I confirmed that the tents I camped with contained the people I thought they did right after I woke up. I was a little slower getting ready than them so I spent part of the morning hiking alone.
I had a small bit of cell phone service so I published my blog and had my final pair of shoes sent to East Glacier.
I spent the day hiking with Raider, Pitch, and Icarus. It was almost all pine forest and the hiking was pretty easy so before we knew it, it was time for lunch and we had hiked about 18 miles.
Raider has a rule that he only hiked 12 hours a day. 6 am to 6 pm. I typically hike about 14 hours a day so stopping at 6 was much earlier than I was used to. We still managed to do about 32 miles, so I feel like we still made great progress. It’s nice to have a little extra time to enjoy the evening too.
I actually considered hiking on but these guys are all going in to Helena tomorrow and I’m skipping it and going another 60 miles before resupplying. This could be my last chance to hang out with them.
The trail has a way of connecting people over and over, but the closer you get to the end the harder those reconnections become. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately as I get closer to the end.
I made some great connections on the PCT, but out here I feel like the connections have been more important. There are less people and the trail is more brutal so the shared suffering makes everyone fast friends.
I’ve really enjoyed the last week or so where I’ve had lots of people to hike with but I’m excited to be on my own again.