SUMMARY:  We spent the morning today walking the pioneer trail—the California Trail and the Oregon Trail were still together. The pioneers described the scenery as being like a great sea of grey-green, undulating in great billows, with rocky islands here and there. Yes!  That’s exactly what it looks like. Their goal at this point was the Sweet-Water River, and that was our goal, too. We cheered when we saw it—a beautiful blue river winding among green meadows and trees.

After lunch, by the river, we headed for Atlantic City—several bikers we met said “Great food, and you can stay for free in a big teepee”. Well, due to a loud, rowdy party at the saloon next to the teepee,  we went to Wild Bill’s Guns & Ammo and rented a nice, quiet cabin instead.

DETAILS:  A good night’s sleep, and we feel WAY better this morning!  Actually, it’s like that pretty much every morning–we go to bed at night with sore feet, sore shoulders, sore hips….and then wake up feeling fine.  And for much of this morning, we felt like we were on a “living history” trek, following the same route the pioneers did.  At first it was a combo of Oregon Trail and California Trail, but finally the Oregon Trail split off and went on its own.  How do we know?  Because there are cement posts with the trail names on them along the way!  The pioneers described this land as being like a great, gray-green, undulating “sea” with islands of rock here and there.  Well, it hasn’t changed!  And another fascinating note is that the whole ground is covered with many-colored bits of flat rock, and the gray-green sagebrush is very dwarf and low.

Fixit and I had fun talking about the pioneers as we walked along, and we tried hard to imagine the huge herds of bison that once roamed this area.  Even though it looks rather barren, I could not help but think that in a way this land is also beautiful, sort of like a giant abstract watercolor painting.

The morning was very cool and pleasant till about 9:30, and then it really started heating up.  Sure enough, right on schedule at 11:00, the wind came up, and blew fiercely for the rest of the day.  Typically it dies down around 6:00 pm.  Wind or no wind, we pushed pretty hard, because our goal was to have lunch at the famous Sweetwater River.  And it did not disappoint!  What a welcome sight–blue water winding through green grass and shady trees, in the middle of a desert!  We had thought about getting water there, too, but there were so many cows around that we decided, “Forget it–only 11 more miles and we’ll be in town.  We can survive.”  So we sat in the shade under the bridge and watched fish jumping in the water while we ate our lunch.  It was tempting to jump into the river ourselves–it was such a hot day–but we now had set our sights on reaching Atlantic City by tonight.  Several bicyclists we met told us “Go to Atlantic City–there’s a great saloon/restaurant, and you can stay in their big teepee outside for free.”  So that’s our plan.

When we crossed the river on the road bridge, we soon reached a ROAD sign about Atlantic City.  The CDT, however, leaves the road at that point and wanders off among the sagebrushed hills, on very rough tread.  It took Fixit and I about half a second to decide “Phooey on the trail–roadwalk!”

So in spite of the afternoon wind and heat, we gave it our best, even though we were awfully low on water.  Thankfully, along the way, we were able to get a bit more water from some people in a car, and from a guy on a bike.  Atlantic City, it turns out, is down in a valley, and the downhill to get there is pretty steep.  It’s a very old town, and sadly, every other house is for sale.  We headed straight for “The Miner’s Grubstake” saloon to get something to eat.  We found the staff all in a tizzy getting ready for a big birthday party that’s being held tonight (for one of the local ranchers).   But inbetween tearing around trying to get everything ready, they were very kind to us, and we had a great meal of buffalo burgers, salad and pie.  Our entertainment was watching the beginnings of the cowboy birthday party.  Ummm…..it seems that cowboys are really into whiskey.  They were sure going through a lot of it really fast–one bottle after another emptied.  Whoa.  They also had a cowboy singer, and he was really good.

But the lady in charge of the saloon knew we were planning to stay in the teepee and she came quietly over to us and said, “It’s gonna be really loud for a long time tonight.  Why don’t you go over to Wild Bill’s Guns & Ammo–he’s got a couple of cabins– and stay there?  Otherwise, you may not get much sleep tonight.”  So that’s what we did.  And we had time to wash clothes and take showers, too, before we collapsed on the very comfortable bed in a cozy cabin.  I’m glad we went to Atlantic City instead of South Pass City.  From what I hear, there’s no place to stay or to eat there, whereas here, it’s great.  I’m so glad we met the bikers who tipped us off to come to Atlantic City!

