Lima, MT

Had breakfast at the cafe, then got a ride from the inn owner. As we pulled up to the pass, we saw Team 3D and Lost & Found (no Joker though...). We climbed the Divide following a fence line. We passed Deadman Pass summited Horse Prairie and contoured down to a spring in the woods. There we met Marianne and Steve, who were working for the owners of a nearby ranch. They were checking the cattle on horseback with three of their dogs. We climbed more up a ridge, just as the rain and wind picked up. We kept going, but noticed our hair was standing on end and thunder and lightning was bearing down on us. We hid in some trees and waited out that storm. Once we felt it was safe, we pushed on hoping to get off the ridge before the next storm. A huge double rainbow covered the sky. We finally made it to Morrison Lake where we made camp.

I heard a coyote or wolf howl early in the morning, followed by the baleful moo of a cow. We left camp and there was a herd of cattle right next to the lake. They were staring at us as we went by. Creepy! We were getting bombarded by mozzies. We took a look at our atlas page, and saw a major cutoff to Bannack Pass through BLM land. We decided to do this so we could make it easily to Lima on Saturday (as well as escaping the bugs). We took a ridge down towards Simpson Creek, contoured around a ridge to Crystal Creek, found ATV tracks, followed them through a herd of sheep and lambs, then onto a jeep trail. A man, his boy, and their dogs caught us on a break, and we were informed that we were on private land and the owners "wouldn't be happy" if they knew we were there. We explained our mistake and he thought it would be okay as long as we stayed on the road. We took Meadow Creek Road to Bannack Pass Road where we grabbed nasty water and had a break. We pushed all the way to the pass, but were quickly running out of water as all the springs were dry. A couple on ATVs came up, and wondered what we were doing. We told them and they gave us some ice cold bottled water! We thanked them and moved on. We were able to find a water tank and filled up, only the water tasted like cow. We climbed more, came to a limestone quarry where there was a mine shaft filled with animal bones and a rotting carcass of a deer(?). We pushed until we got to Buffalo Spring and seeing that we did 40 trail miles, decided to stop on the saddle above the spring. This would make getting to Lima much easier.

We wound our way in and out of forest and meadow. We passed cows and mule deer, Garfield Mountain and the Red Conglomerate Peaks, down a ridge to Sawmill Creek. Here, we couldn't quite follow the trail exactly, as a herd of cows had demolished the area, even defiled most of the creeks. We headed toward Shineberger Creek, where we had to climb a major ridge to get to the divide, so we cameled up and picked the easterly ridge from the west fork of the river. Now started the hellacious roller coaster. Before we got started we met our first NoBo, Cruisin', we chatted a bit then climbed on up. Seeing a post on the next hill, I decided to contour to it, but I was mistaken and had to climb back the way I had come. Grrrr! We breaked as soon as we got to the top and saw two more NoBos Ishmael and Hiko. We talked to them for a while and then really started the roller coaster. It was brutal. We did pass a herd of domestic sheep and the shepard, but he didn't speak any English. We pushed on until we finally came to a "junction" where we could to drop down to Modoc River. We carefully made our way down, though DP fell hard on his hip. We eventually came to a four wheel drive road and looking down found two "atomic fireballs". Trail Magic! We followed the road until after sunset and made camp at the first available spot. It's cold here.

We followed the road to Monida and were passed by someone who offered a ride to Lima. We declined, since we must connect our footsteps! we crossed Interstate 15, then walked North to Monida, hoping for cell reception to call for a ride. We had no reception and the payphone had been removed and no one was friendly or helpful. We thought that we would need to hitch, when an older couple pulled up and said they would deliver a message to the motel for us. So we waited, throwing rocks at a fence post for entertainment. Our ride appeared and we were taken to Mountain View Motel in Lima, where we had thankfully made a reservation. We had lunch at Jan's Cafe then showered and laundered clothes. We met Greg and Deia, two people who had hiked the length of South America and knew our friend Coyote. Small world! We all had dinner at a steak house where you could grill your own steak, then DP and I went to Jan's before it closed for a piece of pie, then retired to our room for some R&R.