Aaron Unscripted A blog about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings…

Giardia Ain’t No Joke!

I had a misreable night, to say the least. I had gotten fairly tired and went to bed early. I woke up later with a pretty crazy feaver, and flu-like achs and pains all over. Soon after I was stumbling to the outhouse in the dark, dehydrated and dizzy. I was happy the Thrown was in good clean shape, with a healthy stalk of toilet paper. I returned every hour or two for the remainder of the night, and on into the morning.

I knew something bad was up, and I had a hunch that it might be Giardia. Sometime in the night I dicided that I needed to get to a clinic or hospital. The onset of my illness was just too quick. In the morning I slogged around to gather all my gear and packed it up pretty cruidly. I had met the camp hosts the night before, they had actually met Jim Bean and Rain Queen years before when they where cycling. They offered to give me a ride to the nearest clinic. After some false stops in small reservation towns we ended up in Cut Bank, the camp hosts home city.

At the Clinic they took a few samples from variouse places, and as I was waiting for the results I was given an IV to combat my dehydration.  The results came back as most likely Giardia, but they would have to send my speciment off to Denver CO. to find out for sure. No harm in treating for it now. I was given a perscription, and told to take it easy (not hike) until I was done taking the weeks worth of medication.

I got a ride to a Super 8 motel by Red, the grounds keeper of the Clinic. The hotel was located pretty conveniatly. Next door I was able to get my perscription. The man behind the counter was kind of odd, but I suppose he fit right into this town. I noticed he was wearing a "Merry Christmas" button on his uniform vest.

I didn't venture too far from the toilet for the first day, but by the following afternoon I was ready to walk around a bit more, mostly drivin by my growing hunger. I managed to eat a foot long Subway. I also found a small (two-screen) theater and watched Transformers 2.

The next morning I checked out, caught a train to Shelby, and then got a hitch to Great Falls. Great Falls is a much larger town, and I was hoping to get some business done, as well as find a cheaper hotel to hold up in. I spent the next three days at another Super 8 hotel. It was conveniently located next to the mall, where they had a pretty nice sporting goods store.  I broke down on baught a netbook so that I could curb my internet addicition. The hotel lobby computer was running win95 and just wasn't cutting it.

The idea was to catch the crew in Lincoln MT. Unfortunately it was a 75 mile hitch to get there. No other transportation was available. After spending a good portion of a day and a half trying to find a ride to Lincoln I broke down and rented a car. I picked it up in Great Falls, and dropped it off in Helena MT. I stopped over in Lincoln for a couple days. I ended up picking up Suge on the road into Lincoln. He had just finished up hiking through The Bob, and was surprised to see me pull up in a car.  He was pretty happy to see me, and to have a ride into town.  We split the cost of a room for two nights. I was able to pick up my bounce bucket from the post office, and I also caught up on a good bit of journaling. Lincoln is a pretty cool little touristy town, a perfect little hiker town. At the end of our stay, I gave Suge a ride up to Rodger Pass in the morning and headed off to Helena. I'm sure Suge will catch up to me when I get back on the trail.