SUMMARY:  Before Fixit and l and I left Rawlins, we had the impression that we were headed into flatness in the Basin. Wrong! Now that we are close to being done, I can say the “Basin” is not flat. You are constantly going up and down, sometimes a little, sometimes (like today) a LOT. We had 3 steep “killer” hills today, and many long hills.

The trail winds, it turns, it twists—you really have to pay attention. The views are amazing, of mountains, distant valleys, rock formations, and no water unless you don’t mind yucky “cow water”. We carried enough water to last all day, and made it to Weasel Spring by 7:00pm, where we gorged on cold, wonderful water. We’re camped in a meadow—the wind is still blowing. Wow, are we tired.

DETAILS:  We had a great campsite last night–very comfortable, and a sunset that lasted for a long time.  But this morning, only a few minutes after we started hiking, we had yet ANOTHER “missed the turn” problem.  Grrrr.  We got to an intersection, did our best (without using Guthook–still trying to save battery) to figure out which way to go, and guessed wrong.  It took about 20 minutes of hiking to realize “this is not the CDT” and go back (up, of course!) to the intersection where we had messed up.  But in spite of the messup, we still made over 27 miles today.

In the morning, we were still in the mountains, with very alpine-looking scenery of rugged rocks, gnarly trees and pretty green pocket meadows (no water, though).  For most of the day, I felt like we were just going uphill, but that’s not really true–there were a few downhills.  But we did have to deal with THREE killer-steep climbs.  Several hikers passed us whom we thought were ahead of us–turned out that they had zero’ed in Rawlins, and we didn’t.  They are young and way faster than we are–an uphill where Fixit and I are slowly plodding up, they just bounce on up– but they also stop a lot more than we do.  And several hikers we’d never met before also caught up with us–turned out they had started anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks BEFORE we did, and we passed them, but now they are passing us.  I think it’s due to everyone starting to think, “Yikes!  Gotta get a move on or I’ll never make it to Canada!”

It was a hot day today, and our heavy water supplies in our packs went down steadily as we tried to stay hydrated.  We reached what I call “sagebrush hill country” and the CDT went winding over and alongside and up & down those hills.  Amazing rock formations were sticking out of the ground.  One of them looked like a very large dragon lying down.  There were occasional cow water ponds–yuck.  Glad we weren’t desperate enough to get water at one of those!

The wind began early today, and blew hard, so that made walking difficult.  We were always either walking into a headwind (tough) or dealing with side winds (enough to make us stagger).  BUT AT LAST, we FINALLY saw some wild horses!  A group of 4 were on the trail just ahead of us–a stallion and 3 mares—we walked slowly toward them, taking pictures.  Finally the stallion decided, “Time to go” and started shoving the mares to make them move away.  One of the mares refused, and she and the stallion had a face-off, rearing up and snapping at each other, before she finally gave in.

Later on, while we were sitting on a hill eating lunch, a lone stallion showed up.  He was a beautiful black horse, and he galloped in circles around us several times, as if he were showing off, or maybe showing us that he was boss?? Then he hung around for awhile and watched us before leaving to go hang out with his girlfriend, a pretty light brown mare.

In the afternoon, we hiked on as quickly as we could, trying to get to Weasel Spring.  But it was a steady uphill, and it was hot and the wind was making it tough for us.  Finally we were so tired that we just had to stop for awhile and lie down.  Several more young hikers passed us at that point, all looking pretty haggard, too.  One of them said, “You’ll find me at the spring, face down in the mud, probably.”

At last we rallied ourselves to push on, and at 7:00 pm, we finally reached the spring, which was in an enclosed area, with the spring itself inside a sort of tube thing way in the back of the enclosure. Two other hikers were already there, and  we had to take turns getting water, since there’s only room for one person at a time to access the spring.  I’d already drunk 5 liters today of warm water I carried through the heat, so I blew down a whole liter of COLD spring water!!  Ahhhh!  Then Fixit and I took enough water to get us to the next spring.

