Day 152: The East Glacier Zero!

September 19: Today would be my first zero day since Debois, WY--36 days ago and two states back. For over a month, I've been hiking the CDT without a break. Some days were shorter than others, but every single day required some amount of hiking. My shortest day of hiking in the last 36 days was a little over 8 miles during one of my days in Yellowstone.

But today, I would take a zero day. For a couple of reasons. The main one was wanting to pick up my packages at the post office tomorrow, but perhaps a better reason was that the forecast for today was expected to be terrible. Rain, wind and possibly even snow at higher elevations. Not a great day for hiking, and I was perfectly happy to sit it out. However, after today, the weather forecast called for pretty decent weather the rest of the week. Not to mention that hanging out at the hostel only cost me $15/night--this zero day was very affordable.

All the CDT hikers going through East Glacier signed this page. (PNT hikers coming through also had a small portion in the lower-right corner they could sign, but their numbers are pretty small compared to the number of CDT hikers passing through.

 

I did, however, still have chores to do and the most important of them was getting myself a permit so I could legally hike through Glacier National Park. Just Awesome had a friend he had met on a previous trail, Granite, who had just finished his CDT thru-hike and Granite and Lady Granite planned to catch up with Just Awesome--who also happened to need a permit and arranged things so he could get a ride with them to the permitting office, and further arranged things so I could get a ride as well.

Which meant I needed to wake up early since Granite, Lady Granite and Just Awesome planned to meet up at 7:00am in time to be first in line for permits when the permitting office opened at 8:00am.

Just Awesome introduced me to Granite and Lady Granite, and we hopped in the car and were soon on the way to the backcountry ranger office.

We arrived before they opened, and kicked around waiting. The rain had stopped momentarily, so we waited outside for the doors to open at 8:00am.

There were two rangers to handle the permits, so Just Awesome and I each got our own ranger. Just Awesome wanted to follow the same path and schedule that Granite just completed, but the pace was a bit slower than I preferred so we arranged separate permits.

We both were required to watch a video about backcountry safety and the rules of the trail. I had seen it before--or at least something similar to it two years earlier when I hiked through the park when I started the Pacific Northwest Trail so there wasn't anything new or surprising for me.

That's Just Awesome, watching the video that we were required to watch before we'd be issued our permits.

 

We paid for our permits, then the rangers printed them and handed them over.

I liked my schedule for the most part. It wasn't totally want what I wanted. Tomorrow I'd do a pretty short 11-mile day, but that just meant I could take my time leaving town. And my last full day of hiking would require a long 26-mile stretch. Given how short the days were now, that would be a sunrise-to-sunset hike. I'd have preferred breaking it up into two days, but there weren't any nearby campsites available to do that. I'd live, though.

On the permit, they had written that the itinerary was not recommended--probably because of that 26-mile day. But the rangers knew were were thru-hikers and 26 miles wasn't a bit deal for us. =)

In any case, I officially had my permit, and I now knew the precise day I would finish: Friday--five days away. In five days, I'd reach the Canadian border and call it done. In five days, I could finally go home. Just Awesome, with his slower-paced schedule, would finish a couple of days after I did.

Afterwards, the other three wanted to get breakfast in St. Marys. I wasn't particularly excited about the idea because I had already eaten some cereal before we left East Glacier and wasn't hungry at all--not to mention that the town was in the wrong direction--but I joined along anyhow.

Upon arriving, however, we learned that the restaurant that they had wanted to go to wouldn't be open for another 1.5 hours. Argh! We looked through the gift shop nearby (which was open) before driving back to East Glacier. The drive was pretty, but it seemed like a huge waste of time overall.

After making it back to East Glacier, I rushed over to the laundromat to do some laundry. I never quite seemed to have enough time to do it yesterday while they were open, but I had time now. Timing was critical here. The laundromat was next door to Brownie's, and both were scheduled to close for the season today. They were owned by the same people, and the town was shutting down. Neither business would open their doors again until next year.

And, in fact, they were scheduled to close at 4:00pm. The last load of laundry was allowed an hour before at 3:00pm. If I didn't get my laundry started by 3:00pm, I'd have to wait until next year to do it here!

Brownies was scheduled to close for the season at 4:00pm, so anything you wanted to buy, you had to do it now or never! (Or at least not until next year.)

 

Anyhow, I got my laundry started with plenty of time to spare. I wandered back to Brownie's at 3:30pm to order a late lunch and early dinner. Since it closed at 4:00pm, I really couldn't come back any later!

I ordered a pizza and a Coke. With only a half-hour left before the store closed for the season, the shelves were mostly empty and a lot of food options were no longer available. Everything must go! Well, the non-perishable items seemed to mostly be in stock, but the perishable items were very limited.

