Hike With NITRO

I am frequently asked about town stops on the Continental Divide Trail.  There are so many options that hikers in the planning stages typically want to get as much input in regards to trail towns as possible.  To this end, I’ve created my take on CDT trail towns.  This is in no way meant to replace Yogi’s CDT Handbook (and in the text I reference things she has said in her book and maps she provides).  Yogi is a friend, I used and loved her handbook so visit her website and see if her Handbook is for you.  Without further ado…CDT trail towns presented in a south bound order.

My next stop was Leadore, ID:  I loved Leadore.  I ate at the Velvet Elk (used to be Deb’s Sagebrush Café) and stayed at the City Park for something like $5 plus 3 for the shower.  It was fine.  It’s a short walk from town, north, toward Salmon.  The resupply here is pretty bad.  You can pick up a few things (snacks for while you are in town) and you might be able to make it work but send yourself some resupply or be prepared to hitch to Salmon. 

If you meet Roberta the Librarian, tell her I said hello…such a great person!  I didn’t go to Yogi’s “sorta store”.  That’s really the name of it and it creeped me out in ‘06 when I drove by so I didn’t even bother walking up there to check it out.  Here is a hint if you want to do laundry, on the North East side of town you’ll see the “Homestead Motel” and the “Homestead Apartments”.  The Motel is slightly north of the Apartments.  In front of the Apartments, there is a small building…it’s a laundry place.  Not sure if you are supposed to use it or not but we did (no signs posted that I saw). 

Lima, MT:  I had a good time in Lima.  We had a good crowd, WILDCAT and I got the last room available.  If you carry a cell phone and you want a room, call the Motel from the Ridge you’ll be walking for the entire day before you get to the road.  Also, you might, might, might be able to get cell reception on the road walk to the interstate.  If you get thru (Mike) will pick you up.  If you can’t get him, you can walk the mile or two (not sure what it is) up to Monida, use the Pay phone and Mike will get you.  Peat’s grill place was good, Jan’s was good.  I had a nice time in Lima.

Ok, I took an alternate route here.  I walked to Monida and then road walked to the Red Rock’s Wildlife Preserve.  I heard the section from Lima to Sawtelle/Mack’s Inn or to West Yellowstone was a real bummer so we decided to go to a bird sanctuary (Red Rock Lake I think).  It was great.  We got great trail magic at the preserve, cokes, beer, and pizza from a guy who worked there and were told about a campsite that’s free and had great drinking water.  Only draw back were the mosquitoes…they were pretty bad…good water though.  The ranger at the preserve even told us we didn’t have to purify it (have you ever met a ranger that said that?).  Finishing that road walk, we stopped at a mobile home/R.V. park and got sodas and ice cream.  I would guess that this was about 7 or so miles north of Sawtelle Resort. 

Sawtelle Resort, ID:  I stayed at the Resort (it was my birthday and we did 28 miles on my 29^th b-day).  We ate at the Island Park Village restaurant (the others were closed by the time we got situated).  I resupplied at the Robin’s Roost (I think, it’s only 38 miles or so to Yellowstone).  I think I did laundry and went in the hot tub at the resort. 

Mack’s Inn, ID:  I walked here the next morning (leisurely after check out) and went to the café, went to the PO, did my business there, went back to the café, ate (they were a bit slow so I ran to the PO in between ordering and eating), packaged some stuff, walked back to the PO and left town.  It was a short day but nice.  Depending on your schedule you should call Yellowstone, you may need to obtain permission (they issue you a permit but you don’t have to pick it up) to camp at one of the sites in the park but trail north of Old Faithful and the back country office.  You also might not need to do this.  When scheduling, keep in mind that there is no camping at Old Faithful and getting a room is tough and expensive.  Plan to hike at least a few miles to a campsite once you get to Old Faithful. 