It was late, and we were too tired to hike any farther (hey, we did do over 27 miles, despite the difficulties!), so we exited the spring enclosure and set up our tent in the meadow nearby, on soft green grass.  Strangely, at the far end of the meadow, there was a car parked, and people, too.  Not sure what’s with them.  But we just wanted to get horizontal, and didn’t care.  There was a beautiful sunset and all I can say is, “The Divide Desert is NOT FLAT!–don’t figure on flat when you are out here!”

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.

SUMMARY:  One of the things I was really worried about (besides finding water) in the Great Divide Desert was the heat, but there was no problem today!  Most of the time, it was cloudy and breezy. There was one stretch in the midday and afternoon though, where the wind blew so hard we could hardly walk. So I can honestly say, “It was one  cool day today”.

We are in real desert now, with sand, anklebiter cactus, antelope, cows and views that run forever, wow! We did have a hard time finding the trail at first this morning, and a bit before lunch there was a tricky junction with no signs where we went the wrong way for awhile.

When we realized our mistake, we bushwhacked over a hill and got back on the trail, but it is almost unreal to look at the country we are walking through—though it is desert, it is very beautiful in its own way. Tonight we are camped by the trail.

DETAILS:  One of the things I was NOT looking forward to in this part of the CDT was desert heat.  I’ve read hiker blogs that made it sound pretty bad.  Well, yesterday we had clouds all day, and today, more of the same…in fact it actually dripped maybe two rain DRIPS on us!  There is evidence everywhere of real gullywasher rains, though–we are very glad we didn’t have to deal with something like that!

This morning started right off with “Where is the trail?”  We were at Fish Pond Spring, and from there, despite the BLM sign bragging about how much nice stuff they had done for us hikers, there was no indication of where to go.  So we just sighed and did our best to follow an approximate route.  After awhile we hit a dirt road and followed that, which made for easier going.  But then came the point where supposedly the CDT went down to the paved road and followed it for a bit.  There were no signs, no nothing to show us where that was, so we sighed again and squiggled under a barbed wire fence (got lots of practice doing that back in New Mexico!) and then walked along the highway.

According to the maps, we were supposed to walk the highway till we got to a road off to the left called “Mineral X”.  Fixit got very worried, though, when what we were seeing didn’t exactly perfectly match the maps, but it turned out that all was OK, and we found the turnoff.  From that point we were walking through real desert, with sand, very dwarf sagebrush, and anklebiter cactus.  Every now and then we would pass an animal skeleton, bleached white and lying in the sand.  There were some low hills, but basically the terrain was flat, and we could see for miles and miles.

Not long before lunch, we came to a very confusing junction, with no indication of which trail was the CDT.  We looked at maps, we looked at landmarks, we looked at the compass…and as it turned out, chose the wrong way.   We walked along it for a bit, growing increasingly uneasy, then stopped to eat lunch down in a gully out of the wind.  While we were down there, Fixit decided we’d better “fire up” the Guthook app and see where we were.  Yup, we were NOT on the CDT.  (We hate to look at Guthook–we can only do it about 7 or 8 times before the battery runs out, so we try to save it for when we are truly desperate).

So “into the teeth” of a fierce wind, we turned off the trail we were on, climbed over a tall hill (the wind was totally crazy up there!), spotted where we SHOULD be, and went for it.  We’d basically been walking along the wrong side of a ridge.  What a HUGE relief when we got down to the other trail and spotted a CDT post!   Much cheering!  Then we did our best to walk in wind gusts that made us stagger like drunken sailors and reached Bull Spring, which was a very nice solar pump setup.  We got some water there, but didn’t take on full loads, thinking we’d get more at the next water source up ahead.

Not a good idea, as it turned out–the next water source, which we’d counted on, was nada–dry, nothing.  All we could do was go on, but start rationing.   The trail here is basically a dirt road that goes straight ahead, undulating up and down on the hills.  Cows were here and there (we told ourselves, “Where there’s cows, there’s water–hang in there!”) but we did not yet see the wild horses that we’d heard so much about.  We finally camped at just beyond a place called Rocky Draw.   Tomorrow we should reach a reservoir, where we are counting on getting more water.

SUMMARY:  Fixit really wanted to visit the historic Wyoming State Penitentiary before going to church, so we loaded packs and headed out in time to walk the 1 1/2 miles to get there. Turned out they had a tour at 8:30am, so we signed up. Wow! The guys in San Quentin have it really good compared to the prisoners here. The tour guide told lots of stories and it was a real eye-opener.

