I broke camp on the small hill overlooking Upper Brooks Lake and hiked past beautiful Brooks Lake Lodge.  The trail joins a dirt road on the other side of the lodge which I followed for a few miles.  Behind me three other thru hikers slowly started to catch up with me.  Eventually I heard a yell and one of them pointed to the side of the road.  I had walked right past where the trail left the road! This is a mistake I have made several times now. I think the roads lull me into some sort of trance where I just check out for a while.  I yelled thanks to the other hikers and reversed direction, now following the other hikers down the hill.

The trail wasn’t much – just a slightly trampled place in the long grass where others had passed.  Fortunately it was all downhill and there were just enough signs of human passage that my now trained eye could detect.  I finally emerged on the highway and saw the other two hikers.  It was P-Diddy and Hatchet.  We tried to hitch for 20 minutes or so without luck.  P-Diddy is a happy and friendly fellow.  He smiles and waves, and does a little dance.  I can’t believe nobody would stop.  Eventually the third hiker came out to the highway – their friend Silent Bob.  Now it was all 4 of us trying to hitch.  We were probably out there for close to an hour without luck.  After a while a car pulled up going the other way and dropped off Mav!  He was leaving Dubois and returning to the trail.  He came over and we had a little mini-reunion before he decided to get going.

Mav walked down a small dirt road and stopped to talk with someone in a panel van.  Eventually he yelled for us to come over.  He had talked the driver (a nice girl named Knife Hands? who was supporting her boyfriend  on his CDT thru hike) into giving us a ride back to Dubois.  We all piled in and she drove us to Dubois!  Thanks Knife Hand girl!

The manager of the Black Bear Inn (Liz) is a really nice lady whom Barb had talked to.  She knew I had trouble in Yellowstone and had offered Barb to come get me if I really needed it.  She was still concerned about me.  Apparently she and Barb really hit it off so I got the full treatment.  🙂

The Black Bear Inn was very nice and cozy. The room had a lot of little bear creatures on the tables and ledges and everything was clean and neat. The Wind River runs past the back of the hotel where there is a shaded area with grass and picnic tables. They have a campfire with roasted marshmallows every night and invited me to join.

I tried dinner at the place next door and was pretty disappointed. It was completely empty except for me which should have told me all I needed to know. Oh, well. I spent a lot of time sleeping and just trying to recuperate.