18 miles
Free Tenting at the Stage Stop Store
Panama and Beth got up early because they had some serious motivation to get to town which made it easier for me to get up and going. It's 18 miles to the pass and finding a ride in is supposedly extremely difficult so the earlier we get there the more time/opportunities we'll have.
The day was spent, like usual recently, along a fence separating Montana and Idaho. I did hike up around Goat Mountains which was a pretty neat area but didn't see any goats unfortunately. Then the fence came back and I followed that sucker for pretty much the rest of the day. As we hustled down the hill towards the pass we came across a clear cut on the Montana side which looked pretty recent and on the Idaho side I heard the sounds of chainsaws pretty close by. Panama and Beth got to the pass around quarter to two and we came down an hour later. They saw two cars come by one in the right direction, the other heading the wrong way. You can see the road heading towards the pass and town for a good 10-15 miles so you know when cars are coming and the guidebook actually says do anything in your power to stop someone because you may not see another car for minutes or hours. Well it looked pretty bleak until a truck with a HUGE load of wood in the back and a trailer hauling and ATV came down the side road we walked down. We flagged them down and it turned out that the guy was the one chainsawing near us. It looked like there was t much space to fit four people and two dogs so we asks did he had service or a cell phone so we could call the store for a ride. His reply ' I don't have a cell but if you can fit in the trailer I'll take you...if you're brave you can ride on the ATV'. Knowing there probably wouldn't be cars for hours we all made it work. Panama, Beth, Spins, and the dogs liked behind the ATV and I wedged along side the ATV facing away so dust would t blow in my face. The ride was 15 miles mostly on dirt road downhill pretty sketchy to say the least. It's definitely the more memorable hitch I've had so far on the CDT. Thomas, the guy who gave us a ride, turned out to be a really really nice local and he gave us his number for rides back up and hung around telling us about Leadore for a bit. The Stage Stop gas station and deli lets us camp for free which was fantastic and we all got late lunch there and dinner at a barely functioning/open restaurant and bar called the Silver Dollar. Leadore is small and there really isn't much to do which is good for my wallet and quite relaxing. One of my packages didn't come in the mail today so hopefully it'll be here tomorrow.
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