Then we went to church at Victory Baptist Church, a beautiful little old church with a classic Baptist service. Lunch next, then out into the desert we went—sometimes on dirt road, and sometimes following posts across the hilltops—till 12 1/2 miles later we reached Fish Pond spring, where the pump was not working.

Fixit did his best to fix the pump–he tried some things, but no luck, so in the end, we tied a water bottle to a trek pole and dipped water from the pond. We are camped nearby tonight, much to the disgust of the local antelope.

DETAILS:  I was going to try to sleep in, but just couldn’t do it–am so used to getting up early!  And I really like hearing the trains go by–there’s a lot of that in Rawlins!  The Days Inn had a great breakfast (we ate a lot), then we packed up and headed out to go see the historic old Wyoming State Prison, which is open starting at 8 am.  When we got there, we discovered there was a tour starting at 8:30, so we immediately signed up.  Fixit really wants to see what life was like “back then”, so he can tell the guys who are currently in San Quentin.

Let’s put it this way–the San Quentin guys have it pretty good.  The first place we went was Cell Block A, which has 5′ x 7′ cells, two guys per cell, and no lights, no water, no toilet and no heat.  But the prisoners didn’t do much IN their cells–everybody HAD to work, either in the prison itself or in the prison factory.  If they got out of line, the punishments were 1) Flogged with a rubber hose and/or 2) Put in “the hole”.  Next we went to Cell Block B, which was newer and “nicer”–it had electric lights and also heat.  Then came Cell Block C, set up for maximum security prisoners, with “death row” was upstairs.  Around 10 or so people actually were executed here, mostly by hanging, using a device where the prisoner himself actually executes himself, rather than a guard having to be the executioner.  It was a complicated device that was triggered when the prisoner stepped onto a special platform.  Eventually they switched to using a gas chamber, which is still there.

We also got to see the dining hall–everyone had to sit facing the same way, and were not allowed to talk or turn their heads.  If they did, they were shot.  We walked in the exercise yards and heard a story about one time there was a big snowstorm, and the snow built up to the point where a couple of prisoners figured they could climb up the snowbank in the yard and get over the fence….not a good idea.  They sank deep into the snow and suffocated.  We heard many other stories from our tour guide, who was a very articulate and knowledgeable college girl.  She said her grandfather was a fireman/medic in Rawlins, who sometimes got called in to the prison when there was a medical emergency.

We walked back into town and went to the Victory Baptist Church, a lovely classic old building, with an equally classic Sunday School class (I went to the ladies’ class; Fixit went to the mens’) and a classic old time Baptist church service.  Then it was lunch and back to the CDT and into the desert.

Sometimes the CDT was a dirt road, and sometimes it was “follow the posts over the hilltops”.   We stopped for supper in a very nice pine tree “oasis”.  I had been worried about it being hot, but no need!  The whole afternoon was cloudy and breezy and very pleasant.

Finally we reached Fish Pond Spring, where there was supposed to be a setup for hikers to get water via a pump.  We had planned for this, so hadn’t been carrying a ton of water.   The pump was there, all right, and a big fancy sign about all the nice things the BLM had put in place for hikers….but none of it worked.  Fixit of course had to have a go at fixing it!   He tried and tried, but no luck.  But since the spring had created a pond, and the water out towards the middle looked clear (no scummy stuff, like around the edges), we tied one of our water bottles to a trek pole, and reached out into the middle to collect water.  It was nice and cold and clear, but we still did treat it with AquaMira, just in case.

By the time we got done with all that, it was getting late and the sun was low, so we decided to stop for the day, and camped nearby, much to the disgust of the local antelope.  They would head for the spring, then see us and back off, looking unhappy.  I guess we could have camped farther away, but we were running out of daylight.

SUMMARY:  As we dressed and packed up this morning, there was a gorgeous sunrise and a fierce wind.  We really had to be careful not to let any piece of gear blow away!  It was a cloudy and very warm morning even at 6 am.  We tackled the remaining 10 miles to Rawlins, still among hills where you could “track” distinctive layers of rock sticking out of the hillsides.  The smell of alkali dust and water is everywhere.  We cheered when we spotted I-80 and the railroad trains and Rawlins!  First stop was “Buck’s” for an early lunch–Stop ‘n Go joined us (he just arrived, too).  Then we hiked all the way through to the other side of town and the Day’s Inn, where our box was waiting.  Town chores were next, then a pasta dinner (need those carbs!) at Pizza Hut and now it’s bedtime.  Church, then back to the trail tomorrow!

