Day 72 – The World is Flat
Day miles: 22.6
Trip miles: 1393
There’s a certain joy when I wake up in a hotel room on trail. It’s a real bed, for one. Hotels also usually have a wide array of TV channels, including things like HBO. I love just sitting in the bed and turning the TV on. That’s exactly what I did this morning.
I got sucked into some zombie movie that had an interesting twist to it. It was written from the perspective of a young man who was a zombie. He feels trapped and there is still some humanity left in him. He saves this girl from being eaten, though he does eat her boyfriend’s brain. This allows him to know her a bit because eating the brain gives him the ability to see his memories.
Anyway, I can’t remember what it was called and I only watched 30 minutes or so. I may try to find it to watch post trail. It spoke to me of the importance and power of personal connection. Maybe we all have times in life where we feel a little like zombies. Maybe a zombie apocalypse doesn’t happen in a world where we work harder to make society a more inclusive, friendly place – a world where people feel seen and heard. Maybe brains don’t need to be eaten when communities expand, listen, and accept, rather than contract, dig in, and marginalize. Brain eating is, sadly, a vicious cycle that we repeat so well.
The Econolodge had a grab and go breakfast, but it wasn’t that great. I ate some of that, and then had a yoghurt parfait, two donuts, and an orange juice that I purchased yesterday at the City Market grocery. The hotel did have coffee, which was nice.
When I finished eating, I turned off the TV to keep myself from getting dangerously close to deciding not to hike out until the evening. I hopped in the shower to get one last cleaning in, then packed up my gear and headed to the lobby to check out.
I decided to utilize Lyft or Uber to go to the post office. It was 8 bucks, and totally worth not having to sweat the mile and change walk with my food-laden pack. My driver was a friendly guy who had grown up in Silver City, NM. He told me that, to his knowledge, he was the only ride share driver in Rawlins.
At the post office, I saw a hiker I had met at the RV Park in Riverside named Blister. He was having an all-too-familiar issue. REI had shipped something via UPS to the post office there, but that post office did not accept third party logistics company deliveries. Blister is from the Netherlands. It’s hard enough figuring out the ins and outs of thru-hiking logistics as a native. I imagine it is a pretty steep learning curve as a visitor from another country. Speaking from personal experience having lived and traveled in other countries, sometimes just normal, daily things feel like an entire adventure (and not always the good kind).
I mailed home some odds and ends. I sent back my Zpacks food bag as I swapped it out for my Ursack. The Ursack is just a more robust food bag that is supposed to be bear proof in the sense that they cannot chew through it. I’ll be in grizzly bear country soon enough and won’t want to have my food in my tent. I also use Opsak hermetically sealed plastic bags inside the Ursack to contain food odor. I sent a roll of Leuko tape home after topping up my supply, as well as my dual camera battery charger. I don’t really need the charger as I can charge directly via my camera. This was a weight-saving measure that I should have taken a while back.
A Korean lady helped me out at the post office. She was super friendly and told me that the visitor center next door had a sign-in board for hikers and some free swag, so I decided to check it out. I thanked her in Korean (I picked up one or two phrases from friends while living in China), which made her get momentarily excited until she realized that was all I had.
The visitor center was great, but I wished I had known about it before doing my post office business. Swag is always a conundrum for a hiker – you want it, but don’t want to, or can’t, carry it. They had free chapstick (I just bought a new one yesterday), buffs, stickers, etc. It was a really nice setup. I signed the board, used the bathroom, and left. My pack was heavy enough!
The walk out of Rawlins wasn’t bad. I was on the road for a while, but had plenty of shoulder. Eventually, I turned off the main highway onto a dirt road, which was going to be a theme for the rest of the day. I walked dirt roads that distantly paralleled the highway.
There was no shade or tree cover, with the exception of one fantastic spot that had several clusters of pine trees just before I had to briefly join the highway again. I took a lunch break under the pines in the shade. The first water was about 11 or 12 miles out of town. Much like New Mexico, I was now structuring my days and timing around water availability again.
It was quite windy all day. While that can be annoying sometimes, it helped to keep me a bit cooler in the absence of shade. There were also sections of trail that I passed through where people had commented in FarOut about the mosquitoes being really bad. I didn’t see any mosquitoes! I assume the wind kept them at bay, though I did also apply a second round of permethrin to my clothes and pack while in Rawlins. I soaked everything in it to the point where I was probably glowing with a half life as I walked down the trail.
I finished up the day and camped beside a desolate dirt road I was on. I found a spot that was clear, though it was surrounded by cacti. I was happy to eat dinner, knowing my pack would be a bit lighter tomorrow.
So far hiking in the basin has been a learning experience. It’s different than the New Mexican desert. Strangely, it is more exposed and has less tall vegetation – certainly less shade! The landscape has some minor rolling hills, but is so flat that I can see for miles and miles around. The scale of it all is something else! I was grateful for the wind in the buggy sections today and happy to have a calm evening in my tent. Tomorrow will be tomorrow soon enough!
