I worked super hard the last few days to make it possible to get to town to pick up my new socks. Now I just needed to bring it all the way into town. I had 16 miles with over 4000 feet of climbing so I left at 5 am to make sure I could hit the post office at 12:30. Some other hikers camped with me left at 3:30.
Hiking in the dark can be a little scary sometimes but it’s generally pretty nice. The only animal I saw was a deer and it’s glowing eyes were a little startling.
When I got to the highway I was offered a ride halfway into town. I figured there would be more traffic down off the pass so I took the ride. The guy then decided to just take me all the way to the post office. He was on his way fishing and hoped the good karma would help him get a fish.
Darby Montana is a small town that seems to be kinda booming. The TV show Yellowstone is filmed nearby an it has brought a lot of new business to the town.
Like usual the first thing I did was eat, then go to the post office to get my socks. There was a long line of hikers waiting when the post office opened. I met up with some other hikers and we got a hotel room to share.
This weekend was also the Darby Rodeo. Lots of towns along the trail have had rodeos and we always plan on going but something comes up and we don’t. Tonight we actually went!
We got there pretty late and nobody was at the ticket booths so we were able to walk in for free.
It was a really fun night with a lot of fun people.