While paying for my pizza and Coke, the lady behind the counter asked if I wanted one of the pastries for free. Anything they didn't sell in the next half hour was going to get thrown out anyhow. I was happy to help clear the store for her, and offered to take one of the cookies.

"Sure you don't want two of them?" she asked me.

"Well... okay..." I replied. "You twisted my arm." =)

Just Awesome shows off all the empty shelves at Brownies.

 

I went outside to wait for the pizza to be ready where Just Awesome was also waiting for his own pizza, and he looked longingly at my cookies. When I told him that I got them for free, he was a bit jealous. He went back into the store hoping to score a cookie for himself.

He came back out a few minutes with a cookie, but told me that he had to pay for it. I laughed.

"The trick," I told him, "was that you had to pretend not to be interested. When I didn't ask for or show any interest in the cookies, she tried to foist them off onto me. But you walk in asking about them, and she thinks she can sell them instead."

At least he enjoyed the cookie, even if he paid for his.

A short while later, our pizzas were ready and we sat at an outside table to eat them. At 4:00pm, the store closed for the season, and I took a photo of the sign in the window saying as such. There would be no more Brownie's visits while I was in town.

It's official, Brownies was now closed for the season. It happened right before my very eyes!

The whole town seemed like it was shutting down or soon would be. Many of the businesses already had signs up saying that they were closed for the season, and many of the others that were still operating I heard would be closing within the week. The place was starting to feel like a ghost town.

Later in the evening, I wandered over to the Glacier Park Lodge, a magnificent and historic building in its own right. I bought a postcard, a patch and a pin for my hat.

The interior of the Glacier Park Lodge was magnificent!

The rest of the evening I mostly spent with all the other hikers in the hostel, chatting away and having a great time. Life was good!

Although Brownies closed, the one store that was still open and would be all winter is the general store. So no worries, we won't be starving in town! Just that our options were becoming more limited.

Day 116: The Dubois Zero Day Blues

August 14: The first thing I did in the morning was call the backcountry office and see about getting myself a permit. The call went to voice mail, however, so I left a message about myself and the number to call me back at.

And I waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Two hours later, I was still waiting. I couldn't leave the church where I had spent the night because my phone didn't work in town. I needed a wi-fi connection to accept any phone calls, so I needed stay within that wi-fi signal for the callback from Yellowstone.

Watch out for bears! This looks like a mean one!

 

Originally, my plan had been to get a permit and leave town, but as checkout time for the hostel approached and still with no idea when the park officials at Yellowstone would call me back, I started thinking about just taking a zero day. Give me more time to get my ducks in a row.

But after two hours of waiting, I had to leave. It was Saturday, and the post office was scheduled to close at 11:45am. What's up with the weird opening and closing times of these post offices? But in any case, I needed to send my laptop ahead before they closed or I'd be stuck with it until Monday and taking a double-zero in Dubois was absolutely out of the question. I had a free place to stay at the church for two nights, but after that, I'd be kicked out to an expensive hotel. No thanks!

With time running out, I made arrangements to stay at the church for one more night, then walked into town to buy a little food at the grocery store and onward to the post office to ship a couple of packages ahead. One package with my laptop would go on to West Yellowstone, my next big resupply point. The other package would just include some food that I'd ship to Old Faithful City. (Come on, nobody really thinks that's just a "village" anymore, do they?)

Then I headed out to the library where I printed some maps of the upcoming section.

And finally I headed back to the church where I got on the wi-fi connection and found that yes, of course, I missed the callback from the park service. Argh!

They did leave a number to call back again, a special number, I guess, that would get me past the voice mail, so I gave that a call and got through to a live person and worked out a permit for myself. It wasn't precisely what I wanted since some of the campsites where I wanted to camp were already occupied, but there were nearby alternatives I could use. The one night where I had the biggest problem getting a site was when I wanted to camp near Old Faithful--the closest walk-in campsite was about a three-mile off-trail walk. Ugh. Not the end of the world or anything, but not a great feeling either.

After passing Old Faithful, I wasn't sure if I would hike outside of the park the next day or spend one more night in the park, but to be on the safe side, I reserved the last campsite before leaving the park. If I got there and wanted to keep going, I could just skip it and still camp legally outside of the park.

I gave the woman on the phone my credit card number, paid for the permit, and soon received an email confirmation with my itinerary, which I downloaded and saved to my phone. If I ran into any rangers who wanted to check my permit, I was ready.

With that all settled, the rest of the day I could relax. In fact, I pretty much had to relax. My laptop was already on its way to West Yellowstone so it's not like I could work on that anymore. I did make a trip back to the grocery store to stock up some items for the hike between here and Old Faithful, but that was the only task left that I had to get done.