Day 73 – More of the Same
Day miles: 30.2
Trip miles: 1423.2
Today felt a bit like I was walking on a treadmill. It was very flat and I could see way off into the distance. The sun was bright, but I had a breeze most of the day. I stared at the road stretching out for miles before me, lined with sagebrush for as far as the eye could see.
There was very little variation to this vista throughout the day. I definitely leaned on my podcasts a bit to keep up my pace. While I enjoyed the hiking, it was definitely one of those days where I was focused on making some miles.
It’s interesting to compare the Wyoming basin with my experience in the initial desert section in New Mexico known as the boot heel. Today’s hiking revealed no shade whatsoever. In the 30 miles I hiked today there was nary a tree nor anything tall enough to produce usable shade.The boot heel, on the other hand, had a decent amount of shade, which I was able to find on a daily basis.
I lathered myself in sunscreen throughout the day to try to keep from burning. I had some longer water caddies, but nothing too crazy – no 20+ milers. I actually hiked past a water cache. I already had water, so I didn’t need any. Shortly thereafter I met the two ladies sho supplied that cache, driving down the road in their truck. They were incredibly nice and topped me off with some cooler water. All of mine had gotten hot in the sun, so it was refreshing to have something a bit cooler.
After that unexpected and amazing encounter. I basically just kept walking until late evening. I saw lots of pronghorn today, which are kind of like small brown and white deer with short, slightly curved horns. They sort of look like antelope, and are incredibly fast. One of them ran around me in a semi circle and it must have been going 30mph!
Just before stopping for the evening, I started to climb gradually up a road towards some mountains. I set up camp on a ridge with a view of the hills I would head into tomorrow. The sky wasn’t completely clear, but it didn’t look like it was going go storm. The two ladies I met earlier said that it was supposed to rain today. I asked them if the storms got crazy, mentally noting that I probably would have no cover while camping in this vast landscape. They said no, it usually only rained for about 15 minutes and that was it. I took comfort in this, as I was already picturing some kind of prairie twister flinging my body the rest of the way to Canada.
I admittedly did a poor job setting up my tent. I was tired and the wind hadn’t died down yet. I figured it wouldn’t rain – the basin is so dry – so I haphazardly stuck my tent stakes in and did not set myself up to be able to close my tent vestibule. I had a nice view of the valley below from my perch.
I was grateful for ample water, nature sightings, and my ability to cover some miles today. I’m hopeful for a bit more variety in the landscape tomorrow, but we shall see!
Day 74 – The Day of Surprises
Day miles: 30.1
Trip miles: 1453.3
At 4:45AM I awoke to both my alarm and lightning. I had planned to get an early start, so when I saw the lightning and heard thunder, I was surprised. Since the basin was so dry and hot, I had sort of assumed there wouldn’t be any storms. Obviously I was wrong. Whatever this was, it had rolled in overnight and was now making its presence known.
I poked my head out of my tent and took my customary morning pee while kneeling in the doorway. Dark clouds were all around. I saw lightning flash over the mountains in the direction I was heading. Thunder cracked and I counted the seconds – one one thousand, two one thousand…. It was about three or four miles away.
I was wide awake at this point. A faint pattering of rain began to fall, and I remembered that I had haphazardly set up my tent the night before. Not only that, but I was camped on an exposed bluff, higher than I would like to be and with zero wind coverage. Should I try to quickly move my tent to lower ground?
I decided against moving my tent. I might not be fast enough and get caught in a downpour. Instead, I fastened my door closed as best I could. I didn’t stake my tent properly, so I couldn’t hook the door out at an angle. Instead, I took one of my safety pins and used that to at least secure the ends of each vestibule flap together. Then, I waited.
It rained lightly, then stopped while the wind picked up. The lightning and thunder faded pretty quickly. I knew better than to head out too quickly though, so again, I waited.
Finally things seemed to be calming down around quarter to 7. The sky was still dark, but it had lightened up a bit with sunrise. I decided to make my move.
To my surprise, when I got out of my tent, a wild horse was nearby, staring at me. It seemed just as surprised as I was. It galloped off to a safe distance to continue grazing. I packed up my gear and headed north, all the while trying to read the sky.
It rained on and off for the first half of the day, but the rain was always light and in short bursts. I didn’t see any more lightning, which was a relief, because I was gradually climbing higher in elevation. I put my rain gear on and took it off multiple times, ultimately packing my camera away as well.
The other surprise today was the change in terrain. Yesterday the world was flat; today it had curves. While the surface of the land still resembled high desert, it was no longer just flat. The Wyoming basin had almost become the red-headed stepchild of Colorado and New Mexico. It had far less shade than the desert in New Mexico, but milder temperatures. It had volatile weather like Colorado, and even a few steep climbs today. It was a strange place here, and I felt like I needed to tread lightly and learn as much as possible as quickly as possible to best structure my days.
