ENTERING IDAHO
CDT Day 83: 10 miles – 16 km
CDT Mile 624.9 – 635.0
Monday July 8, 2019
We were a little bit more organised this time in town. All our chores were done last night after getting into Darby. So this morning we could have a more leisurely start to getting back on trail. Having a little kitchen in our cabin was such a treat. Such a simple pleasure to take our time over breakfast and have a slow start to the day. We met another hiker staying at the Travellers Rest. It was Paye, he is an aircraft mechanic from the Czech Republic.
We had a late checkout and were on our way around 12. Apart from our grocery shop last night I had not seen much of the town. So it was nice to walk through to the other end of town to hitch back to the trailhead. The town is small and really quaint with timber shop fronts. There were a few nice looking coffee shops.
We had just started to hitch when Paye also turned up. He went a couple hundred yards up the road from us. A car passed by us and stopped for him.
Pretty soon a Subaru drove past us and stopped up the road, turned back and pulled up alongside us.
We got a ride with Kerry and Preston. They said they drove past, thought about it and came back to have another look make sure we looked OK before offering us a ride. They were from Billings, Montana and live part of the year in Hawaii. Both are keen hikers and have a holiday house near Darby where they just spent the weekend. Such nice people, it would have been good to have more time with them to learn more about the local area. They dropped us off right at the trail crossing. We said goodbye and reluctantly put on our super heavy packs.
The first couple of miles were on a logging road. We were in great spirits, partly due to the great conversation and laughs with Kerry and Preston. We were soon joined by Paye who was dropped off a little bit further back. It was great to have company especially for Hammer who loves a chat. We were hiking on undulating trail through partly logged forest.
Paye stopped to have lunch and we kept hiking. The trail diverted off the logging road and we hiked on single file trail which went up and over several ridgetops. We had terrific views of distant peaky mountains. I wondered if the trail would lead us towards them.
Hammer said something quite curious as we were hiking uphill…he said ‘this trail is finally growing on me, ever since Glacier National Park’. I would have to agree…breathtaking scenery and warmer weather.
Paye caught up to us just before we reached our campsite. Unfortunately the rain also caught up to us. It was raining as we sat up the tent. But same as yesterday the rain did not last. We are camped with Paye and Hammer is enjoying a fireside chat while I finish off this post. It’s nice to stop early.
