Tues., June 14 - We had only very brief conversations today. Jim called from the hotel at 8am (6 his time) as he was ready to go to breakfast in the hotel. Unfortunately, the weather forecast had completely changed - now calling for showers. It was raining lightly and so he will probably get wet today. He will also be facing a bit of a wind as well.
Jim called around 11am when he was 6 miles into his trip (by luck, he had some level of cell coverage - not great reception but better than nothing). As expected, the headwind was not helping at all. He said that he was 10 minutes into his trip and realized that he had forgotten his water bottles in the room refrigerator. So back he went - lost 20 minutes. When he called, the skies were just beginning to clear and the sun was coming out.
Jim called at 5pm from the church in Frazer - he arrived on schedule and met Father Jolly who let him into the church basement for his night's stay. He had to use Father Jolly's cell phone to call me, since Jim had no reception on his. We didn't talk long but he said that he made it without incident today - 7 1/2 hours. The church basement will be a fine place to spend the night - restroom and electricity for charging reader and phone. Unfortunately, no phone for me to call him like I did in the Poplar church.
I don't like that we can't talk tonight, but at least I know that he is safe. Hopefully he will have some level of cell coverage tomorrow.
Miles Today - 20.....Total Cumulative Miles - 381
Wed., June 15 - Jim was able to call around 11:30am, when he got to the top of a hill and had reception. At that point he was about 4 miles away from Nashua. He did fine in the church basement, although he found it a bit chilly. He decided to spend most of the time upstairs in the carpeted church vestibule, which was much warmer. he only went downstairs for the restroom.
Today was his earliest yet to get on the road - up at 4:15am, seeing a full moon on the horizon - absolutely beautiful and on the way at 5:45am. He met a bicyclist (Mike) who was towing a wagon and was traveling from Seattle to Milwaukee! He mentioned that he had stayed in the Nashua town park (where Jim is headed) and it was quite nice. He also mentioned that there was a convenience store right next to the park. Later on he met two more bicyclists (the Smith brothers) who were cycling from Tacoma, WA to Vermont. They swapped blog addresses! Jim said it was fun to see fellow road warriors along his way. Today is a gorgeous sunny day, not a cloud in the sky and comfortably cool. One disturbing thing he noticed was that unlike the previous days, he noticed absolutely no freight train traffic today. He even saw a railroad maintenance truck going down the tracks eastbound - seems to mean that the tracks are shut down - does not bode well for tomorrow's planned trip to Minot.
Jim reached Nashua, MT just before 11:30 - over 5.5 hours without a break. He found the Wagon Wheel Bar but it wasn't open yet. The owner's wife, Tracy, arrived and let Jim use her phone to call me. She also let him give me the phone # so I could call him a couple of times to give him Amtrak updates. Tracy also GAVE him a large bowl of piping hot chicken and wild rice soup - homemade & delicious!
Then he met the bartender, Debby and her friend Dale - got to talking and Jim bought Dale a beer. Jim was getting concerned listening to people in the bar talking about the trains not running. I called Amtrak a few times and today's train was canceled. I finally got a little more info. This train starts in Seattle and runs to Chicago. Today's train could not go any further than Spokane due to rock slides in Idaho!! Amtrak says that they plan on running tomorrow, but who knows.... I worked on some other transportation possibilities. Glasgow has one rental car company but they don't have an available car (he would have driven to Minot for his plane).
We do have one Plan B. If the train doesn't run, he will have Orbitz change his reservation to fly out of Glasgow to Denver and then to Newark - a full day of traveling, but at least he can get home.
Then Dale drove Jim .4 mile off his route to the town park and he set up his tent in the park and recharged all his equipment. The restroom does have a shower so that will be good tomorrow. Back at the bar, a fellow customer let Jim use her phone to call me and I gave him the Plan B info and we are just hoping that he doesn't need it. Debby then told him she had called Amtrak and they said that the train WAS NOT running tomorrow - the opposite of what they told me - UGH!!!
Miles Today - 16.....Total Cumulative Miles - 397
Thurs., June 16 - Jim wasn't able to call until around 3pm while I was in Philadelphia waiting in line to see the Liberty Bell (on a college tour trip with Marcia & Mason). Jim was at the Glasgow train station, using a pay phone there. As of then, the train was going to run, but an hour behind. That is no big deal - we are just grateful that the train is running!
He said that it had rained all night - waking him up on and off. When he got up at 5am, the rain had stopped and the sky was overcast. He was surprised to see that his tent rain fly had come free from the stake due to wind, allowing rain to come in on that side of the tent. He says he will need to be more careful on his tie downs in the future - lesson learned. The foot of his sleeping bag was wet on the outside, but it did not penetrate. It was a good thing that this was the last night he needed it - he won't be able to dry it out until he gets home.
He left camp just before 7:30 with good temps and he soon shed his fleeces. Today's hike was marred by an attack of gnats - swarming his face, eyes, ears and biting - very irksome. Even the strong DEET did nothing to dispel the swarms. He had no choice but to keep going without a rest stop, arriving in Glasgow around noon - THE END OF THE LINE FOR THIS HIKE!!! He stopped at a local restaurant and filled his belly then on to the train station - arriving around 1pm. Amtrak does not man this station, but the freight line Burlington Northern does. They have access to the Amtrak status and confirmed that the train was running, but was an hour late so far.
He camped in the station waiting room and heard snippets of conversation from others finding out that the train continued to be delayed. So.... 5.5 hours later, he boarded the train at 6:29pm (originally scheduled for 3:47). On a side note, Jim decided to find a spot near the station to try and hide his fuel canister for the Sept. hike If you remember from the initial blog, his fuel was confiscated by the airline. He found a 1-foot spot between two buildings with small stones that could be moved. So he dug it out a little (no one around) and basically buried the canister and covered it with the stones - invisible to anyone looking at it - 50 feet away from the waiting room. Will it really be there for him in Sept??? Apparently he had thought about this for days previously and said "sometimes you just have to try something".
Jim didn't get much sleep on the train because as it got dark, they were no longer announcing the various stations and he was afraid he might miss his station.
Jim did say how interesting it was for the first 100 miles or so to see from the train the areas and towns that he had walked through earlier. He could also see much evidence of the flooding of the Missouri River and its tributaries along the way. All of the river banks were flooding the adjacent valley fields. He could even see water along the tracks - apparently not enough to stop the train.
Miles Today - 14.5....Total Cumulative Miles - 411.5 (THE END!!!)
Fri., June 17 - The train continued to lose time in route and finally arrived in Minot at 1:20am - 4 hours late!!!
Unfortunately, he still had no cell coverage so he couldn't call the taxi company that he has previously arranged. He started to walk and saw the police station. He went in and asked directions to the airport and checked on the safety of the route - no problem according to the police. Two miles later he walked into the airport and waited the three hours for his 5am flight.
His connection in Minneapolis went much better than mine did two weeks ago. I had stayed at a Philadelphia hotel with Marcia & Mason and they took the train home to CT this morning and I picked Jim up at the airport around 11am and we headed for home stopping for lunch at Applebees. When we got home, Jim spread out all of his wet gear and got his dirty clothes into the washer. Then Jim took a 3-hour nap!!! He really needed to catch up on the missed sleep from last night.
This was a challenging hike and Jim is happy to be home, but at the same time looking forward to planning his Sept. hike.
Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. Jim really appreciates them all. He is looking forward to reading both the blog and your comments. As usual, Jim will send out his hike epilogue (always my favorite to read) when he can gather his thoughts.
Mean
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