PCT days 33 to 39
Miles: 444.3 to 444.3
Start & Finish: off trail from the Acton, California KOA campground) to Bozeman, Montana.
Shannon and I took off a few days from the Pacific Crest Trail hike to go up to Jennie and James’s wedding up in Montana which was amazing. We had such a great time. We drove all the way up to Montana 15 hours from Southern California because rental cars were in such high demand up there that even if we flew in, which was relatively cheap, that it was a minimum price of $500 a day for rental car. Yikes! Somehow in Southern California, we were able to find rental cars for only $50 a day which was much more reasonable. So we decided we’re going to make a road trip out of the trip!
We had a great time driving up out of the deserts of California, Nevada, Utah and up into the green lush mountainsides and fields of Idaho and Montana. On the way up, we saw some elk and a grizzly bear on the west side of Yellowstone from the side of the road. It was crazy because there were all these people who had gotten out of their car to chase down the grizzly bear to get a photo of it like it was some sort of huggable teddy bear instead of a half ton killing machine. It was kind of insane seeing these people walking up to a legitimate grizzly bear because that thing would not hesitate to kill you.
Up in Bozeman, we did a little bit of shopping and dining out but mostly just hung out in the hotel. It was exciting because we were able to watch it rain for the first time in about 40 days which was really cool. We didn’t realize how much we’d taken such a simple commonplace thing like rainstorms for granted but we were so grateful to see it rain now, even though it also hailed huge dime sized hail at the same time!
Jennie and James’s wedding was a huge success. We partied way late into the night with pinatas, dancing on the dirt floor of the renovated barn in the hills and just hanging out with new and old friends. We stayed an extra two days and on Monday a bunch of us went trail riding on horses through the mountains. As we splashed across full streams and jaunted up past an elk graveyard, the hillsides ablaze in green grass and wildflowers. It was super fun hanging out in the mountains catching up with Jennie’s mom Sandy and her sisters and hanging out with all the friends and family was really fun.
On the way back, it was relatively uneventful and we were sad to see the greens of the Montana and Idaho wildernesses disappear into the dry hot and deserts of Utah, Nevada and California. It’s just good motivation for us to get going and start making some serious miles so we can get to the beautiful green forests and Meadows of the Sierra Nevadas and into the temperate rainforests of Oregon and Washington.