I am frequently asked about town stops on the Continental Divide Trail.  There are so many options that hikers in the planning stages typically want to get as much input in regards to trail towns as possible.  To this end, I’ve created my take on CDT trail towns.  This is in no way meant to replace Yogi’s CDT Handbook (and in the text I reference things she has said in her book and maps she provides).  Yogi is a friend, I used and loved her handbook so visit her website and see if her Handbook is for you.  Without further ado…CDT trail towns presented in a south bound order.

Choices, choices…Anaconda or Butte?  I chose Anaconda, MT:  but before you get to Anaconda, you hit Warm Springs, MT:  I had a great time at Uncle Buck’s…it’s not creepy at all.  There were 10 of us, drinking at 11 am and eating mozzarella sticks.  Good times.  Hydrate because it’s a long road walk to Anaconda.  Anaconda, MT:  in 2007, I got trail magic and had some hiker friend’s sister pick me up and take me to her house (in the next town over).  In 2006, I did some trail magic of my own and stayed at the Trade Winds Motel.  It was ok, old, but clean enough.  Go to the pizza place (Stageline Pizza), they heard what I was doing and gave me free bread sticks.  The Albertson’s and Safeway are at opposite ends of town and the Safeway is on the way out of town so use that nugget of info and plan accordingly. 

Butte, MT:  I didn’t go to Butte but Matti (2006…Speedo was his trail name) did and he seemed to think it was a fine stop.  Some other hikers I know, went to Anaconda and hitched to Butte on their zero to catch a movie.  Butte seemed spread out when I drove thru there in 2006.

Talk about choices:  Lost Trail/Chief Joseph Pass.  From here you have 5 choices.  On my thru hike, I went to Darby, MT but I’ve been to all 5.  I’ll run them down as I see it. Darby, MT:  this is where I went on my thru hike.  I had been there in 2006 while sneaking up on my hiking friends.  Darby is fairly compact (especially if you stay where I did) and has everything I need in a town.  I stayed at the Travellers Rest Cabins both times.  They gave me a tiny discount for being a hiker (with a hiker in 06).  Not sure if they put in their hostel…they were doing the renovations on their own and it wasn’t a top priority.  People’s Market was okay…not the best resupply but far from the worst…I got plenty of food there but I vaguely remember not quite getting everything I wanted and having to make a few substitutions to my normal regimen.  Watch out for logger days, held on the 3^rd weekend of July.  It can be tough to get services then.  Overall, I liked Darby a lot and the people were nice.

Sula, MT:  If you are looking to just pick up a maildrop and eat a breakfast or lunch, this might be the stop for you.  It’s the closest to the trail and doesn’t have a lot of things to spend money on.  It looks like a rest stop/gas station on the road.  It has some lodging and camping, laundry, even showers and a place to send your package (this is not the PO but the store…follow Yogi’s directions). 

North Fork, ID:  Not a bad option either.  Has a PO (good for outgoing mail/postcards, buying stamps), showers, laundry, a tiny bit of resupply and a restaurant.  The restaurant seemed to be closed a fair bit in 2006 so if you are planning this as your stop and you want some town food, call them before you send your package to get restaurant times. 

Wisdom, MT:  Wisdom is cute (well, small in a cute way), had good food at the Big Hole Restaurant (that’s a great name) and was friendly and it has a PO.  It’s very small and I don’t know if you could resupply there…might be best to send a package.  Not a ton of traffic on that side of the highway but it could work.

Salmon, ID:  I had a great time in Salmon in 2006.  I had a car so that helped.  It’s a bit spread out depending on where you end up staying.  I stayed at the Wagons West Motel and it was 1000 degrees and the air conditioner sucked and we had 6 of us in there.  The next night we went to the Trails End Motel…there were 2 of us (well, 2 rooms of 2), the air worked great.  Much better!  Trails End seemed to be much closer to stuff, Wagon’s West seemed far away.  This town is very hot during the day but the people were nice…I heard that the supermarket is not open on Sundays but I do remember thinking it was a pretty good market.