We arrived at Butte fairly late and dropped off the car at the airport. Surprised at how many times we’ve been there.
Uber picked us up and took us to the trail head.
We did four and a half miles in an hour and a half.
The CDT and the Nez Pierce trail overlap for a while.
At 9:30 pm we were set up for the night.
Then on Happy6’s birthday we got up at 6:00 and slept in a little. Then we started.
We finally got to the trail split.
The trail is in great shape and all the blowdowns are cut and cleared. There is a lot of water on trail.
Beautiful Meadows.
Great views.
And then it merges with an OHV track.
Some of it is like a road and some is very rugged.
Eventually it merges with a road.
We were planning on 14-15 miles. We got to there and camping/water too early in the day, so we tried to get to the next stream.
Could not find a good campsite and there was no water. So we kept going.
At 18.8 miles we paid for a spot with a commercial campground. There just wasn’t anything else.
Whitehall tomorrow and resupply.
We will carry four days of food to get 63 miles to the next stop. Eventually our trail legs will be back.
Update. My step counter is undercounting. The trail miles yesterday turned out to be 24 miles and our walk into town was 9.5 by Google but a good deal less by the step counter.
Annoying since it has been reliable. But explains how tired we were.
Our road and road like walking we have been three mph or better.