It snowed and drizzled all night but mostly didn’t stick.  It was a slushy mess in the morning and soo… cold.  I think my least favorite thing is breaking camp in the cold rain. I thought it weird that it rained so consistently last night.  Well, it was because I was camped in a cloud – a seemingly perpetual cloud that never went away until noon when I finally descended below it and escaped.

Shortly after noon the sun came out for brief periods and the rain finally stopped except for occasional showers.  It was actually quite beautiful country – Sage meadows with park-like grass and large trees scattered about.

I met Beast in the morning near the Leadville trail and talked with him a bit.  He started at Butte and is going north.  I later met Symbiosis at a nice spring that was piped into a cattle tub.  We visited while refilling water, and then decided to eat some snacks while he dried out his soaked bivy sacks. He is 67, an engineer, his base weight is 6 pounds and he was thoroughly fun to talk with.  He cowboy camps in the bivys and uses the half pad from his tiny backpack.  He eats chia seeds, pinyon nuts, and goji berries and not very much of them.  He says he makes up for it in town, but I wonder where he gets his hiking energy.  He says he does 30 miles per day.  He is not fast, just 2 mph, but he starts early and quits at 9:00.  What an interesting and nice guy!

After several more ups and downs I reached the Anaconda alternate, which is a wide gravel road down Dry Cottonwood creek.  A guy with a trailer full of logs pulled over and talked with me for a bit.  He had chewing tobacco on his lower teeth and a teenage girl in the other seat whom I assume was his daughter.  Once again a very nice guy.  He wanted to hear about the trail and how far I came, etc.

I’m now camped on a ridge slightly above Dry Cottonwood Creek and the road.  I like it up here.  No one can see me and I’m above the few trucks that come by.  I can hear the creek below.  It’s time to watch the next episode of Dead to Me.  Night.