SUMMARY:  Last night we studied our maps plus info we’d gotten from other hikers, and decided that the best thing to do was what Tatoo Joe had suggested– leave the CDT at Union Pass, then hike FR263 + Hwy 26 to Lava Mountain Lodge, where our box was. We got to the turnoff, and were 45 minutes along on FR 263 when we found it blocked with a “Road Closed–Fire Activity” sign. Oh no! There was no sign of fire—blue skies, no smoke. The notices on the sign were a week old.

I said, “Let’s go on—it will be fine.” Fixit said, “No, that would be disobeying their sign. Back to the trail,” and off he went. I hesitated by the sign, very sad, and suddenly (I’m not sure what was going on) I felt completely overwhelmed, and could hardly breathe. I prayed a very incoherent prayer for help, and stumbled along after Fixit, who was now way ahead.

A few minutes later God answered my desperate cry– along came a ranger in a truck, who offered us food and maps and best of all, told us “Go on—it’s OK to walk FR 263.” So we did—the last bit we did ride with a firefighter, and walked very smoky Hwy 26 to Lava Mountain Lodge.

DETAILS:  Brrrr, it was cold this morning!  Our tent was covered with ice, and on the inside, condensation covered the walls and was on our sleeping bags, too.   The sky was clear and blue–not a trace of smoke.  We wondered “What’s with the fire?  We should be getting close enough to see something of it by now.”  We bundled up in our down jackets and mittens to begin the day hiking through sagebrush and prairie, listening to a constant chorus of cows mooing, but we couldn’t see them at first.  Then at the top of a rise, Fixit needed to head offtrail to “dig a hole” as we hikers say, and as I was sitting to wait for him, I finally spotted the cows–a very long line of them, all walking west.  I could not believe how many there were–the line seemed endless.

Awhile later, when it had warmed up a bit, we stopped for breakfast on a hill overlooking a little valley.  On the other side, we spotted 2 hikers packing up and heading out. (We met them later at Lava Mtn. Lodge–whew, did they have an adventure waiting for them!! More on that, later!)  It didn’t take long  before we reached FR 263 at Union Pass.  At that point, the CDT route up ahead would be forced onto an alternate route by the fire closure, and the alternate would force us to go all the way up to Togwotee Pass, then we’d have to hike “backwards” along the road to Lava Mtn. Lodge.  We’d heard that the alternate was really overgrown and nasty.  Tatoo Joe, who hiked the CDT last year, had said that we’d soon be in a big blowdown section where the trail was really hard to follow.   So we were happy to turn off onto the fire road, and head for Hwy. 26–going that way would be much more direct.

But oh no!  After 45 minutes of walking along the fire road, we came to a sign “Road Closed:  Fire Activity.”  I looked at the map the Pinedale rangers had given to me, which showed exactly where the fire was, and it was nowhere near FR 263.  We looked at the footprints on the fire road–it looked like a lot of people had done what we were doing, but had turned around and headed back at the “Road Closed” sign.  There was a phone number on the sign to call for information, so we gave it a try, but could not get any service on our cell phone.  I said, “This is crazy.  There is not one sign of a fire, and my ranger map says the fire is nowhere near this road.  And this sign is over a week old.”  But Fixit shook his head.  “No, we’d better obey the sign,” he said.  “Why?” was my response.  “Think how many times we have walked right by ‘trail closed’ or ‘road closed’ signs when we are hiking, and we never had a problem.  The rangers just stick signs up to avoid liability issues.  We’ve always ignored these signs before.”

But Fixit was determined.  “No, we’d better go back to the CDT”.  I protested, “But you heard what the CDT is like up ahead–we are already low on food.  We don’t have enough to make it through blowdowns and losing trail and overgrown trail.  And the Garmin won’t help, because it doesn’t have the alternate route in it.”  “Too bad,” said Fixit.  “We are going back.”  And he turned around and started walking back toward the CDT.

I stood very sadly by the “Road Closed” sign, thinking, “Oh please, God, help!”   Suddenly I felt completely overwhelmed by a horrendous feeling of despair.  I felt like a tidal wave was sweeping over me–running out of food, climbing over blowdowns, losing the trail, pushing through bushes with the grizzly bears, not making it to Canada before the snow….etc.  It was awful.  I felt as if I could hardly breathe or move.  And in the middle of all that I was kicking myself with “Am I just being a big baby and whining because I can’t go the way we’d planned on?  Bad me, bad me!”

