<div>Gutsy and I started this year's section hike at Macdonald Pass on Saturday and reached Anaconda <FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">today, ~72 mi. in the first 3.5 days. I'm in the library catching up on email. We have a dilemma with snow depths we have encountered and expect to find ahead. Now we are searching for alternate </FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">plans.<br>
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The original plan was: <br>
June 28, Macdonald Pass<br>
July 2, Anaconda<br>
</FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">July 8, Chief Joseph Pass<br>
July 14 or 15, Bannock Pass, Leadore<br>
July 16 fly out of Idaho Falls. We have flight reservations.<br>
<br>
All of the following have been mentioned as options:<br>
Wait here in Anaconda for 3-4 days for snow levels to drop<br>
</FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hike local trails<br>
Look for lower trails or roads to bypass the divide in approximately the same area as first planned.<br>
Hike somewhere else on the CDT--part of the section around Butte (but that also has high elev, right?), or CDT or Yellowstone or elsewhere.<br>
<br>
We hiked as far as Leadville ( 7900') on the CDT yesterday, but because of deep snow and more </FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">climbing ahead--up to 8300'. It might have been doable, but we bailed because of slow progress and fear of physical injury from postholing, etc. We backtracked to the trail junction of 227 and took the Rock River Trail down to Road 82 and walked it to Champion Pass. Camped near there last night. This morning started walking at 5:45 a.m. to Four Corners and Anaconda cutoff. Friendly rancher spotted us walking across Lambert Ranch (in Jonathan Ley's dotted line segment). He stopped to say </FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">hello and said nothing negative about our being there. At Warm Springs a big storm was brewing, so </FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">we stuck out a thumb and a lady in a big pickup gave us a ride into Anaconda where we checked into a motel.<br>
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We were walking through town to the Subway and the motel near Main St., when a man ran up behind </FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">us yelling, "ARE YOU CDT HIKERS?" He works at the GM / Buick car place and invited us in to talk </FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">hiking. He is a local and plans to check out the Pintlers Saturday but feels strongly that snow is still </FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">too deep. We are the first CDT hikers he has seen come through town--the dumbest to reach this point so soon.<br>
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Comments?<br>
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Gutsy and Dan</FONT></div>
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