There’s always extra motivation to wake up on a town day and that’s good because it was really cold this morning. I ended up hiking in my puffy jacket for a few hours, which I haven’t done since spring in Colorado. Kinda surprising since it got so hot out as soon as the sun came over the mountains.
Most of the morning was spent walking on a two lane highway or a dirt road that paralleled it. Apparently the town of Anaconda is working to get a better route into town for hikers. Pretty cool since it’s not even technically on the trail.
I passed my time by handling some real non hiker life chores. We’re selling our cabin in Michigan and I needed to print, sign, notarize, and ship some documents. Not easy to do in a small town.
I started calling around and found a print shop, bank that notarized, and a shipping place/gift shop. They were all over town, but at least it would be possible. I booked a room at the new hiker hostel in town and it turned out they had a printer that I could use from my phone. Sweet!
Next I walked to the bank to sign and notarize the papers. I stopped at the Dairy Queen along the way when I saw a couple other hikers there. When I got to the bank I apologized for my smell and general dishevelment and the notary asked me a bit about the trail. Unfortunately she can only provide notary services for account holders and I would need to “live, work, or worship” in the area. Short of joining a local church, I was kinda screwed. She suggested the courthouse.
I called the courthouse and they don’t have notary services but the lady suggested the local car dealership. I called them up and it turns out they can actually help me! Too bad it was on the other side of town. I stopped at the hostel and borrowed one of their bikes and headed over. For the three documents I needed notarized the woman told me it would be $25, cash only. I had $23… Thankfully she was okay with that and I didn’t have to go find an ATM.
With all that sorted I got back on the bike and headed to the gift shop to overnight the documents. Finally I could relax. I did some laundry and took a shower. About 20 other hikers were here tonight and we went to a local bar for steak night. Any steak for $14. After that we went to another bar and I got the biggest piece of cake I’ve ever seen.
I finished it no problem. After some more hanging out we headed back to the hostel and I called Meghan. It was nice to have some time to talk to her again before I start what could be a long section without much communication.
You can tell hikers are in town because everyone took their smelly shoes out of the room.
I’m less than 500 miles from Canada. Lots of people are taking breaks and slowing down but I’m gonna keep pushing. It’s not long now!