For lunch, I headed to the Outpost which was extremely busy, but the food was good. While waiting inside for my meal to be prepared, I watched a couple of other guys in line pull out their guns to show each other and admire. It seemed like a scene out of the wild west.

Then I headed back to the church again for the rest of the night. I finally took the time to sew up the holes that had formed in my pack where the shoulder straps connected with my pack. I'd been letting them linger for a few days now, but it was finally time to fix them before they got any worse. Not like I had anything better to do, and it was definitely a lot easier to work on when my hands were warm than in the evening when they might be freezing cold!

And thus ended another day on the trail....

 

I ate lunch at The Outpost, which was marked with this giant moose.

What is up with all the giant animals in this town?

 

The general store wasn't open while I was in town, but apparently it has one claim to fame....

Butch Cassidy allegedly shopped here. Too bad I couldn't!

If you're a fan of antlers, I know where you can find a few....

Day 110: The Pinedale Zero

August 8: I had a zero day, but that didn't mean there wasn't stuff to do. Nope, I had to get my clothes washed. They were filthy! So I walked to the other side of town where I reached a laundromat in a car wash and did a load of clothes. I didn't bother with the driers, however. I could simply hang the clothes in my room and let them dry naturally.

I also figured out my plan of attack for the next section of trail, this time carrying me from Pinedale to Dubois. After figuring out how long it would take to take hike that distance, I headed over to Ridley's Family Markets where I bought enough food to last the necessary distance.

However, for the most part, the day was dull and uneventful. With the required tasks done, I had the rest of the day free to relax and explore. And without a laptop, it's not like I could lock myself into my hotel room and do some work. So I decided to head out to the Museum of the Mountain Men and their exhibits about the fur trade in the 1800s throughout the Rocky Mountains. It was an interesting museum where I could easily spend an hour or two looking through all the exhibits, and that's exactly what I did.

I stopped at the Museum of the Mountain Men to pass some of the town today. An interesting place and I enjoyed taking as look around.

 

For lunch, I walked over to the Burger Barn. It was a bit of a walk, located a short way out of town, but I felt like stretching my legs a bit and didn't mind the walk. The traffic along the road wasn't pleasant, but at least there was a wide shoulder to walk on. The owner of the restaurant seemed stunned when she found out that I had walked there all the way from Mexico and kept asking why people would do this. She couldn't wrap her head around it. It seemed like an utterly ridiculous and crazy thing to do, and to be fair, she wasn't wrong.

I stopped for lunch at the Burger Barn. =)

Later in the evening after returning to my room, I flipped on the TV and checked what was on. I usually watch shows on my laptop or even my phone, but I didn't feel like watching a show on my phone and turned on the TV of a hotel room for the first time in months. Flipping through the stations, I finally settled on the movie Crazy Rich Asians which was playing and the family was, indeed, crazy, rich and Asian. Truth in advertising! =)

And that was about it for the day. Nothing particularly exciting. And if I wasn't forced into a zero waiting for the post office to open, I wouldn't have even bothered with a zero day. I still felt a little bitter about that.

Foxy, for her part, was thinking about flipping up to the Canadian border and hiking southbound. For the time being, she was also taking a day off the trail, waiting for Prince and his friend whose name I still forgot to arrive in town. They were actually the ones thinking about flipping up to Canada and she was thinking of joining them.

I was actually a bit surprised at the match-up. Foxy seems absolutely determined to complete this trail with a level of dedication that far surpassed my own. She had suffered an injury back in New Mexico and wound up taking a zero month in Pie Town waiting to heal. I had joked with her that I couldn't have done that. I would have committed suicide if I were stuck in Pie Town for a whole month with nowhere to go or anything to do, and the only Internet access was a poor connection at a restaurant in town.

At the very least, I'd have gotten off the trail for a month then returned after the injury healed, but living in Georgia, she figured it was just easier and cheaper to stay in Pie Town the whole time. She suffered other hardships and difficulties along the way, never even enjoying luxuries like an occasional night in a hotel and relying almost exclusively on free hostels or free camping within trail towns. This was her first thru-hike and she was absolutely bound and determined to finish this trail no matter what. I admired her determination. I certainly planned to complete the trail, but I was definitely not as dedicated about the matter. I'd be disappointed if I couldn't finish this year, but I didn't feel like it would be the end of the world either. I'd just have to return and finish another year.

Which is why I was so surprised that she wanted to hook her ship to Prince, who seemed friendly enough but seemed completely unmotivated and unconcerned about actually completing the entire trail. I think he might have even skipped some of the "boring" sections, although I don't know that for certain and it didn't matter enough to me to ask. He was out to enjoy a bit of camping and nature, but without any hard goals. (I had goals, but wasn't driven exclusively by them.) So it felt like an unlikely alliance between Foxy and Prince, but it didn't really concern me. It just surprised me that she'd take a zero day to wait for him which would just slow her progress and make it less likely that she could finish. 

