Big Sky Alt. Pros and cons

It has been a while since I wrote a publication about my stories of trails and events.

Honestly, the last two weeks have been a roller, literally and metaphorically. He has been quite exhausting trying to write stories at the end of each day and, frankly, when I had time to catch up, I have chosen to rest or update with family and friends. Even more frankness, there were several days in recent weeks that I wanted to quit smoking. Without wasting too much time for those who want to know more about the Big Sky Alt. While I still speak honestly about the last two weeks, I will share some The highlight and the low lights of days 13-28 and expand some stories in publications in the future. But if you are only here for the alternative information of Big Sky, move beyond this first section.

Days 13-28

The last time I stayed in Augusta, where I attended my first rodeo. Initially he had accepted that a double zero could happen to see friends who were behind and see the rodeo. However, things worked the best. There was a zero, although there was also a terrible dream due to the activities after the parade until 2 in the morning, and I could still see friends and the rodeo and take out the city for a Nero. It is surprising how high horses can jump and make money and the rope is a true art.

After leaving Augusta, they were 2 full days of walking to reach a yurt on the outskirts of Lincoln. I had a fool moment when I did something that I always told myself that I would never do: trust a wet record. I was crossing a small stream when I stepped on a humid trunk and 3 seconds later I was on my back in the middle of the stream. Fortunately, my package coat was intact and my team remained dry. The second day arriving at the Yurt was one of the most beautiful days on the road. It was a high crest walking along peaks exposed with wild flowers and lakes and long water transport on terribly steep climbs. It was a very challenging day, for saying at least, but it was absolutely beautiful. And I arrived at the Yurt with a new memory, hot points in the balls of my two feet.

In La Yurta, one of my friends met with me and spent the next 3 days experiencing the junk life of the hiker. And boy, did everything experience it? We pushed a few days of high mileage and fortunately he could keep up with the rhythm. We had high wind bursts, steep climbs, heat, rain, alpacas, whatever, we saw everything. Actually, it was very nice to have a piece of house on the road with me, and my friend was a good company.

Matcha, Dustin and I

Not in the photo, yurt mice (hang your food bag)

Hamburglar, Plan B, Dustin, Deferred

The highlight of the Lincoln section to Helena was spending a night on the Alpaca farm. I definitely want to write almost the Alpaca farm because it deserves so many praise and much more details to capture the beauty of the place and the people who direct it. But for now, here is a photo of Alpaca.

We finished in Helena on July 4 and saw fireworks from the window of our hotel to zero the next day so that my feet could heal and we could all enjoy the brutal week we had leaving Augusta. We saw the new Jurassic Park movie (which was horrible), we planned our routes through Big Sky and ate so much food. Plan B joined us in Helena and it was good to have his company, as well as the freighter and the matcha. We also celebrated Jugulars’ birthday, which was very sweet because when I asked him what his favorite birthday was, he said it was this birthday since he had been able to talk to his daughter and granddaughter during Facetime that morning. (I cried totally when he said that).

On the right: Yugular and Secret Agent Sally (SAS)

It was 2 days from Helena to Butte, but that is because we got a good distance around the closing of the fire to the south of Helena and then made an alternative route for us the second day around a long section of blows south of Thunderbolt Mountain. It took us to Butte faster and ended in a lake. Unfortunately, this day was the beginning of my disdain towards the road walk and was the first of the few days to continue, which were full of road walks. I also left my tent in a camp somewhere between Helena and Butte, so the cowboy camped for the first time, I saw the world asleep, the moon rose and fell, and I was surprised by the sounds of the nearby calls from Coyote. The next morning, during our hitch in Butte, our type of Ángel Ariel said that the calls were probably from their nearby ranch they play in the speakers to call the coyotes so that they would do them so that the newborn foals do not eat. I was laughing at myself for being awake half of the night waiting to be eaten so I thought they were wild coyotes.

Why change when you can climb?

If I stay well, I feel

I loved swimming, I hated bleeding

While in Butte, the Chinese buffet crossed us, the long lines in the post office, and the jeans promise to take us back to the path (Cowboy is one of the friends of As Hamburgar de Who lives in Butte). We return to the path just before dusk and achieved a total of 3 miles of hyking that day. But we learned the rich story of Butte, which I also hope to share more about one day.