DETAILS:  Just as we were starting to get dressed this morning and pack up our stuff, we were hit by quite a fierce wind, for about 15 minutes.  It pulled one of our tent stakes right out of the ground (fortunately, we were able to find it) and the whole tent was straining under the wind pressure.  We didn’t know how long this would last, so continued the packup, but with great care–we didn’t want any of our gear to blow away!

The sunRISE was just as glorious as the sunSET last night–it’s very cloudy still, and so warm that even as we started hiking, we didn’t need our jackets at all.  Suddenly the fierce wind dwindled down to just a breeze (from the west, as usual), and only a short time later, we reached a paved road which had mile markers, and a sign that said it was 10 miles to Rawlins.

Scenery-wise on the approach to Rawlins, it’s still hills, all layered with different kinds of rocks, and a number of the hills had a jagged row of rocks right on top that looked like teeth sticking out (or maybe a dinosaur backbone!).  The predominant color is the gray-green of the sagebrush, and the predominant smell is alkali.  Yuck.  The temperatures were very warm and even a bit humid; there was no shade at all when we stopped for breakfast by the side of the road.

At 11:00 am, we were walking into Rawlins itself; we had a bit of a puzzle at first, trying to find the pedestrian underpass to get from one side of the railroad to the other.  What a railroad it is!  Train after train went by, pulling very long strings of cars.  I stopped to read a sign (anyone who knows me is aware that I cannot resist an “info sign”!) and it said Rawlins has been a railroad town since 1868.  Besides the railroad, I-80 also goes through Rawlins.  This is very important to Fixit and I–we are from the San Francisco Bay Area, where I-80 is one of the main freeways, which we use quite often.  So seeing I-80 was like a “touch of home.”

I failed to write on my list of towns, which towns we sent boxes to the POST OFFICE and which towns we sent boxes to other places.  So just to be sure, we stopped at the Rawlins PO to see if we had a box.  No, we didn’t–but the PO guy said that this year has been the biggest year ever for CDT hiker boxes!  He said they had to put in some extra shelves to accommodate them all, and that right now they have scores of boxes waiting on hikers.  That was news to Fixit and I–it means that there are a lot of hikers behind us…or is it boxes for the SOBO’s??  We have only met one SOBO so far, and that was because he skipped Wyoming.

It was lunchtime, though, and Yogi’s guide recommended Buck’s.  What a great place!  We had just gotten our food when Stop n’ Go came in, so we started a “hiker table” and had a great time talking to him.  He’s also from the San Francisco area, and was just as happy as us to see I-80.  He does not plan to spend the night here–just get his box and continue on.

Fixit and I then headed through town towards the Day’s Inn, and along the way we passed a Subway, where there was a Korean CDT hiker sitting out front, waiting for Slapshot.  We have not seen Slapshot at all, for quite awhile, but it always seems like people are looking for him, so I guess he’s around here somewhere??  At the Day’s Inn, the people are supernice; they had our box and they have a special rate for hikers.  The only bummer, as I checked the calendar, is that thanks to Colorado, and thanks to being lost so much, we are now 10 days behind schedule.  Oh well–we will do the best we can.  We took showers and did laundry–it feels so good to be clean!   We also talked about going to church tomorrow.  If we do that, I will have no time tomorrow morning to go grocery shopping for the next leg of trail.  So I had to do it this afternoon even though I was very tired and just wanted to lie down and rest.

Back at Day’s Inn again, I sorted all the food and loaded the food bags before lying down to study the maps, especially about where the water sources are in the Great Divide Desert that lies ahead of us.  There is one stretch of 30 miles with no water, but fortunately, we won’t get to that until we’ve “eaten down” a lot of our food, and the packs won’t be as heavy.   We headed to Pizza Hut for a pasta dinner, and found a whole troop of Boy Scouts there, headed for a camping trip in Colorado; we had fun talking to their leaders.  Fixit is also thinking about an additional activity for tomorrow–going to see the Wyoming “Frontier Prison”, which is now a museum.  It used to be the prison for all of Wyoming.  Since he is a volunteer at the San Quentin prison back home, he is very much interested in seeing what the Wyoming prison is like (or maybe I should say, WAS like).

