SUMMARY:  It is hard to write this without falling asleep! We are very tired—hiking all day only produced 23 1/2 miles because we had to do so much on soft sand. We met our first real SoBo this morning—a Brit named Phantom. He warned us about the sand, and he wasn’t kidding! It was slow, hard going.

We also made two stops to collect and treat water—one early morning and one almost at the end of the day. One spring we passed operates with a valve in a barrel—and in the barrel was a set of bocce balls. Fun! We did not linger—we had miles to do. We met a rancher out in his truck with his 4 kids, bringing salt blocks to the cows.

The day finished with a climb up to 8,000 feet. We are camped up here in a lovely mountain dell with wind in the trees. Yes—trees again!

DETAILS:  This morning was cloudy and fairly cold, with a very cold wind blowing.  Brrrr!  I wore my down jacket and fleece headband.  Our first goal was the A & M (an oil company) Reservoir, where we took on enough water to last us for the rest of the day.  While we were there, a herd of cows arrived.  First they circled around the reservoir fence (obviously looking for a way through!), then finally gave up and RAN to the little creek that overflows from the reservoir.  Wow, they were thirsty!   They stood there and drank and drank and drank.

At this point, the CDT is following a natural gas pipeline road.  In the morning, two guys in a car came along, got out, and went to work on one of the places where the pipe is above ground.   We also met the rancher who owns the cows–he was out in his pickup truck, accompanied by his 4 cute kids, to bring salt/mineral blocks to the cows.

We also met our first REAL SOBO–a Brit guy named Phantom.  He was moving fast, but stopped to warn us that we were about to head into some tough going–very soft sand, for miles.  No kidding!   It was like walking on the dry sand part of the beach back home, with no option to walk on the firm wet sand near the water.  Sometimes we were able to leave the road/trail and walk nearby on sand that was a bit firmer.  But it was such slow going, and so wearing, argh!  To add to the fun, the sun finally came out, and it was pretty hot–only the little bit of breeze kept it bearable.   We passed a water source which involves a valve located inside a barrel.  I’d heard about this place–it has a set of bocce balls inside the barrel.  Sure ‘nough, there they were!   But we didn’t stop for a game, because we wanted to get in more miles…today has been so much slow, hard going.

We finally reached a spring which is the last FOR SURE good water for the next 30 miles.  It was uphill from the trail and inside a very extensive fenced area.  We followed a use path up to it and found Stop ‘n Go was already there, filtering water by using a Sawyer filter plus gravity.  We mixed up our AquaMira and treated the water that way.   Usually we don’t worry about spring water, but there were so many cows around that we decided it was better to be safe than sorry.  Stop ‘n Go says he’s headed for Lander, where he will stop and EAT!  We aren’t planning to go there, but push on to South Pass City.

When we put our packs back on, grooooan, they were heavy!  We both are carrying “max loads” of water.  And we also were faced with a big climb up into the mountains.  Oh well–gotta do what we’ve gotta do–keep walking!   On the way up, we met our second SOBO, which was great!  Tonight we are camped in a very pretty little dell, on green grass, with a gnarly pine tree next to us and dramatic rock formations nearby.  I was disappointed when I figured out our mileage for today–only 23 1/2 miles, even though we tried so hard.  We are both exhausted by the miles of soft sand.  Hopefully it will be easier going tomorrow.