But he had some friends or family (or something) that could drive him up to the Canadian border and Foxy somehow figured joining up with him was a good idea. There actually was a certain logic to this idea. The snow near the Canadian border would likely be heavier and come sooner than further south on the trail, so it extends the hiking season by flip-flopping. I think Foxy's logic was that a longer hiking season would increase her chances of success. On the other hand, she was taking an otherwise unnecessary zero (or two) waiting for Prince and it wasn't so late in the season that she had to worry about flip-flopping. Not yet, at least! Actually, we were cutting it close at this point, but I didn't think it was necessary to flip-flop quite yet, but it definitely might be necessary at some point.

So her somewhat tentative plan was to finish getting through the Wind River Range (also known for early and heavy snows), then flip north to Glacier NP and get through that area, then have plenty of time to connect the section between those points at her leisure.

Anyhow, that was some of the stuff going on on my zero days. Plans being made!

This was the same hiker box from which I grabbed the bear spray the day before. I dropped by again today to take photos after realizing that I failed to do so yesterday.

At first I though this was a recreation of a thru-hiker attacked by a bear. No... just a mountain man being attacked by a bear. If I recall correctly (I didn't take notes, so correct me if I'm wrong), this is actually based on the real-life attack of Hugh Glass who survived the mauling and whose story was later turned into the movie The Revenant starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Teepees outside of the Museum of the Mountain Men.

Day 99: It was only a matter of time.... prison!

July 28: Today was expected to be another very hot day, and I decided to wait it out with another zero day. I was not, however, planning to stay stuck in my hotel room all day. Oh, no.... No... today, I planned to book myself into prison! 

 

Today I'd tour the Frontier Prison Museum!

Yes, you heard that right. I headed to the Frontier Prison Museum for the first tour of the day at 9:30am. They provided an hour-long guided tour through Wyoming’s first state penitentiary. It first opened its doors... or rather, I suppose, locked it's doors in 1901 and incarcerated about 13,500 people during the next 80 years of its history.

The penitentiary closed its doors... or, I suppose, opened them? The terminology is a little confusing when it comes to prisons. ;o) In any case, the prison closed to inmates in 1981. It sat vacant until 1987 when the location was used as the setting for the movie Prison. I've never seen the movie, but our tour guide assured us that it wasn't very good. I'm still tempted to watch it someday just to see how many of the scenes I recognize.

Filming the movie actually damaged parts of the prison since, at the time, the old prison wasn't considered a historical site (a designation that applies today), and our tour guide happily pointed out artifacts from the filming, including cutting a giant hole in the wall of the courtyard where the inmates could go outside.

While the prison was active, 14 men were executed: 9 by hanging and 5 in a gas chamber. The inmates who hung were hung on a Julien gallows, a device I had never even heard of before but basically required the inmate to hang themselves. It saved the state from having to pay a hangman, or having the hangman feel guilty about killing someone later and avoid any social stigma that might have been attached to the job. 

The original Julien gallows were dismantled and removed when the state changed executions to use the gas chamber instead, but the museum has replaced it with a reproduction. There's also a miniature version at the beginning of the tour so the tour guides could show exactly how it works. Kind of interesting, definitely morbid.

The gas chamber at the facility, however, is the original one where five men were executed, but us mere visitors were not allowed to go into it or sit in the chair and take mock photos of us being executed.

This is the gas chamber where 5 inmates were executed.

 

There was one kid in my tour group who seemed to have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with the prison and everything to do with it. He'd ask the tour guide questions about what kind of guns the prison guards used and other strangely specific details. When the tour guide admitted that he wasn't sure, the kid then went into a small soliloquy about the most likely types of guns they would have used and why.

I whispered to another person in our group that it seemed like he was already planning his own escape from prison when he grew up. He seemed like a born serial killer. Or maybe the cop who likes to catch serial killers if you want to give it a more positive slant. =)

The kid was kind of funny, albeit a little creepy. I was glad I didn't have to sleep in the same room as him! I don't think I could have slept well.

At the end of the tour, they led us through their gift shop--but of course, that's the standard thing for tours--but our guide told us if we bought a book, they could stamp it with a rubber stamp which read, "Stolen from Wyoming Frontier Prison." 

I didn't want to buy a book, but I asked if it was possible to get my journal stamped, and he was happy to oblige. Awesome! So my journal is now stamped that it was stolen from the prison. =)

I did buy some postcards there, and if you got a postcard from me from Rawlins, it most likely came from the prison museum. (I did get a couple of free ones from the Chamber of Commerce, however, so if it's about the CDT itself, you got a Chamber of Commerce postcard!)

