail this morning was uphill but after a while it became more favorable. There was a spot today where I could see the car trail going STRAIGHT up a mountain. I started to get frusterated but accepted the fact that I had no choice but to climb it. Right as we came to the climb I saw a trail on the left side of the mountain. Could the CDT actually go around a mountain instead of up it?? Baboon spoke up and said that he "thinks this is the first time the CDT has actually been favorable". I throughly enjoyed going around the mountain today, especially on a town day.

The rest of the hike was kind of a blur. I went into a daydream to push out the last miles. I remember it being hot and sunny and desert like. I hiked the 18 miles and got to the pass around 2:15. Panama and Frankin Feet were still there trying to hitch a ride into town. The road to Leadore was a dirt road. There was NO traffic on the road. We were told that we could call the fiancée of the owner of the general store in Leadore and he would pick us up from the pass for 15 dollars a person!! Panama and Frankin Feet were going to call but no one had service. So, we had to wait. As with my luck I didn't have to wait long until a truck came down an even less traveled side road stocked to the brim with logs. Attached to his truck he had a open trailer with an ATV strapped in. There was about two feet of room between the ATV and the back rack of the trailer and that is where Panama, Frankin Feet, Baboon, two dogs, and I sat during the 15 miles dirt road hitch. It was a dusty ride.

Once we got to town we sat at a picnic table next to the general store. I ordered a pizza (Montana and Idaho have no idea what actual pizza is suppose to be like I have decided) and set up my tent in the grassy area next to the store. The owner of the store lets hikers camp from free in the grass because she knows she will make so much money off of us. There is nowhere else to spend money in Leadore. Its that small. There is the store, a post office, and a bar (which has no real hours and opens and closes whenever). The old brothel is now a private residence and was by the general store. Perhaps there would have been more entertainment in the town if it were still open. I got my entertainment by eating and watching the pups play in the grass. They were happy to be in town as well.

I didn't do much tonight besides eat..very slowly because of my bum tooth. The store closes at 6pm so for dinner we went to the bar. There was no one else there. There was no one in sight anywhere in town. There were no cars on the road. The town had completely shut down at 6pm. The bartender at the bar was, I'm assuming, the owners daughter and didn't think she needed to be at all friendly. It was an interesting evening. The town was so dead I felt I could have set my tent up right in the middle of the street and would not have been bothered until the morning.