Butte, MT

It seems every SoBo hiker was in town! We had breakfast at the Quarry again, packed up, and Naomi drove us to MacDonald Pass. Boone and Mousa appeared, with Jessie no longer hiking, so we hiked with them for a little bit before they left us in their dust. We did catch them again, since they took a wrong trail in a meadow. We hiked a little bit then stopped for a break, where Dan and Anna caught up to us (though they left town before we did). It seems they too got lost. They left to catch the rest of Team 3D and Boone and Mousa left us in the dust again. The trail followed dirt roads along the county lines of Lewis & Clark and Powell. We took an alternate routh south following Sally Ann Creek, which eventually joined back up with the official route. We took a break by a creek, when Team 3D and Joker came up, so we walked with them until they got ahead as we climbed Bisou Mt. We got lapped again by Boone and Mousa. The area had new trial built with switchbacks, but everyone took the old route FS1801 straight up the mountain, except for RT. Once at the top of the climb, Mike, DP and I waited for RT, the set out for our final destination, a little meadow by Little Blackfoot River.

There was a lot of condensation on the tent and it was cold! We followed an alternate route until we came to a junction with the official route past the county lines. We skirted the SE side of Electric Peak, after running into Jack (Found) and Lost. They easily left us in their dust, so we meandered on easy tread, coming upon the ruins of Leadville, an old gold mining camp. We passed the ruins, climbed an unnamed hill, descended upon a herd of cattle, who kept running away in the same direction we were going. We descended to Cold Spring, where we unbelievably caught up to Team 3D and Lost and Found. We all hiked together past a couple of cowboys herding cattle, up and around Blizzard Hill towards Champion Pass. We passed the the Four Corners, where the Anaconda Route began. We followed the jeep road along Fork River, past South Fork Boulder River and all twelve of us camped near a creek near Kit Carson Gulch.

We all headed down the dirt road, heading towards Highway 15. We stayed on jeep roads for most of the way staying right on top of the Divide. We made our way towards Lowland Campground, took a break by the side of the road, took the turn here and followed a major dirt road all the way to the highway. Naomi met us here, with beer and soda for everyone (awesome!) Boone and Mousa got dropped off by a taxi from town, and they came over to say hi. Fourteen SoBo thru-hikers in one place, on trail, on the CDT. Has that ever happened before? Mike, RT, DP and I went into town with Naomi, so we said goodbye and got a room at the Super 8 in Butte, MT. We watched the game (Netherlands-Uruguay, 3-2) had lunch at the Montana Club, resupplied at Wal-Mart, then sat back watching bad movies and ordered a pizza for dinner.

SLACK PACK! We ate our continental breakfast, went to Subway to pack out sandwiches, then got dropped off where we were picked up. We walked on more dirt roads through farmland. The air was crisp and cool. We got to the SW side of Bakers Meadows, found nice new trail, then headed up. The climb would have been very steep, bu the new switchbacks (and lack of full packs) helped a lot. Once we reached the top, the trail was cruisin', but there were a lot of mosquitos (mozzies). We took a break on the boardwalk of Halfway Park, and were excited by the prospect of finishing the slack early. We got up, with easy tread until we hit a jeep road. This we took heading towards Delmoe Lake. At some point, we had to bushwhack our way down to the lake, finding a very faint path along International Creek. This area reminded me of the Mahoosuc Notch on the AT. We got to a road the followed the edge of the lake until we got the Delmoe Lake Road. This we followed all the way to the Interstate; it was hot, slow and boring. Naomi drove up the last three miles or so, gave us some cold drinks, took our packs, and we slogged out the last few miles. We got to Butte, showered then watched the replay of Spain-Germany (Spain 1-0). We had dinner at the Club again, got last minute supplies at Wal-Mart, then went to bed. Not as easy a day as we thought!