Anyway.... after tour the museum, I headed over to the library to print maps of the CDT through Wyoming. I finally had paper maps again! Woo-who! I was very excited about this. I hadn't had any paper maps since Creede, 37 days ago.... All my Colorado maps had been trapped in my bounce box since then.

Then I wandered over to Burger King for a quick lunch, another quick stop at Walmart to pick up a couple of items I had forgotten to buy the day before, then back to my hotel for the rest of the day.

While walking back from the downtown core, I did run into Bugs who was just walking into town, so we chatted for a couple of minutes. She was the only other hiker I bumped into during my wanderings, though, and I recommended visiting the prison if time permitted.

Back at the hotel, I thought it would be funny to put on a temporary tattoo and tell people it was a "prison tat." I went to prison in town, and left with a prison tat. =) I'm so silly, I know.....

If I recall correctly, this is where inmates got their hair cut.

The artwork in the cafeteria was done by one of the inmates.

Day 98: Movie thrills!

July 27: Today was a zero day! And I spent most of it online, catching up with work. Not very exciting, I know.

I did, however, walk out to Taco Bell for lunch. There was a sign across the street from the hotel that rotated between displaying the time and temperature, and at one point when I passed it, it showed a temperature of 97°F (36°C). Ugh! So glad to not have to do any hiking in this weather. It was utterly miserable walking around outside. I'm not even sure that that was the high for the day--it was just the highest temperature I saw while walking by. Definitely a good day for a zero, and definitely a good day to hang out in air-conditioned buildings.

 

But I didn't spend the whole day in the lovely air-conditioned buildings. I did have some tasks to do. The main task that I felt really couldn't wait was to walk over to Walmart and resupply. I spent some time figuring out the logistics for the next section of trail, and the next trail town required a hitch to get to, but there was a location on the trail where I could send a package to pick up later at South Pass City. Don't let the "city" part of the name fool you, it's not a city at all. It's basically an old ghost town, but there is a visitor center that would accept hiker packages, so by shipping food to myself there, I would save myself the time and effort of hitching into a trail town. 

It wasn't very far ahead, however, and I worried that a package I sent might not make it in time for my arrival, so I walked over to the Walmart to resupply then immediately over to the post office to mail the package ahead. Get it moving! Hopefully it'll arrive before I do and save myself a bit of time and money by not hitching into the town to resupply. *fingers crossed*

While I was over by the post office, the same woman who helped me the day before started going through her spiel about going to the Chamber of Commerce for their hiker goodie bag. She had clearly forgotten that I'd already gotten the speech the day before, but this time my pack was largely empty so I went ahead and wandered a block or two away and checked them out.

They had a bunch of stuff, mostly promoting Carbon County. Apparently they used to hand out bags of stuff to hikers but now had it all spread out on a table for people to pick and choose whatever they wanted. I guess hikers were getting stuff they didn't want. (While walking into town when I ran into Reality Check yesterday, she told me that the hiker box at their hotel was "overflowing" with buffs which she thought was weird. It was one of the items in the hiker bag. Mystery solved!)

Anyhow, I picked out some stickers to decorate my journal with. In fact, one of the items I had my mom ship me was a fresh, new journal since the one I'd been carrying from the Mexican border was nearly full. I'd put stickers on it whenever I came across free ones, so the cover was currently decorated with a large, colorful Pie Town sticker, and a smaller Bivvi Hostel sticker which I got in Breckenridge, and a "Hiked It-Liked It" sticker about Colorado. (Although, admittedly, by the time I left Colorado, I was less excited about the "Liked it" part. I was soooo tired of all those mountains! Exhausting!) I also had a cool-looking stamp from the outfitters in Leadville on the back cover.

It was a colorful journal, and I was a little disappointed to be giving it up for a plain, empty one. Now it wasn't so plain! I had new stickers for it! I hoped to continue adding more stickers further up the trail as well.

They also had small pins to attach to clothing. I used to wear an A.T. pin on my hat, but I stopped doing that when I lost the back that held the pin in place just before walking into Grants. A strong gust of wind blew my hat off, knocking off the pin. I found the pin, but I could never find the back for it that allowed it to attach to my hat. So I grabbed this pin. Maybe the back of this pin would fit the A.T. pin I still had? (Which I'd been keeping in my bounce box, so it was now in my hotel room.) When I got back to my room at the hotel, the back didn't work particularly well with the A.T. pin, so I wound up just wearing the Carbon County pin instead for the rest of my trip. The A.T. pin would just stay as part of my bounce box for the time being.

