Longstride

After over two weeks without a break, it was time for a zero, in Ennis.

Ennis, MT

• When the motel’s receptionist said that the town was “dead” on Tuesdays, they really weren’t kidding. Almost every place I wanted to go to in town is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
• I got breakfast at Yesterday’s Soda Fountain, a combination diner and pharmacy on the other side of town. I got a fantastic breakfast, and an even more fantastic slice of apple pie for “desert”.
• I went to the outfitter, across the street from the restaurant. They didn’t have any useful (for me) water filters. They did have water bottles, but they were all widemouth, and I need one with a narrow mouth in order to work with the rest of my water kit.
• I confirmed a second night with the motel; it was getting close to checkout, I still hadn’t yet done my resupply, and my legs were incredibly sore just from being in town.
• I took a nap, got lunch at the motel’s restaurant, and worked out a plan for the next section. There’s two main options for going to going to Butte: I can either go through Whitehall, on a route that has a fair amount of roadwalking and rejoins the CDT east of Butte; or I can take an even-more-roadwalk route that might be a little shorter, but rejoins the CDT south of Butte (and then either roadwalk through Butte, or take the CDT around the town). I decided to go through Whitehall, since that’ll just be a three day hike to my next resupply.
• Now knowing how much food I’d need, I went to the food store near the motel and did my resupply.
• I returned to the other side of town for dinner, and ran into Sprouts, Stumblebee, Bass, Wildman, and Recon, and joined them for dinner. Velveeta arrived later, and Fuck-It is resting his foot. Conveniently, we’re all planning on the same route to Butte.