Countdown continuoes, 21 days to go!

Day 123

Date: 01.09.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 2'456.6

Miles hiked: 10.5 miles / 16.8 km

Elevation: 5'259 feet ascent (1'604 m Aufstieg) / 7'700 feet descent (Abstieg 2'348.5 m)

Camping at:

We slept in this morning. As our bunkbed room had no windows, and also the Hostel didn't had many guest, it was easy to sleep in. After a shower and a coffee I felt much better and I am suddenly super hungry. Together with Stallion and Soccermum we go to the same breakfast place as we went to yesterday, and again I order the chicken-fried steak, with two eggs, toast and hash browns. I finished the full plate! Also 'Almost' and 'Meatpaws', who just hiked in, joined us. Shortly before leaving the restaurant, my group hikes in - Captain, Cheetah and Mouse. They hitched in this morning. Captain had some tough trail days, as he thinks he got Giardia, couldn't eat and obviously had to go to the toilet many times. He is feeling better now, but that must have been an aweful experience, specially if you are on trail and not in a town. The group will stay in town today and hike out tomorrow, while Soccermum and I will hike out this afternoon.

It is the first of September today. So we have 21 days left to reach the canadian boarder, and only about 420 miles to go. That is definitely doable. It's not long anymore. While wishing many times that I would be close to finish the trail, I now want to enjoy each single day I still have left on trail. Suddenly, it will go very fast and the day I reach the boarder is here in no time. And this special and amazing time on trail will soon be past. But I am also looking forward to more comfort, healing my body, no pain and easier living again.

On our way out of Anaconda we stop at the supermarket for resupply and at Mc Donald's next door to carry out burgers for dinner tonight. I will hitch the 10 miles along the interstate to the trailhead, while Soccermum will hike it. My hips and upper leg muscle are still quite painful and hiking along an interstate, in the brutal sun with no shade, on pavement with no elevation, will not be the best for my body. I rather save this energy for the trail. So I take some heavy items from Soccermums backpack and stick out my thumb. For about 10 minutes no car stops. My arm already started to become heavy, holding it up non-stop! But then luckily the smallest car, a sport car with only two seats, stops and offers me ride. I barley manage to get in that low sports car with my backpack and all the gear, but as a thru hiker you learn that nothing is impossible and we can ALWAYS make it, no matter how small the car is or how many people need to fit in it🤣 It is a police man from Missouri, so I feel very safe on that hitch. As his parents are from mexico, we can speak spanish and immediately get on very well. It's only a 10 minutes drive and then I am back on trail again. I hike for 1 mile on a dirt road, till I find some shade next to the road. Here I wait for Soccermum for a couple of hours, chatting with 'Shutterbox' who is currency hiking Southbound and 'Bumerang', a german hiker hiking all three long distance trails in one calendar year! Once Soccermum hikes in we eat our burgers and throw the trash away (there is a trash can here!😁). While getting ready to hit the trail again, Soccermum accidentally hit the bear spray, and got sprayed on. Luckily we didn't get anything in our eyes, and it was just a very small spray, but it was definitely enough. His arm turns red and itchy immediately. He washes his hiking shirt in the river, but shortly after we hiked out, his back is burning too. We are super luckily as in two miles there is a modern cowboy who lets hikers camp at his property. We are able to get soap, wash our body's and shirts to get the oil off and as it is quite late already, we take his offer and camp right here too. We enjoy a beautiful sunset, sipping on the carried out wine and cowboy camp under the stars.

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