Tales from the trails

While trying to hitch out of our last town we were called ' drunk highschool teeny boppers' by some lady on the side of the road. Seriously? Was this lady nuts?.... We had walked a little way out of town to hitch and were standing near some small houses. Two people were working on one of the houses and saw us standing by the side of the road. They came over and proceeded to ask us what the heck we were doing there. We explained that we were hiking the continental divide trail from Mexico to Canada and had just come into their town to get food. "The continental what?" she asked us. As we explained again she stared to tell us what we were doing was not safe and that she had lived here for over 25 years and the mountains here were not safe. "There are wolves and grizzlies up there, you have no idea what you're getting into." We told her we had been hiking in these mountains for weeks already and we were in fact aware of what was around us but she didn't understand. Where was our gun she asked us and my instant thought was, that based on the camo suit she was wearing her only interest in those "wolves and grizzlies up there" was for her to shoot them. After being told again that what we were doing wasn't safe etc etc we had truly had enough of them and decided to get away-bad karma we said, so we walked a quarter mile up the road to hitch again and the next vehicle that came around the corner stopped right away: meet Jerry, Rick and Lee. We hopped in the cab of the truck and took the thirty mile ride up to the pass with them. Two of these guys were from Darby, the other was a cousin visiting from Colorado. Well they'd been out fishin for the past few days and saw us and wanted to help us out... These guys were great and drive over 45 miles out of their way to bring us back to the trail. They knew about the trail and even knew where the trailhead was. When we got to the trailhead they chatted a little more with us, and offered us some drinks- we explained that it was late and we still had a long was to hike, so they kept the drinks for themselves and we hiked off. The previous day as we were coming into town, we met two loggers very early in he morning who drove by us as we were packing up our tent. They were friendly, asked what we were doing and we explained a little about the CDT to them. Fast forward twenty miles later that afternoon, Brazil nut and I are standing on the side of the road trying to get a hitch into town. It had been over fifteen minutes so i was starting to get annoyed. Them we saw the loggers from that morning drive by and they didn't stop! But, five minutes later a big truck with three ladies stops for us! They were as friendly as could be, we were chit chatting away and they told us they had been out for the day visiting their husband/ uncle who were loggers." As a matter of fact," the woman who was driving told us, " they said they passed two girls this morning who were hiking the CDT." That was us we told them- what a small world, we ran into the guys that morning and without knowing it their wives picked us up later that day to give us a ride in to town! " Just wait til we tell them we picked you guys up, then I'm gonna ask them why in the world they didn't pick you girls up first!'' It was certainly a great town for hitching with memorable experiences for us! But I think we both agree that the best part of our day came that evening. As we were about to stop and camp we saw some RV's ahead near the side of the trail and we decided to see if anyone was there. Meet Jimmy, Carl and Raymond, three guys from Darby who come and camp out at the same place at the same time each year and spend two weeks hunting. Well they couldn't have been any different than the two of us, but they offered us a drink and asked if we wanted to stay for the night and we spent the next four hours talking, eating, drinking and laughing with them. They had come to know hikers over the years since they were set up right along the trail. We talked and laughed and I kept thinking what a great surprise it was to have run in to them. We slept inside the huge canvas tent and in the morning woke to the smell of coffee. We stayed and chatted over coffee and breakfast and finally had to force ourselves to leave- after all we had miles to hike and they we headed out to hunt. But we both agreed that it was the best trail magic and one of the best encounters so far on the trail. The last story I want to share was from back in WY, again as we were hitching out of town. It was Sunday morning about ten o'clock, neither of us thought much of it, or realized that we were hitching just beyond, ( and certainly in view of) a church for Jehovah's witnesses. As we were standing there a woman starts to walk over to us. She is your typical middle aged woman you'd expect to find at church: short, heavy set, long black skirt, and carrying what appears to be a ten pound bible. She asked us what we were doing and if we were homeless. We proceeded to explain about the trail but she still didn't seem to understand. What were two young beautiful girls doing wandering around and hitching around the country? Didn't we have parents who were worried about us, and weren't we scared being all alone? Oh, and while she has us there, what did we know about Jehovah's Witnesses? Well, after conversing with this woman and tryin to explain that we had chosen to do this and were in fact enjoying ourselves she looked at us again and with the most serious expression asked, "Do you carry the holy bible with you in your travels?".........I looked at her, and with as straight a face as possible said "NO."......I wanted to add that that would be extra weight for a hiker, among other things I wanted to say, but I just smiled and left it at 'no' to which she responded that she supposed everyone gets guidance from different sources. Yes, like the maps and guide book and GPS I'm carrying I thought. "Well if you need anything you can come join us inside" she concluded. I think she meant 'we can save your souls' if you come inside. We thanked her and in another five minutes we had a ride back to the trail. Speaking of the trail we are currently in Helena, MT and leaving shortly to go back to the trail. We have a 10 day, 250 mile stretch ending in East Glacier Park, where we are meeting my dad next Thursday! He is coming out to Glacier for a few days and we will spend a couple days with him next week- I can't wait to see him! The bear count is up to six- all black bears and we saw two more moose yesterday- a gigantic bull and cow. We're loving the wildlife sightings we're having. We are both really looking forward to the next stretch, from what everyone ahead tells us Montana just continues to get more and more beautiful. I need to finish packing, then it's time for our last hitch out of town! Thanks for reading, -Jetpack