Day 124 - Continental Divide Trail - Lime Spur Road to Anaconda

Day: 124

Date: Saturday, 07 September 2024

Start:  Lime Spur Road

Finish:  Anaconda MT.

Daily Kilometres:  14.9

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  3597.6

Weather:  Cold early with a biting wind, then warm and sunny and hazy.

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Omelette & hash browns, toast & jam/pancake & syrup.

  Lunch:  Mexicali subs

  Dinner:  Fried chicken, macaroni cheese & salad, ice cream.

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  On the recommendations in our navigation app, we had breakfast at a bar in Anaconda when we arrived there soon after 8am.  Our omelettes were delicious, large and good value.  We enjoyed a hearty breakfast in the warmth of the bar..

Lowlight:  Nothing in particular.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

For some reason, neither of us slept that well.  It could have been the lumpy and marginal tent site we had been lucky to find, or the ATV that roared past us around 11pm (we could easily be seen from the road), or the eager anticipation of a relatively short walk into Anaconda for a hot breakfast.  Around 4:30am we decided to pack up camp and by 5:30am we were walking the quiet road to Anaconda on a dark and very cold morning.

There was some traffic and we walked against the flow using our headlamps for the first hour, making good time on the sealed road.  By soon after 7am we were on the outskirts of the historic copper mining town of Anaconda (5500’) which occupied the floor of a flat river valley bordered by high partly-forested mountains.  The town was stretched out, long and thin, and it took us another hour to reach the centre of the old town and the bar where we were hoping to get a good breakfast.  We were not disappointed (see above).  While there, Dave messaged the (unmanned) motel where we were booked to stay tonight to see if we could possibly get an early check-in and they responded immediately that our room was ready.  Another win!

We walked another 1.5km to the motel, detouring via the adjacent supermarket for snacks, and were checked in by 9:30am.

Today will be a “Nero” (near Zero = less than 10 miles) in thru-hiker parlance and we will be hiking again early tomorrow, but the early check-in gave us most of the day to do our usual chores and to relax.