Cowboy selfie

Hitch 2

Hitch 3

It was another 2 days from Butte to Whitehall, where we met our first novoer: extra virgin. We spent the night hanging with him before retiring to the local grass area along a mile of the city. Whitehall was not very remarkable, except for the aggressively powerful sprinklers who sprayed our stores around midnight and the lady who had the kindness of taking us to the beginning of the path when leaving the city, but who also ended up taking 10 miles more east than we had asked. Modern kidnapping with good intention and bad delivery. She cut a hiking day for us, but also a whole day of hiking on the trails, which was severely missing. And it took us 2 more hooks that morning just to approach any path along our planned route. *Palma of the face*

What should have been 2 days ended up being 1 day for Ennis. We met Stitch, in the photo above during Hitch 3, and she helped organize a stay with Trail Angel Margaret that night in Ennis. Margaret was the most wonderful lady who ever existed with so many great stories. But again, that is more information for a later publication.

Trail Angel of the Year

Mirror lake

Leaving Ennis was 2 more beautiful days after the High Lakes route, which I strongly recommend. It was swampy and I got lost for 15 minutes, the 15 more scary minutes of my life, but the opinions were what I dreamed that the CDT was treated. I am sad to walk so fast through the beauty of Lee Metcalf Wilderness. However, finally entering Big Sky and knowing that a return to the CDT was so close to him.

And this is where I leave to return to longer and detailed publications on each day of adventures! Big Sky alternative, you were beautiful and strange, but I was walking again if I could!

Before someone comes after me for cutting a few hundred miles from the CDT, let me defend me. Upon entering this walk, I knew that my timeline would be short. In search of seeing the best parts of the path and improving my maps reading skills, I chose to take the Big Sky alternative. Trust me, the old purist in me has shouted and belittled almost daily since I left the red line, but the experiences that I have had throughout this route have shown me that I have made the right decision.

Pros

• Save time
  • Cutting a few hundred trail miles may not be the purist form, but reaching Colorado before snow was my priority and seeing the most prominent aspects of the path instead of forming a singular path. Hyoh, you know!
• You can have control of what routes to take
  • Route planning is a blessing and a curse. Learning to read topographic maps and creating routes was a skill that I wanted to learn by deciding to walk the CDT and take the Big Sky Alt. It allowed me to do that.
• Platinum
  • The distance between each city from Helena to West Yellowstone makes the food shorter and more convenient (obviously depending on how many miles he walks every day). For me, I only needed 1-3 days of food between each city and felt like a Path princess to keep so many friends/trail angels and in cities so often

Cons

• Road walks
  • Connecting trails was not difficult to use mapping applications (I used Gaia), but many «trails» on the map ended up being OHV paths and other trails were still so separate that many kilometers of road walking were required to connect them. The road of the road broken down the morality quickly, especially when it is done during the heat of the noon.
• Route planning
  • Planning routes can be arduous and stressful. It is not for everyone. Finding places to camp without the ease of icons such as Farout can exert additional pressure at the end of each day.
• Cutting Idaho
  • Unfortunately, my greatest scam to take the Big Sky Alternate has been cutting Idaho. I heard and have seen photos of everything that I lack along the red line through southern Montana and Idaho and the Fomo is real.

My alternative Big Sky route:

Take this route with a salt grain. He satisfied all my needs and wishes for this section of the path and may not meet his. I suggest taking low routes in cases of bad weather (even if that means more walking by road), as well as getting hooked on long walks when you can (because we are all here for the paths anyway). Make his route of his and have fun with her. Taking the route of finding too seriously can become stressful very easily, it definitely stresses me during the planning phase. If I could do it again, I would not change my route, but would address the planning differently and would be more flexible with the plans.

BUTTE:

– Follow the CDT east 15 until it is divided with the Nez Perce path and breaks east throughout Nez Perce.

– Nez Perce to half of the CR. 222/Delmoe Lake RD

– Follow Delmoe Lake RD under highway 90 until you become Pipestone RD.

– Walk on the road to the east to Whitehall

From Whitehall:

– We planned to start more west than the next bullet, but our hitch brought us too much to the east. There are several options for trails between the city of Whitehall and Boulder Creek Road.

– We get hooked from Whitehall to the end of Boulder Creek Road through Mammoth, where it connects with the Nicholson Mine Trail (7154).

– EMPLOEMENT TO THE PASS (It is not noted on the map, but if the road follows, it connects on the pass and on the other side)

– Follow South Willow Creek Spur a Willow Meadow RD a North Meadow Creek RD in Ennis. (Once the Upper Sureshot lake passes, there are scattered camp sites to the south along the dirt road. But if it goes too far, it will run out of places of legal camp)

Of Ennis:

– That

– Bushwhack on the red knob or remain the path around the north side of the peak and connect to the High Lakes path to South Fork Spanish Creek (there is a short section of swampy area where the path disappears and it may be useful to keep its map open to maintain the course)

– Ascent South Fork Spanish Creek to Mirror Lake and connect with Bear Basin Trail on the pass

– Follow Bear Basin Trail towards Big Sky

Again, it connects the paths that are more attractive to you and recognize that the paths mentioned above are not all comprehensive!