The calendar may claim it’s still summer, but Montana missed the memo. The day we left Anaconda, it was a sweltering 80 degrees. The very next evening we were huddled around a campfire with Spam, another hiker, while tiny snowflakes drifted down from a white sky. We woke the next morning to a delighted cry from Spam, “It’s Narnia!”

One glance through our tent’s tiny window revealed that the world had turned white overnight…and it was still snowing. We didn’t make it out of the tent until noon that day. All afternoon it continued to spit snow while icy winds lashed against our faces. We weren’t very well prepared, and spent one very cold and sleepless night in a tent half-collapsing under the snow which continued to fall. We weren’t close to where we’d planned our next resupply but, well, desperate times. There was no way that we were going to make it another 40 miles in this weather with our current gear.

We made the decision to drop off the trail early, and the following morning we began what Britta termed “Operation Hot Shower”. Leaving the buried trail, we bushwacked for several miles through a foot and a half of white powder to reach a nearby gravel road. We then followed the road out to the interstate, where we hitched a ride into Helena to buy some more gear.

We’re now headed back to where we left off – only with better gear. Come snow, rain, or an early winter, we’re planning to finish this trail!