I sleep a little chillier than the past few nights. Before going to bed we noticed that the stream nearby completely disappears into the spongy ground. I imagine there’s a big cold reservoir of water under me and beneath the open valley.

I wake up before my midnight alarm and silence it before it goes off.

I pull on my puffy jacket and step out of my tent.

The meadow grass glistens silver with condensation and starlight. It’s beautiful, but it’s soaking my wool leggings, ack! I look north over the clearing, hoping to see the aurora borealis, but no luck. I look down the field and see Professor’s headlamp in the dark, also looking towards the northern sky.

I want to run around in the silver field but decide sleep is more productive. I head back to bed.

I wake up at 5:30am and pack up. I’m always last out of camp! I guess I’m slow getting ready.

Today’s trail leads me through beautiful forests interrupted by stunning green marshy clearings. The pine trees are huge.

There are a few downed logs across the trail. I always feel incredibly clumsy trying to navigate them with my heavy pack.

I’m walking down the trail when suddenly a rock moves. A bird shaped rock? It’s a baby nuthatch right in the middle of the trail! I almost stepped on it! Poor thing!

I hear its parents calling to it, it peeps back. Must still be learning to fly. I hope it figures it out!

I leap frog with Professor, Quitter and Bullwinkle through the morning. The sky is kind of smoky. Professor says it’s from the Canadian fires.

We break for lunch on a big rolling grassy hill. I can barely make out some mountains in the distance. Hopefully the fires stop and the smoke clears up soon.

After lunch I pause under some big power lines and try the science experiment Professor taught me.

Holding onto the cork handle, I raise up one trecking pole and lightly touch the metal with my other finger to see if I can get an electric charge. Not working. Professor walks up with his trecking pole and holds it out. There’s a slight buzzing.

Suddenly, he yelps! He thinks a bee stung him! We look around for it but don’t see any bugs…. Yelp! Again! Ouch! And again! It starts happening to me too! We realize it’s the wet plants under the power lines zapping our legs! Yikes!

We hurry away from the power lines.

That was crazy! We have a good laugh.

I’m probably not going to try that again….

We pass by a heard of black cows. They run away from us.

We see some cowboys on horses in the distance riding after a solo cow. So cool! Like the Wild West!

The cow water tubs are the best water sources, see the clean water coming out of the pipe? Yum.

So.

Today is the last day I get to hike with Professor 😢

He is going to Butte and I am doing the Anaconda alternate trail. The split is coming up soon.

We had planned on making dinner at the last water source but we hiked so fast we got there really early! Quitter was at the water and we hung out with him for a little bit before hiking to the actual split in the trail.

Good bye Professor! It’s been so wonderful hiking with you! Thank you for all the science talk! I wish you best of luck on the rest of your hike!

I turn down a dirt road and Professor disappears into the trees.

I bring out the sandisk to cheer me up. The local country station plays a song about a guy parting with his truck. It’s very fitting for the moment until they start singing about beer again. Noooo I change the channel. The last thing I need is to be obsessively thinking about ice cold beer again haha

The road is hot in the late day sun. I find an oldies channel and listen to the Beetles.

There’s a lot of private property and very little camping options through this area.

The spot that I had wanted to camp at has a comment in the FarOut app about a grizzly stashed deer carcass. Yikes. I’m definitely avoiding that area. I’ll have to figure out a different spot to sleep. I look at my maps. There’s a small space about a mile from me.

I find a sliver of sand bar below a bridge that doesn’t have private property signs all over it and make dinner before the campsite.

It’s very relaxing near the water, and there’s miraculously no bugs! I feel very content.

Quitter suddenly hikes over, he quickly grabs water and lets me know that 5 other hikers are behind him, and we’re all probably aiming for the same camping spot to avoid the deer carcass site. Ack! Thanks Quitter!

I quickly pack up and follow him. He gets the perfect spot for his tarp between two trees. There’s not a lot of flat spots… how are we going to fit 7 tents here! Oh well!

I take the one decent flat spot. It feels weird to have said good by to The Professor and have this expectation of hiking by myself when suddenly there are so many other hikers!

The others arrive after I’ve set up my tent and hung my food. They set up close to me. It’s amazing how we all manage to fit! Gotta love those small small tents.

I explore a bit and find a paper notice stapled to a tree. Someone found gold near the stream and made a claim! Cooool!

I’ll have to keep an eye out for shiny things when I filter my water.

I turn in early.

It’s a long road walk into town tomorrow.