Right now, lying on a bed feels so good!   We are so tired!

SUMMARY:  We had a bright idea for an alternate route off the Divide so that we could get out of the mess of blowdowns and poorly marked trail. It was very plain on the map and we wondered why J. Ley hadn’t recommended it.  Well, turned out that we got ourselves all entangled in private property, with “No Trespassing” signs everywhere we looked.  But going way back up to the CDT mess was not an option, so we climbed over a gate and bushwhacked through the sagebrush, climbed over another gate, and reconnected with the CDT. All this before a rather late breakfast!

After that, we followed Ley’s alternate route toward Rawlins. It’s a roadwalk through the foothills—lots of up and down. The terrain is terraced and gullied, with alkali water creeks. The clouds were spectacular and the breeze helped keep us cool and we loved the big vistas after so much walking in forest. We are camped by the road tonight.

DETAILS:  The birds cheerfully singing and cows mooing were our wakeup call this morning, which was perfect, because we were really looking forward to finishing up “the mess” and being back where we can just hike.  Last night I was studying the maps and spotted what looked like a really nice route on dirt roads.  Strangely, J.Ley didn’t have it marked at all and I thought that was odd.  Often his maps look like a bowl of spaghetti, with many different alternates to get from a Point A to a Point B.  But this route was not marked.

At first, though, we were still on the CDT, which was basically following a fenceline (hmmm, that should have given me a heads-up…fences with No Trespassing signs…)  The CDT finally arrived at one of the dirt roads I had spotted on my map last night, and on the other side of the road, oh great!  The trail completely disappeared.  That did it!  Forget the CDT!  Enough!  We turned on to the road and began the alternate route I’d figured out.  The cows, which were all over the place, became very flustered when we came into view.  They started mooing and running.  I felt bad about that–I know the ranchers hate it when hikers scare the cows.  But there was no way to let them know “we come in peace”.  So we walked along in the dust clouds they left behind as they ran ahead of us down the road.

Eventually we came to a gate and oh no!  It had a large and emphatic “No Trespassing” sign on it.  Sigh.  So I looked at the map and saw that if we went back a little way to a junction we’d just passed, there was another road we could use instead.  So we walked for awhile along the second road until–ANOTHER gate and another “No Trespassing” sign blocked our way.  Argh.  Our options now were only two: Go all the way back to the CDT and play “Find the trail in the blowdowns” or climb over the gate and take our chances.  We chose Option 2.  Again, we know how the ranchers feel about their property, and we hated to disregard the sign, but we just could not face Option 1.

So at that point, we figured, “Let’s get out of here, ASAP” and took a crosscountry shortcut through the chaparral.  Though this did involve some squiggling around bushes, and a couple of easy creek crossings, it was way easier than blowdowns and mess.  Finally there was one more gate to climb over, and we were back on the CDT!  What a relief!  At that point, we finally stopped for a rather late breakfast.

While we were eating, we looked at our maps.  The official CDT from here followed the dirt road we were on, down to a gravel road, then followed that road a ways before turning off and going back to trail again.  But J.Ley showed another route–just walk the gravel road, which was shorter and easier.  We’d already lost so much time that we decided on Ley’s route.

So that’s how we began an ALL day gravel roadwalk.  Tough on feet!  For the rest of the morning, the road wound up and down (mostly up) through sagebrush country and foothills.  We were astonished to see SNOW still lingering on many of the hills nearby, even though the weather was warm and dry.  We saw several antelope, a hawk, and jackrabbits.  The plants are mostly just grayish sagebrush, with occasional green areas with a few wildflowers where there is some water ( I say “water”, but every creek we crossed was ugly alkali gray-green, and yucky-smelling.  In fact, even the dust here smells yucky.  I guess it’s the all-pervasive alkali.)

