There were a lot of hikers camped at the lake this morning and a few left just before me. We all had to climb 5 passes this morning to give us an easy downhill day into Anaconda tomorrow. The first climb went quickly and I had caught up with the other hikers at the top of the pass.
We spent most of the morning leapfrogging each other as we climbed up and down the next few passes. At some point I got ahead and didn’t see anyone the rest of the day. For the most part, the passes were easy but I got really sleepy going up one of them. I guess I got too used to caffeinated Mio in the last few sections. I bought the electrolyte kind in the last town.
The last pass went quickly but was mostly in the sun during the heat of the day so it felt extra hard.
I was happy to get to the top but then I realized I had made a mistake with the map. The trail into Anaconda is an alternate route, which doesn’t show on the elevation profile section of the our app. The alternate had a sixth pass!!
Luckily the pass was small and easy, but adding a 500 foot climb to an already massive day of climbing was pretty rough.
Going up those passes had slowed me down and I was still pretty far from town. The trail was pretty hard to follow for awhile and around 7 pm I decided to take a break and cook dinner.
Afterwards I hiked until about 9:30. The trail got much nicer and I was able to go another 5 or 6 miles after dinner. I made it down to the dirt road that leads to the highway I’ll walk into Anaconda.
To my surprise, there was someone at the campsite I chose. They had just arrived and were setting up in the dark just like me. We talked for a minute and then got in our tents. Maybe I’ll see him tomorrow.
Nobody I was camped with last night made it this far. I think some of them may have camped at a trailhead I passed earlier in the day and are going to hitchhike into town.