As the day heated up, the clouds burned away and the weather improved. I enjoyed the early cloud cover, but now the sun was out and it was hot! Ironically, while it was raining, I passed a section with a few trees. Once the sun came out, there was no shade to be found.
I saw quite a few pronghorn today. These look like small deer, or antelope. They are brown with white patches and have two horns that seem to curve slightly backwards. They are incredibly fast and typically take off before I get close, but today I walked up on one that seemed curious about me. It let me get fairly close, then snorted before bounding up and over a ridge.
I spent the rest of the day climbing gradually up. I had a 20 mile water carry, so I was carrying quite a bit of water weight during that. At about 4:45PM, I was within about two tenths of a mile from a reported water cache I was hoping still had water, when I saw a large truck parked off the dirt road. There were people sitting around the truck and it looked like they were tailgating.
A woman called out to me, so I wandered over an discovered three other hikers and a lady doing trail magic! Apparently one of the hikers, a woman from Missouri named Vista, had coached this woman’s (I think her name was Shelby) daughter in basketball. They had stayed in touch, the lady was a Wyoming native, yada yada yada, here she was doing trail magic. There were two other hikers at this little oasis in the desert as well.
Just like that I was around people again. I had spent yesterday and today thinking I was in the middle of nowhere and no other hikers were around, but little did I know that people were closer than I thought.
I was also really surprised to get trail magic, and in the middle of nowhere! Shelby had a delicious limeade that she had made. I am quite sure I will dream about that for the rest of the trip – it was so refreshing! She also had soft drinks, chips, chocolate chip cookies, and she cooked us brats and burgers on her camp grill. It was amazing, and I was HUNGRY!
I had eaten all of my snacks for the day by the time I got there, so I was a bit loopy. Toward the end of the day when I get hungry for dinner, but my snacks are gone and I’m still trying to make miles, I am a little like a zombie. All I can think about is getting to that next brain munch.
After eating I felt like a million bucks. We sat around and talked for a while. Shelby was a true angel. It was her first time doing trail magic, and she had outdone herself. I helped her put away her setup with the others, thanked her profusely, then headed out into the fading light.
Shelby had topped off our waters so I no longer needed the cache. I skipped that and hiked on into dusk, setting my tent up on a lovely bluff with a view of the sunset just as the sky was turning hues of orange and pink, celebrating another day.
Today was full of surprises. I was grateful not to have to walk through lightning, for the trail magic, and for a beautiful end to the day. I had also hiked quite a few miles. If I put in a solid day tomorrow, it would be an easy walk into South Pass City the following morning.
I mailed myself a resupply box to South Pass City from Breckenridge. My original plan had been to not stop until Pinedale, partway through the Wind River Range. But, I forgot to get bear spray in Rawlins, so I will probably dip into the town of Lander after South Pass City to buy some. I might also top up my food, carry more, and skip Pinedale. If I do this, I will hike 160 miles to Dubois. That should be about 6.5 days of hiking. I’m leaning towards doing that at the moment, but we shall see. Right now it is time for sleep!
Day 75 – The Cow Accords
Day miles: 32.1
Trip miles: 1485.4
Today I had an absolutely beautiful sunrise, and overall a beautiful day. I woke up early and was hiking by just a few minutes after 6. Not too long after sunrise, some clouds moved in and I enjoyed their shade for most of the rest of the day.
I navigated a maze of dirt roads today. I again saw lots of pronghorn. I also saw wild horses, including a group of 6 with a little black colt. But what I really spent some time on today were Cow Accords.
Every time I got to a spring today it was surrounded by cows. Each time I approached, I would talk with the cows, move slowly, and hope they would leave so that I could go right up to the water. This usually works, but today it felt like there was extra negotiation involved. I had one cow that wouldn’t budge, so I had to make an elaborate circle around it to approach the spring from the back. It kept snorting at me and fussing, all over a little water!
In another case I thought a cow was going to charge me. I was trying to work my way around it and it started to walk towards me when I was already close. It was a very clear “go on, git!” kind of walk. Regardless, all was well that ended well and I was granted passage in all cases.
As I got closer to South Pass City, I noticed some really dark Grinch clouds hanging around the hills. I hurried and made camp in a fairly well-protected spot. It was a good thing I did, because the most intense thunderstorm of the trip yet rolled through. Fortunately, the worst of it passed elsewhere, but for a while there was no break in the thunder at all – it was just constant!
It rained heavily and there was a lot of lightning and thunder. I was incredibly grateful for my camp spot – it was great for weathering a storm. I couldn’t imagine being out in the flat, exposed area during that one. It would have been terrifying! I hoped the others behind me either evaded the storm altogether or found decent shelter.
I camped 3 miles from South Pass City and 5.7 from the highway into Lander, which is 35 miles off trail. Tomorrow I will grab my box from South Pass City mid morning when the museum there opens (I think it is some kind of historic ghost town…), then hitch into Lander. I don’t think I’ll stay in town, but we shall see. It might be too tempting to pass up.
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