CDT 23: Blue Skies and Rainy Days with Friends

'Leadore to Darby'Arriving in Leadore, we chose to stay at the Leadore Inn. The New Owner, Sam, was very hiker friendly. In the morning he brought a big thermos of coffee out to the front porch where we all sat drinking our morning coffee. After a shirt time, two other sets of hikers showed up and we all hung out there for the morning and the evening hours. We had such a great time in Leadore, ID we didn't want to leave. Sam, from Leadore Inn, drove us and two other hikers up to Bannock Pass. We all gathered our things and started hiking.The skies were blue and sunny and the air was cool, but comfortably warm. We all started off hiking together, which I assumed wouldn't last long since most other hikers chat for a bit but are so much faster they usually sprint ahead at the first lull in the conversation. But this didn't happened, or perhaps there was never a lull in the conversation. We all hiked together, sat up camp together, and hung out watching the sunset together.The next day we all hiked together again. The miles flew by quickly and we stopped early and camped near a famous spring used by Sacajawea, Lewis, and Clark. I love things like this, a famous spring in history. It makes me feel connected to a bigger story somehow, like the way finding an Indian arrowhead in the Basin made my thoughts whirl about the person that carved it, the spring made my thoughts whirl about all who might have used it, where they were going, who they were, and how they got here.We woke the next morning to more blue skies, blue skies that came and went throughout the day, turning to cold rain and then hail as we made our way across rocky ridges. But somehow that cold, wet, rain and hail just seemed less bad while hiking with friends.Eventually, our paths parted and we took different routes. This was the first time on this trek that we had hiked others. Hiking and camping with others was common on the PCT, but even with the large number of hikers on the CDT this year, there just isn't that many of us out here.