I also grabbed one of the buffs. Or rather, it was one of the fake-buffs. I call them that when they aren't official Buff merchandise, which are easily identified because they don't actually have a Buff logo on them and you'll find a seam where the tube is made. Official buffs don't have any visibly-sewn seams. But it was actually a pretty thing so I grabbed it. It was much too warm and unnecessary for the trail at the moment, however, so I planned to put it in my bounce box for later. More cushioning for my laptop as well.

I also grabbed one of the small bottles of hand sanitizer for myself. I was confident that that was a pandemic-related addition to their giveaway, but I've always carried hand sanitizer on the trail. It's not like there's plumbing to wash your hands after going to the bathroom on the trail, after all! And as it turned out, my hand sanitizer was getting low, so it was nice to restock it for free. =)

With that taken care of, I headed back to the hotel for more air-conditioning and online work.

The 1st Choice Inn was, in fact, my first choice for a room. Definitely a budget motel, but it was in my budget! =)

 

One thing I had done when I first got into town was Google for things to do in town. It's not like I visit Rawlins very often! If there was something interesting to see or do, now was the time to get it done!

And one thing I stumbled onto was that the town had a movie theater. And it actually appeared to be open! It was playing the newest Hollywood blockbuster, Black Widow. I can't say that I was particularly excited about the movie, but I really liked the idea of just going out to a movie. It seemed like it had been forever since I'd been to a movie theater! And while I wasn't especially excited about Black Widow, it was certainly one I'd be willing to sit through.

The movie didn't start until about sunset, though. It looked to be about a 25-minute walk from the hotel, so I headed out about a half hour before the movie was scheduled to start. Temperatures were still miserably hot outside, but I brought a light jacket with me in case I found it too cold in the air-conditioned theater. In my mind, I imagined they had air-conditioning, but even if they didn't, maybe it would be cooler on the walk back long after it was dark. Better safe than sorry! So I bought a light jacket.

I settled in for the movie, bucket of popcorn in hand and watched. It was a lot of fun. I mean, well, okay... the movie was just okay. The usual action, superhero stuff that's generally predictable and dumb, but it was just so fun to go out to a movie at all! The whole auditorium only had two other people as well. The place was practically empty! So I was also happy about the theater not being super crowded or noisy. All-in-all, I enjoyed my taste of pre-pandemic life. =)

After the movie ended, I walked back to the hotel. It was still plenty warm outside. I definitely hadn't needed the jacket, but no harm done bringing it with me.

And then I was back in the hotel for the night. I had also, by this point, decided to take an extra zero day in town. A double zero! My last double zero was way back in New Mexico! But I just couldn't help myself. The hotel was relatively cheap--and I knew that was not going to be the case in towns further up the trail. Temperatures were miserably hot outside but they were expected to cool later in the week, so I could enjoy slightly cooler weather by delaying my departure from town. Plus, it would give my food package to South Pass City an extra day to arrive. And... there was still one more thing I wanted to get done before leaving town.....

But that is a story for the next post.... ;o)

Yeah, I know the feeling. *nodding*

Day 78: The Breckenridge Zero

July 7: Upon waking this morning, I headed down to the lobby of the hostel where I got a pancake and sausage breakfast. Yum! =)

The lobby of the hostel was spacious and comfortable! Not sure about those blue antlers, though...

Then I walked into town and rode the gondola since it was free. The gondola went up a hill through a couple of stops before I got off and wandered around a bit. There were paid activities in the area, but I skipped them all. Mostly, I just wanted a free ride on the gondola. That was my activity! And if I had been lucky, maybe spot a moose or something down on the ground, but that never happened. Still, there were some nice views.

After looking around to see what there was, I returned to the gondola for the ride back to town, at which point I looked for a few letterboxes in town. Found two, failed once.

Riding the gondolas!

 

I headed over to the post office to see what I could do about my package sitting at the Leadville post office, but they told me that I had to call the Leadville post office directly to deal with the problem. They gave me the number that went direct to the post office, however, so I didn't have to deal with their generic customer service number.

While leaving the post office, I ran into Haiku and Prada at a bench outside going through packages they had just picked up. It was good to see them again! The last time I had seen them was way back in New Mexico, so I joined them for a bit and we got caught up on each other's adventures. =)

We eventually went our separate ways, however, and I finally tried giving the Leadville post office a call, but the line was busy. I wound up calling about a half-dozen times over the next several hours but the line was always busy. What the hell was going on there?! Did they deliberately leave their phone off the hook so people like me couldn't call?

In the meantime, I decided to go to the local Subway for lunch. I kind wanted to go somewhere a little fancier, but I already felt like I was spending too much money and decided to go with the cheaper option.

