Posted by 26.8 miles
Today was all business to reach West Yellowstone following along forest roads in the trees with very few views. The lack of photos tells the story of a long and boring walk into town.
Several of the roads were shared use with ATV’s which would kick dust up as they passed. Most were courteous slowing down to lessen the dust as they passed.
This was a dry section of trail and around lunch time I had to venture 0.4 miles off trail to locate a flowing stream on a side road.
Early afternoon I was expecting to have to follow yet more dirt roads to West Yellowstone but stumbled upon on a bitumen rail trail as an intersection with the CDT Redline. Along the way I left Idaho, entering Montana.
My initial plan was to camp 5 miles short of West Yellowstone and hike a nero into town tomorrow but on reaching the rail trail and seeing a sign that it was only 9 miles into town I committed to walk the whole distance into town. It would be fast walking and I was confident of a 3 mile/hour pace that would see me into town by 5:30pm.
This was great as camping options along the route were extremely limited with steep and rocky terrain and I doubted I’d be able to find a suitable place short of town.
Sure enough I reached town just before 6pm. This would now allow me to take an unplanned full day tomorrow.
Mick Beckers 
How good mate, You have reached Montana all the way from New Mexico & many many steps in between, Your a friggen legend Mick…. Enjoy the final weeks bud, its been awsome just following your journey so far!