A volunteer trail crew cleared deadfall from the Sourdough Trail on Tuesday and found four ceramic mugs still steaming beside a switchback at mile two. The mugs sat on a flat rock arranged in a loose square, each a different color. No hikers were in sight.

Crew lead Marnie Hafdahl, 34, of Belgrade said the coffee smelled like the dark roast from the place on North Seventh that opens at five. She touched one mug. It burned her fingertips. “Someone was here minutes ago,” she said. “But we didn’t pass anyone on the way up. And we started at dawn.”

The crew reported the mugs to the Forest Service office on Huffine Lane. Ranger Doug Pettigrew, 52, drove up from Bozeman to investigate. He found footprints leading away from the switchback — trail runners, by the tread pattern — but they vanished into scree after fifty yards. The mugs had no logos. Just hand-thrown clay, thick walls, the kind a person keeps for decades.

Hikers passing through Wednesday morning found the mugs gone. The rock was empty. A single pine cone sat in the center of the square.

“I’ve seen a lot of things left on trail,” said Pettigrew, pouring his own thermos into a stainless cup. “Gloves. Poles. Once a whole tent. But hot coffee in ceramic? That’s someone who knew exactly where they’d stop. Exactly when they’d leave.”

Local runner Kip Tanner, 29, said he passed the switchback at 5:47 a.m. Tuesday. “Dark. Quiet. Just me and the wind,” he said. “But the air smelled like coffee. Strong. I thought I was dreaming it.”

The Forest Service has no plans to install a café at the switchback. Pettigrew said the mugs were likely carried up by someone who knows the trail better than the map. He rinsed his cup in the creek at the bottom. The water was cold. The pine cone is still on the rock.