2023 CDT - Day 26 - Wagons West, Augusta, MT

Watching her kick off the miles. Barn shy?

View from our RV site at the Wagons West park. Augusta, MT.

Are you familiar with the term? Barn shy? It's when you turn the horse back towards the homestead after a day out on the trail, they seem to be more energetic and pick up the pace to get home to food, water, the barn, and to get you off their back.

I felt like I had a fairly solid nights sleep but still felt tired. I had more of those weird dreams I've been having about work and the people I used to work with. This time I walked in and interrupted a meeting, with everyone staring at me to tell my boss I was going home because I didn't feel well after helping to load a barge at the Chevron refinery with product that had benzene in it. That was back before they had closed containment systems for loading product. Now why the heck would I have a dream like that when all I've been doing is driving around the back hills of Montana? I've been retired for over five years so what's with the bizarre dreams?

So, I got up and had the usual coffee and muesli and took Beau out for his walk. We walked about town again in the cooler morning quietness and found a small espresso shop inside of a small clothing shop. I got a second coffee and found a bench in front of a trinket shop and sat and watched the morning bloom. When I heard some slurping I looked down and saw Beau had found someone's milkshake, or whatever it was, under the bench. Yuck. Disgusting. We moved on.

I spent a lot of time on the internet today trying to make arrangements for the coming weeks so we would have a place to stay and Runningbird would have some small comfort of showers and laundry for her "Zero" days. The closer we get to Glacier the harder it is to find places. It seems there are fewer choices and the choices get quite expensive, especially on weekends. I did make some arrangements earlier on but I had to adjust those either because I didn't do a good enough job counting miles or days on my fingers or because Runningbird's pace was better than planned. At any rate, I have it all set up now and we'll see how it works. It's all logistics and that's what I do. Hey! Maybe that's why I've been having the work-related nightmares? Nah.

Decided to run to the major town Great Falls as it had the nearest Subway. They actually have seven of them. There is also an Air Force Base here. Although it is a bit of a drive, Runningbird's face so lights up when she sees the sandwich. It was a pleasant drive over rolling farm hills at 70 MPH. I didn't really see much of the town as the Subway was just off the freeway and I needed to get back to Augusta. On the drive back I noticed a farmer had put up three signs on his yard. The first said, "In God We Trust", the second said "In Our Country We Trust", and the third said, "In Our State and Local Government Not So Much!"

Back at the Wagon West and the T@B I settled in to check things out to see if Runningbird was continuing to make such good time and might be in to our rendezvous tonight or tomorrow some time. By comparing the "Spot" tracks and the trail patterns on "Far Out" I can usually get mileages and then estimate timing. For some reason things weren't quite making sense. I slowly came to the realization that I was estimating her track on the wrong FarOut pattern. By zooming out I found she was on a parallel river with nearly the same pattern. Then I remember reading another hiker's comments about taking an alternate route to get to the Benchmark campground which was very near the campground we were scheduled to meet at. Unfortunately the last track that came in was now almost an hour past. Dang it! By recalculating for the alternate route, time, past speed, etc. She would be into Bencmark in about an hour. Beau look at me as if reading my mind and we dashed out and into the truck. While I was able to maintain come cell service for about 40 minutes of the drive, it did not pull an updated track until just before I lost the cell service. Fortunately. I did do some praying and had some faith. Maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal but with no cell service, and knowing there were trails connecting the campgrounds in addition to the road, and her not knowing what I was doing, it could be difficult to find her before dark. I knew she would be exhausted with the hard push she had been making the last few days.

The road down from Benchmark Pass, MT.

I pulled into the first campground that the alternate trail would land her in and drove around the loops. I went back to the entrance of the campground and read the signs pointing towards different trails and none said CDT and then I remembered this was an "alternate" trail so it wouldn't say CDT. As I pulled away and started for the next campground I took a last look, and there she was just coming into view, as I heard her call my name. I jumped out to give her a hug as she went limp in my arms before I could get her pack off. After several minutes the pack was off and she was in the truck scarfing down the Subway sandwich and getting licked by Beau.

Entrance to Benchmark Wilderness Guest Ranch.

After showers and more food we went for a casual walk through the town before retiring for the evening.