After these last 5 days of very hard trail, we decided to get up extra early and hike the remaining 20 miles to the road so we could get into Helena early.
We woke up at 4:30am and on trail about 5:15am. Crosby left his hiking poles back at the spring so he headed back to get those while Heather and I went on down the trail.
We took a shorter alternate to the road. It saved a couple miles, and actually was mostly dirt roads. It went along where a lot of cattle were grazing. Some cows were blocking the road so we had to go off the road a bit sometimes.
We caught up with another hiker we'd been leap frogging lately and it turns out he hurt his foot stepping over a downed tree. He was going to get it checked out in Helena.
We passed a really cool old train trestle. There were full grown trees all through it so it had to have been super old.
The first 14 miles were pretty flat. But we hit a major climb that went over this mountain and then back down to the highway. We were wishing that the CDT just went AROUND the mountain, not directly over it, but oh well.
We got to the highway around 12:15. Three hikers ahead of us had just flagged down a ride and the driver told us to join them. So we didn't even have to wait to find a ride. I rode in the back of the pickup with 2 other guys while Heather and another girl rode in the cab with the driver and his dog.
We checked into our hotel, took a shower, and immediately took a nap.
We woke up and headed to a restaurant, and ate and drank the rest of the night.
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