CDT - Day 123 - Lemhi Pass
I slept really horribly last night and did not want to get up at 6:00 a.m. this morning. Around 1:00 a.m., I started having some really weird back, neck, chest, and head pains. I couldn't figure out what was going on, so I took a couple of naproxen and tried to find a comfortable position. Sleeping on my side seemed to help, and I eventually drifted back to sleep. When I woke up, I could still feel some residual weirdness.
It was raining when I woke up, so I put on my rain jacket and rain pants to go retrieve our food bags from the tree. Of course, the second I stepped out of my tent, the rain stopped. Then, as soon as I got back inside, it started right up again. The rain continued throughout the morning, so eventually we just had to pack up and start hiking in it.
The sun finally came out in the afternoon and things started warming up. Overall, the hiking was completely pleasant. We stopped for water at the Sacajawea Memorial Picnic Area near Lemhi Pass. Water was very scarce throughout this section, so we had to pay close attention to where we could fill up.
Around the 19-mile mark, we came across a couple who had just parked their truck camper. They were surprised to see two backpackers wandering around in the middle of nowhere and were eager to hear our story. They gave us bananas, blackberries, water, and a couple cans of LaCroix.
Their generosity ended up saving us from having to take an alternate to a sketchy water source. Unexpected trail magic always seems to show up at exactly the right time.