Leadore!

Day 111

Date: 20.08.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 2'236.4

Miles hiked: 22.3 miles / 35.7 km

Elevations: 4'078 feet ascent (1'243.8 m Aufstieg) / 5'486 feet descent (Abstieg 1'673.2 m)

Camping at: Leadore, Idaho

Today is town day! We are all excited to reach Leadore today. It's 22 miles to go and we hope to reach Bannock Pass in the early evening.

No Grizzly visited our camp last night, and our foodbag are all still hanging nicely. We get up as usual, at 5.45am. It's pitchdark outside and I need my headlight for the first 15 minutes getting up. That's the first time I do need my headlight, but I guess this will soon become the standard. I don't know if the dark makes us getting ready faster, but the last two days we hiked out 10 minutes earlier than before. And today we even were back on trail by 6.30am. Again we hike out to a beautiful sunrise, over the rolling hills, steep ups and downs followed by more ups and downs! The first and last water source for today is in 11 miles. In the middle of a long and steep uphill climb to Elk Mountain. We stop at the cattle trough with a water pipe to enjoy a break from the uphill and to eat an early lunch. At noon we hike the second half of the climb and on top of Elk Mountain, where we have service, Captain calls Randy, a guy who offers shuttles from Bannock Pass via Highway 29 down to Leadore. Highway 29 is a dirt road without much traffic. Having Randy picking us up is wonderful. However, we are still 10 miles away from Bannock pass, it is 1pm and wed agree to meet at 5pm. 4 hrs for 10 miles should be enough time. Also Mountain Goat is joining us. We also call the only Hotel in town to make a reservation, as the Hotel only has 4 rooms!

Then we quickly hike on. It's more downhill in the afternoon, offering beautiful views. But I did underestimate those 10 miles. Sometimes the trail lead over rocks and the downhills were very steep. We were lucky with the weather. It was cloudy and once leaving the forest behind us there was no shade anymore, but the clouds and some wind made it enjoyable to hike. However, my legs and feet really started to hurt. Being ahead I took a 10 minutes break to wait for the group. But that was all the breaks we did. Otherwise we hiked the 10 miles straight through. Also I couldn't wait for food and my mind had all and of ideas what I could eat! And they have milkshakes, my favorite town food! I am so lucking forward to a milkshake! Cheetah and I reached Bannock Pass finally at 4.30pm, just as Randy turned up with the same load of hikers we have met when getting the shuttle into Lima. I van hardly move anymore. At 4.45 all of us reached Bannock Pass and Randy drive us to Leadore. Leadore is super small, with a population of about 100. But everyone is super friendly and the hotel is very cute. As the restaurant closes at 6pm, we just drop our gear at the hotelroom and walk 100 feet to the only restaurant in town. Everything is very close by, the pereol station with the grocery store and the post office are just opposite of the restaurant. Asking for milkshakes they run out of ice cream! Oh no, I was so looking forward to that treat. But all the thru hikers passing trough here the last couple of days have eaten all the ice cream, and they will only get new ice cream on Tuesday, when we are back on trail😪 I order mozzarella sticks, a burger with toads, a rhubarb caramel pie for desert and a glass of Chardonnay. Food was very yummy. And the owner of the restaurants refills my glass of wine with all what was left in the bottle, till the top of the big wine glass! If I don' drink it they have to throw it away. Oh well then, I guess I will have to drink it. Being full and a little tipsy I could just fall asleep on the ground. I am super tired. But just when we wanted to leave a big thunderstorm with heavy rain rolls in. As the restaurant closes, but the bar next door is still open (one can walk from the restaurant to the bar without going outside), we are having another drink to wait out the rain. Around 9pm the rain stopped and we headed back to our hotelroom, taking a shower and doing laundry in the meantime, before we go to bed. I am glad we were in town and not back up on trail during these storms!

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