Later in the afternoon, I finally walked out to the Breckenridge troll which I had heard about and wow! What a creature! The thing was massive, and I was particularly impressed with how it's giant hand wrapped around the trunk of a tree like it was a hiking pole, as if it were actually interacting with the environment around it. The whole thing is pretty interesting and clever and well worth a visit!

The Breckenridge Troll is real!

After getting back to the hostel, I tried calling the Leadville post office... still getting a busy signal. So then I tried logging into their website and using the tracking number to look it up and see if I could deal with the problem there, but that webpage wasn't working either. Argh!

Unable to call or deal with the problem online, I finally just gave up. Well, maybe I'll give them a call in the morning, but I wasn't even sure where I wanted the package sent at this point. For now, I'd just let the package keep collecting dust at the Leadville post office. Worst case scenario, they'd eventually they'll return it to the sender which had my Seattle address. 

But overall, a pleasant day in Breckenridge and a nice break from hiking all day! =)

Apparently, Breckenridge is home to more than one troll, but this one wasn't nearly as impressive!

This train car was used to snowplow railroad tracks.

Some skiers wait for the bus.

Watch out for the terminator. He might be hunting giant trolls!

Day 72: The Leadville Zero

July 1: Having secured a bed at the hostel for two nights in Leadville at a relatively reasonable price (by Colorado standards, at least), I had the pleasure of taking a zero day. And to celebrate my day off, I wanted to ride the Leadville scenic train! I missed the train in Chama, but I wasn't going to let this one get away too. Not if I could help it!

I'd spend two nights at the Inn the Clouds hostel in Leadville

In fact, I had gone out of my way to check out Leadville. I missed the town during my Colorado Trail thru-hike and regretted never making a stop. It wasn't directly on the trail and I hate hitchhiking, and I was in a rush to finish the CT before the first winter storms hit, so I skipped it--but I always wanted to see this storied town and made a definite decision to not pass by it this time around. Nope, I was gonna visit Leadville, and I wanted a quality zero day to explore the legendary town.

So I woke up and headed a few blocks away to the train station, arriving at 9:00am to see if there was space available on the 10:00am ride--and there was! I bought my ticket, then hung around admiring the locomotive parked outside and checking out the gift shop, and eventually boarded at the designated time.

It's my ticket to ride! Woo-who!

The train ride would take me about a dozen miles down the line, then turn around and come back. Also, it was a regular diesel-electric train--nothing quite as exciting as the steam-powered train in Chama. But still... it was a train! And I could ride it! Through some beautiful areas! =)

It was a beautiful day, partly cloudy and--at least for the time-being--little threat of rain, so I took a seat in one of the open-air cars. Everyone else boarding the train turned right into the closed car, and I mean everyone was doing this. It made me wonder if they had closed off the open-air car that led to the left, so I asked the guy collecting my ticket if it was okay to go that way. "Yeah, sure!"

As soon as I set the standard, numerous others behind me followed suit. I was a trend-setter! =)

As the train started moving, the conductor provided a narration of the history of Leadville and the area. He told the stories with the air of a man who had memorized the lines of a long poem, having recited them hundreds if not thousands of times. But still, it was interesting and educational, and he threw out some facts--and I'm assuming they're facts but I never bothered to fact-check anything he said.

For instance, Leadville once boasted a population of 50,000 people (it's less than 3000 now), making it one of the largest cities in Colorado and a contender for becoming Colorado's state capital, missing out to Denver by just 2 votes. The town is also the highest incorporated city in America at 10,152 feet (3,094 m) above sea level, although the locals never seem to make the distinction that it's the highest "incorporated" town in the America. All the local merchandise also likes to round off the elevation to an even 10,200 feet, because hey, 10,200 sounds better than 10,152. But who knows? Maybe there is one side of the town that does rise those extra 48 feet? The town certainly isn't flat.

At this sharp turn in the tracks, I could see pretty much the entire train at once.

Anyway... it was a great deal of fun and I enjoyed the ride immensely. =)

After returning to town, I trekked down to the post office to retrieve my package with the laptop, but--annoyingly--it still had not arrived! The expected arrival date had been June 26th--five days ago! Where the hell was it?! I was planning to leave town tomorrow, but I really wanted to get some work down with my laptop before leaving town. Argh! The last time I used this laptop was in New Mexico almost three weeks earlier! I asked the clerk at the front desk if they at least knew where it was located, and she left the counter for a seemingly long period of time before returning to tell me that it was at the post office in Denver and maybe it would arrive tomorrow. *shaking head* I was literally hiking faster than the post office could deliver my laptop!

My laptop was now 5 days overdue. *frowning* Just as dark clouds started rolling into town... coincidence? Hmm....