But Fixit was already way off along the road, so all I could do was stumble after him, gasping for breath, and praying a very desperate, very incoherent cry to God that went something like, “Oh Father, I don’t know what’s happening to me…please, please, either send someone to tell us it’s OK to walk the road, or give me strength to face this.  I just can’t go on like this…I can’t do it….help, please help!”

Well, God wasted no time in answering!  Only a few minutes later, along came a dark red pickup truck, coming toward us.  Fixit, who was way ahead of me, completely ignored it as it sped past, but I  thought, “Thank you, God!   Thank you!”  and planted myself in the middle of the road to make the truck stop.  I went to the driver and asked if he had a cell phone so we could try calling to see if it was OK to go around the Road Closed sign.  He said, “No, I don’t have a phone, but I have a radio.”  And that’s when I noticed he was wearing a USFS shirt.  It turned out that he was the ranger stationed at Lake of the Woods nearby!

The ranger said, “I have a good map that shows you how to walk around the fire on fire roads, but it’s back at the ranger station.  You guys just keep walking, back past the Road Closed sign, and I will catch up with you. Oh, and do you need any food?”  We said, “Yes, please!”  So we turned back toward the sign, and he headed back to the lake.  We passed the sign, kept walking, and awhile later, along came the ranger again, with a map.  It turned out that he thought we (like pretty much most of the CDT hikers) were headed for Dubois, and he was going to show us how to get there, but we explained that we were headed for Lava Mountain Lodge.  “OK, no problem,” he said.  “Just stay on 263.  You might see some fire people when you get close to Hwy 26, and they might want to escort you, but you’ll be fine.”  And then he gave us a whole loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter, which he said was from a camper who was heading home early.   Then he left.

So with great rejoicing, (and on my part, MANY “thank you’s” to God!!) we walked along FR 263, climbing up over a ridge, and then heading down the other side.  We stopped for lunch and ate peanut butter sandwiches, yum!  And we had a garage sale, so all our condensation-dampened gear got nice and dry in the sun.   Resuming the hike, we were having a great time walking through very green forest under clear blue skies with no sign of fire, when awhile later, along came a USFS guy in a truck.  We told him we were headed for Hwy 26.  “OK,” he said, and off he went.  But awhile later, he was back.  He told us he’d reported meeting us and been ordered to escort us down.  “Escort” is the term for, “Get in my truck, and I’m gonna take you off my turf!”  So we obediently climbed in and rode with him a bit.  According to our map, it didn’t look like we had far to go before reaching Hwy. 26, but it turned out that the map did not show a LOT of switchbacking in the road, so it was a longer distance than we expected.  Along the way, there were many cabins and houses, all empty (they had been evacuated because of the fire).

Soon we began seeing smoke haze in the air, and the guy dropped us off at one of the “staging areas” for the firefighters.  A retired firefighter gave us a lift for the last bit down to the highway.  So actually, if we had not met the first guy, we could have walked at least all the way to the staging area before being “escorted.”  The retired guy was very interesting.  He’s too old now to actually go out on the fire lines, but he still likes being there, so he does a lot of support help, as a volunteer.  In this case, he gave us a ride.

We turned north and started walking right toward the fire, along Hwy. 26.  The smoke got worse and worse.  The firefighters are using the various ranches along the way as staging areas.  Helicopters were coming and going, dropping stuff on the fire, which seemed to be spread out for quite a way, and was often quite close to the highway.  But the Wind River was between the fire and the highway, so I guess they figured the highway was safe.  We stopped to eat supper (yum, more peanut butter sandwiches!!) at the Tie Hack Memorial.  A couple came along in a car and stopped to talk–it turned out they have done the AT!  They gave us some water, which we were very glad to get, since we were just about out.

By about 7 pm, we had reached Lava Mountain Lodge, where we rented a cabin (very cheap!  nice!), took showers, and had a great BBQ dinner before collapsing.   Fixit said that before they would rent him the cabin, he had to sign a paper saying that if we had to suddenly evacuate due to the fire, we would not get our money back for the cabin rental.  The whole Lava Mtn. Lodge is under a “stage two” alert, which means that they have to be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice.  “Stage 3” is “Evacuate NOW!”   The fire is right across the river from the Lodge.

All I can say is “Lord, thank you for letting me know again how much You love me.”   I think if I have learned anything so far from this hike, it’s the fact that over and over again, God is saying to us, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”  Thank You!