I woke up this morning on my little ridge-top spot above the road. Several trucks and various nonsense went on last night on the road down by the river and I was really glad I hiked up here to this stealth spot.  +1 for camping out of sight from people.

The road down Dry Cottonwood canyon eventually opened into the huge Clark Fork valley where I took a different road south.  There was a very strong headwind, but the views of the Anaconda smelter smokestack 10 miles away and the snow-covered Pintler Mountains were amazing.

Eventually the road passed under Interstate 90 and entered the grounds of the Montana State Hospital where they supposedly keep violent mental patients like Ted Kazsinski.  I was fascinated at how stately and regal everything looked – beautiful walkways and the buildings looked like an old style 1900’s era ski chalet or a national park lodge.  I was following the Guthooks route through the grounds when I noticed a sign saying something about only those with extended permissions were allowed past this point.  Apparently they let the more docile patients out for walks in this park.  I was starting to worry when I heard something behind me.  It was a security guy in a Jeep and he politely asked if I was hiking the CDT.  I sad “yes”, and he said this was state land and I’m not allowed here.  He said he knew the Guthooks app routed people through here but it is not correct.  Just yesterday they had to get after a girl for the same thing.  He instructed me to go back to the frontage road and go around, which I did.  Too bad.  The park was pretty nice and the route around was quite a bit longer. On the other hand, getting murdered by a mental patient having a bad day is not high on my list of things to do.

The rest was a typical highway walk with no shoulder where you need to constantly jump off the road for cars that can’t or won’t move over as they roar by at 70 mph.

I can’t get over the huge Anaconda smelter smokestack.  It sits on a hill above the town surrounded by huge mountains of slag, and towers for hundreds of feet. It is very dark and foreboding and looks like something from Lord of the Rings.  I think it is awesome.

I stayed at the Trade Wind hotel.  The owner is a middle eastern looking guy who is very nice and friendly. We talked quite a bit about the difficulties with running the hotel and current events, and he let me do my laundry in the hotel laundromat after the day crew left.