Day 17 – June 3, 2025
Miles traveled – 3058
A hike in the wilderness of Montana
Today is our third day of rain. Fortunately, the rain has been intermittent not constant. We’ve had stretches of no rain and even a small amount of sunshine but, as you can imagine, everything is getting a bit soggy. Not the van, though. Our sleeping space is still dry.
It’s simply fantastic to be in some of the wild places in Montana! Every vista is breathtaking. We are in the Custer-Gallatin National Forest next to the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. Together, they are vast. Wilderness and forests are measured in millions of acres out here.
Plant life is just bursting out with the arrival of spring in the mountains. We were in the dry Badlands in North Dakota, but now are in the mountain forests of Montana.
A couple of days ago, we were on an alpaca farm at a Harvest Host. I don’t want to be negative but, let’s just say that we’re probably done with Harvest Hosts. Especially here out west where there are plenty of places to primitive camp. We did meet some really cute alpacas, though.
We’ll get to the hike in a moment but first, a brief health check. So you can skip down to the next part if you want.
I, Jane, had COVID very early on in the pandemic in early February 2020. How do I know I had COVID before there was any testing for it? I don’t know positively but it was the worst ‘cold’ I’ve ever had. Lots of really deep coughing that took my breath away. Had to take a few days off from work even. Also, in 2020, I worked in health care. I had a patient who was recently arrived from China with illness and spoke no English. As per normal practice at that time, I sat in a room with her for 30 minutes, using an interpreter phone we passed back and forth so that I could get consent for the test we were about to perform. No mask, no PPE at all. Not to mention it was a 3 hour test! Anyhoo, the long term outcome of that ‘cold’ is that my breathing is compromised. I worried before this trip that I would not be able to do much activity at altitude. I am pleasantly surprised! I don’t seem to be doing any worse than back in Baltimore. David is still much, much more fit and capable than I am. But my worries did not materialize after all. Maybe it’s because we came to altitude gradually as we drove across the country instead of hopping out of a plane and being a mile higher than home. I’m very happy about that.
And David’s health check? Turns out, he’s a bit of a Tick Magnet but other than that, he’s his normal robust self.❤️
THE HIKE:
We started out this morning in a light rain from our primitive camp in the Palisades section of the Custer-Gallatin National Forest in southwestern Montana.
There is wildness for miles around. It’s quite an amazing experience for folks from the East Coast. Some hardy souls here are ranchers and we are not too far from the Red Lodge Mountain ski resort. It’s a small resort near a small town of the same name. Even the large towns of Bozeman and Billings are small by comparison. The whole of Montana only has a population of one million souls!
Because I am still acclimating to altitude, we hiked just 2 miles with a 271 ft elevation to 6200 ft. I’m so glad David decided to also do a mountain bike ride. He’s up there now, trying to find the highest places.
Jane
The Voyage of the Tramper 