When Sally decided to bless me with her presence, I was a bit worried. I knew nothing of the scenic value of this section. Nobody writes about the trails of Helena or Butte. But today was stunning and I felt redeemed.

Me and Fearless hit the trail a bit after 6am and Sally took off at 7am. She’s a young buck and can catch us in no time. Within a couple of miles, we were down in the Thunderbolt Meadow and it was so tranquil. Typically you’ll have an open meadow to your left or right, but this was panoramic in all directions. It really was something remarkable.

We had our first climb and even as we headed up to Electric Peak, there were plateaus of meadows. All the creeks and springs were flowing, and the temperature was much cooler today. We made our first five miles and as soon as we sat down, Sally showed up. She’s truly is a gazelle on two legs!

We had our breakfast and planned to meet for lunch at the spring some six miles down the trail. We all have our own rhythm on the trail and it’s works well. Typically Fearless takes off, then me and Sally behind. I turned on my tunes today and just listened to music and my devotions by Francis Chan and Joyce Meyers.

We arrived at the spring which is more like a cow basin with a piped in water. Fearless secured us a spot under a bunch of pine trees and we waited. And waited, and waited. This was unlike Sally as she is usually on my tail. I turned on my phone and she had missed the turnoff and took the trail to Leadville. When she started hearing cars, she knew she was not on the right trail. Oops, bonus miles on a long day is never fun so she collected an extra two miles and got back on the CDT. We all met an hour later, had lunch, commiserated over the extra miles and headed out to finish up the day.

The last six miles was a combo of road walking and trail. I found the road walking was much easier on my feet. My shoes are shot. No tread, the cushion is next to non-existent and they have holes in them. I blame it all on the Bob as they were never dry and the constant beating on the Lincoln Logs added insult to injury. My hubby George mailed me a new pair of shoes which I will pick up tomorrow in Anaconda. Yeah for me and my feet! I will be burning my old pair.

After another long day, we finally found camp on abandoned dirt road. Not too scenic but after 6pm, just about anything will do. We had a day of firsts. Fearless ran into a badger, I scared a bunch of cows over the hill and Sally was beat tired. That never happens! So we all got situated in our cozy little homes for the night, ate dinner and called it a day. Tomorrow we are headed to town. That’ll be over fifty miles in three days. I think we are ready for a shower, new shoes and beer!

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭23‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