CDT Day 90 (8/16/23)

Zero miles

Verbatim

Butter wraps. Is it plastic or is it aluminum? It’s always hard to tell. Anyways, I’ve got four of them now in my pocket because I ate some French Toast at Donovan's. What’s better, a little plastic cup with whipped butter or a four piece of little butter wraps? Volume or weight?

I’m hanging with Steve and his wife at the Firefly Café. They’re awesome. Super friendly. I was just hanging with another Steve at the Pintlers Portal Hostel. He was awesome. Pro Wolf by the way. Opposite of the guy I got a ride from to Darby.

Anaconda is awesome. I’d live here if I could. There’s a CDT night sponsored at the hostel tomorrow evening. Should I stay? I think yes, especially if I can find a place to slack pack the road walk and then hitch back into town. I might try that. It will be good to meet people.

I’m laying now in the park where I slept last night. I notice that there’s a “no camping” sign nailed to the tree I slept beneath last night. Which is funny to me. I certainly wasn’t camping. Just sleeping.

I just finished dinner, having ordered a salad at Donivan’s. It was ok, but I met Terry, the new owner. She’s just moved here, and purchased both the restaurant and the old paper shop across the street. She says she’d renovating the shop into apartments and works seventeen hour days. Craziness.

I decided to stay for a double zero, to attend the hiker party happening tomorrow night at the hostel. Maybe I can connect with some people about carrying my plastic. I’ll also enjoy some buffalo tacos. I’ve never eaten buffalo. But I should try it. I talked with Steve from the hostel. It was good to make connections. I could live here for some time I think.

I also stopped by the bike shop and met Emily and Matt. They were really pleasant people.

This trip is costing more than I’d like. Days like today, for instance, where I’m spending money on restaurants and potentially a hostel stay which I don’t need to. It’s good to experience this culture. But damn, I want to travel more cheaply and efficiently. It’s likely I’ll need to work after this rather than continuing to travel. Maybe I can squeeze in the AT hike. I really should SOBO the AT this fall. I want the oppurtunity to contrast the pack weight. I want to walk nimbly in the woods. I want to fly.

At dinner I ordered a salad with ranch dressing. The dressing came in a little plastic tub. what. I was so disappointed.

Post Note

If you’re traveling through Anaconda MT go to the Firefly Café. It’s awesome. They food is expensive, but it’s really high quality and the people there are super nice. I love a good, open, and quiet restaurant. The only problem is that if they’re quiet, I worry that they’re not succeeding, and then worry that they won’t be around next time I come through. I also feel for the people working the dream, because I started to care for them through my enjoyment of their service. I bought a $1 sticker from the Firefly Café and put it on my BearVault500. That’s where all my outdoorsy traveling stickers go. They’re starting to layer on top of each other. But the Firefly Café’s sticker is mostly see through. So I put it on top of another favorite sticker and now you can see both at once. That’s a good deal! It won’t be covered anytime soon. Good sticker. Good people. Good food. Go to the Firefly Café.

I swear I’m a vegetarian. I really am. When it’s my consumer choice I am a vegetarian. When I love someone who is a vegetarian I am a vegetarian. But when the Buffalo is already dead and there’s going to be way too much for the four or five hikers in town I am going to eat the heck out of that meat for several reasons. One; it’s more ecological at this point (the point of the Buffalo being killed for other people) to eat the meat than let it waste. The mistake has already been made. Two; I need to know what Buffalo tastes like so when I talk to ranchers about how they should kill, and not replace, their cows, tear down their fences, and let the Buffalo run free so I know what I’m talking about. If we’re going to support the return of the Buffalo then we’ve got to get people excited about how it’s going to taste. The Buffalo was good, by the way. Much better than ground beef.

The fact that I doubled zeroed in Anaconda is atrocious. I would never do that. And to be honest I really didn’t enjoy the zeroing aspect of it that much. But there was a party to stay for where I hoped to share the gift that was my plastic journey. And there was a pair of bikes I could ride around town on. And there are cool people almost everywhere you go in Anaconda. I did not slack pack. I was too lazy to find someone to go pick me up. I could have hitched back. But if I did all that I’d have to find someway to hitch back out to the point at which I’d stopped hiking. Then then they would have thought I was yellow blazing. I’d have to explain I’d slack packed the day before. It just seemed like so much work. If I had slack packed I would have left my gear behind but still carried my plastic. Just so we’re clear. That seemed marginally appropriate.