I slept in until nearly 6, and didn’t get on the trail until after 7. The tent and my Packa had to be packed up wet, though was forecast to be and turned out to be a mostly sunny (partly cloudy) day.
I used up the last of my breakfast mix, having elected not to resupply it in Bozeman.
The trail went up and down and across a highway and up and down some more. At first, there were lots of rocks, then the open side of Limekiln Hill.
I stopped at an overlook and on a random hillside to internet a bit while snacking. I figured if I had cell service I ought to look into reserving a room in Lima, but the motel only does reservations over the phone it seems, which means they aren’t likely to be booked up. I decided if I got there and there were no rooms I could just camp.
The highlight of the day, such as it was, was a pipe pouring water out with great force next to a ruined log cabin. I had emptied my water bag 7 miles earlier, so the enormous quantity of water was very welcome, so I had lunch there. (To be clear, it wasn’t a very hot day, and I felt overhydrated for most of it if anything.) I also spread out my Packa in the sun while I ate so I wouldn’t be carrying around a ton of water I couldn’t drink. I wasted a lot of time there, probably a solid hour and a half.
On the way out, the trail was lined with huge patches of ripe raspberries, and I sampled a few. They were alright, but I wasn’t particularly hungry. A couple of sluggish, boring hours later, I came to Highland Trailhead, where there was a privy (with no trash can–useless) and an entire family cruising in in ATVs (noisy).
I stopped a mile later to sit on a rock and make dinner. After dinner, I had about an hour of feeling normal compared to that sluggish, lazy, bored feeling I’d felt all day to that point, not that it helped much with the miles. Sure, most of the short day is explained by my sleeping in, but the slowness probably had to do somewhat with not having any more looming deadlines and there not being much reason to speed up given that the next day would likely turn out the same regardless. Either way, it was time to go back to my usual 4am wake up goal.
Trail miles: 16
Distance to I-15: 11.4 miles
a bit of a redundant sign 
so many raspberries 
even more raspberries 