Then I grabbed some lunch at a restaurant whose name I failed to note, but I ordered a tasty Cuban sandwich with a Coke.

My next task was to find a new umbrella to replace the one I lost in the blowdowns a couple of days back. It seemed like it would be an easy thing to find, but it gave me a lot more difficulty than I thought possible. I toured the city searching for one, checking the outfitters, convenience stores, stores with touristy junk and even tried the Safeway in town because sometimes I've seen umbrellas available at grocery stores--but nobody in town had umbrellas! It was very frustrating! 

While I did not find an umbrella at the outfitters, I did find a pair of Darn Tough socks with the CDT logo on them, which I couldn't help but purchase. They called out me. "Tortuga! Buy me! Buy me now! Let's explore the CDT together!" Although I didn't need a new pair of socks right away, I knew the ones I used wouldn't last much longer. Now I had replacements already prepared. =)

I spent a couple of hours searching for a store--any store!--with umbrellas. I had finally given up when I checked out the Safeway, but I needed to buy groceries anyhow so why not? But then I realized there was a hardware store attached next door and figured I may as well check them out as well and finally! I found an umbrella! It was the only one there, plain black, but relatively small and lightweight and only about $10. Yes! Finding an umbrella in this town was definitely way harder than it should have been, though. Doesn't it ever rain out here?!

I went back to the Safeway to purchase the groceries I would need. I have to admit.... I love walking through the chip aisle in Leadville. At this high altitude, all of the bags looked like they were about to burst. Row after row of puffy packaging. I loved it. =) If one of the packages had a small hole and was leaking air, you would know it! Don't pass through Leadville without going down the chip aisle at the grocery store!

I never had so much fun walking through the chips aisle! =)

By the time I finally finished my shopping, a colossal rain storm started dropping buckets of water from the sky. It was a huge torrent of water! Fortunately, I had my new, trusty umbrella to help me get back to the hostel. I was still wet--the umbrella mostly keeps my torso dry, not my legs! Back at the hostel, I changed into dry clothing and put out my wet ones to dry during the night.

Late in the evening, I sat around the lobby chatting with others staying at the hostel. A few were other thru-hikers, but most were in town for other reasons. One couple I met were training for the infamous Leadville 100 race--an absolute insane race that only truly crazy people would even contemplate. Most of the race track actually follows the CDT, right over places like Hope Pass which I had passed over just the day before.

I overheard the woman made a comment about being from Poland. "What?!" My turned my head in her direction. I hadn't a clue that she was Polish. Her English was absolutely flawless without even the tiniest trace of a Polish accent. "Czy mówisz po polsku?" (Do you speak Polish?!) And yes... she did! We chatted some more--mostly in English since my Polish isn't super great--but she was stunned to run into someone who was actually knew some Polish and was even learning it. "But why?!" "Because I'm crazy too." *nodding*

I asked her boyfriend if he had learned any Polish, but he said that he only knew a few bad words like "kurwa"--which he butchered so badly that both his girlfriend and I bust up laughing. I turned to her, and joked--in English so he could appreciate how amused we were: "He can't even say kurwa correctly!" and she replied, laughing loudly, "I know! He's terrible!" The guy didn't really laugh, but he didn't seem upset about us laughing at his pronunciation either. He knew he wasn't speaking it very well, but I think the humor is lost when you can't really tell how badly a word is being pronounced. =)

"That's okay, though," I told him, "I still knew what you were saying! So it's good enough!" =)

The woman said something about them visiting Poland and seeing her grandmother who only spoke Polish. "Well, that should be an interesting conversation," I joked with the boyfriend. "The only Polish words you know you can't use around her!" We all all laughed. It was a lot of fun and I'm not sure anyone else in the hostel were as amused as we were. =)

Indeed, I loved my visit to Leadville. *nodding* =)

Eventually, they headed out for the night, and I continued chatting with others at the hostel, including a couple of guys doing some 14,000-feet peaks the next day. They were Zach (a.k.a. "Jack Rabbit") and Jacob, and after chatting for the better part of an hour, I had told them that my plan tomorrow was to hitch a ride back to the trail and keep hiking and they immediately offered to give me a ride. Sweet! Sure! I was thrilled that I wouldn't have to hitch a ride back to the trail.

By around 11:00pm, I was getting tired and called it a night, and headed back to my bed for the night. I had thoroughly enjoyed my day off and was tempted to stay in town for another day. I had even checked if there might be availability for another night, but there wasn't so that was decided for me. I would be getting back on the trail tomorrow whether I liked it or not!

The train that I would be riding!

 

I choose to hang out in the open-air car.

 

 

 

 

I took an embarrassingly large number of photos of chips at the supermarket! =)