Clouds began to build up in the sky and soon we were walking along in much cooler cloud shadow.  Nice!  I like geology stuff, and the rocks were fascinating.  Everything is very terraced-looking, and I commented to Fixit, “Yeah, looks like a water recession zone from the Flood.”  I have to laugh every time I think of the introduction I read once in a geology textbook.  It basically said, “When you look at the geologic evidence, you would think that once there was actually a worldwide flood as mentioned in the Bible.  But of course we know that’s just myth.  We know that what we see is the result of millions of years and natural processes.”  Sure.  Uh-huh. Let’s ignore the obvious evidence in favor of our preconceived notions.  That’s not exactly science!

Of course, since we were walking on a road, various cars and trucks went by.  Some roared past us at full speed, leaving us to walk in an alkali dust cloud for some way, while others very kindly slowed down.  One guy even stopped and gave us some water!  And there were the bikers.   They’d come pedalling towards us saying, “Hi, hikers!” and we’d grin back at them with “Hi, bikers!”  They are RIDING the Divide from Canada to Mexico, and camping along the way, so their bikes are loaded up with saddlebags.  They also told us that this morning they’d passed 8 or 10 CDT hikers like us, all headed for Rawlins.  Looks like we are in a “hiker bubble”.

But by 5:30 suppertime, we were two very tired and footsore CDT’ers.  The road gravel is small enough not to twist your ankles, but large enough to hurt when you walk on it all day.  After the supper break, we determinedly shouldered our packs (sore shoulders too, from the weight of water we’ve been having to carry) and pushed on, while the clouds overhead grew thicker and darker.  Soon we could see that rain was trying to fall, but not reaching the ground.  Finally at 7:00, we were able to spot a flat place off the road, that was UPWIND from the road–very important, because every time a car goes by, there is a cloud of dust, and we didn’t want those dust clouds blowing all over us all night!  Unfortunately, though the ground was flat, it was also very lumpy, and there was no way to avoid it.

Oh well–we set up our tent, admiring the gorgeous sunset, and just as we were into our sleeping bags, we had a visitor!  A dog (named Corby as it turned out) was riding in the back of his owner’s pickup truck.  Corby spotted our tent as the truck went by on the road, jumped out, ran over and tried to get into the tent with us!   The owner stopped and came over and tried to get Corby to come with him, but the dog didn’t want to come.  Finally he had to just grab poor Corby by the collar and drag him away, while apologizing to us for Corby being such a nuisance.  We felt bad for Corby–I don’t think he is a happy dog.  Who knows what his life must be like, if he was desperate enough to try to hide with us?

After that, we just watched the sunset till it faded into night, thinking to ourselves, “Rawlins tomorrow!”

SUMMARY:  We collated a large and delicious breakfast from the Riverside store and while we were eating, we talked to Kenobi. He had to wait for the post office to open because he’s waiting for a box from home—a really common hiker situation! We soon had a ride back to the trail and were on our way—the goal was to reach “the last water for 30 miles”, 20 1/2 miles away.

At first we were on ATV roads and nice trail, way up on the Divide, with awesome (though somewhat smokey) views. Of course we were eagerly peering ahead for views of the Great Divide Desert. Then oh bummer, we hit the ‘blowdown slowdown’—miles of climbing over fallen trees and searching for trail. We did finally make it to ‘the last water’ and filled all our containers.

From where we are camped, we can hear a lot of cow noises. My poor legs are full of bruises, cuts, and scrapes from climbing over the blowdowns.

DETAILS:   Breakfast was all kinds of stuff I found at the little Riverside store–coffee, breakfast burritos, donut holes and canned mandarin oranges.  It was a bright, clear morning, just a bit chilly, so we sat in the sun to eat and talk with Kenobi.  His friend Slapshot left already, early this morning, but Kenobi has to wait for the PO to open so he can get his resupply box. (That’s a common hiker scenario–we tried really hard NOT to mail to PO’s, because their hours are often so limited.  Kenobi is not the only one waiting on the PO!)

We had no trouble getting a ride back to the CDT from a guy who was headed out on a 2-day backpack trip himself.  A brief walk down the highway and we found the “landmark” trailer that J.Ley mentions on his map. Sure enough, it has a little sign on it to let CDT hikers know they are welcome to stay in it if needed.  Nice!  Soon we were back on the trail (an ATV road at this point), making the climb up to Bridger Peak.  We were able to hike right along, enjoying the fine views (though a bit smoky from the fires to the south).

When we stopped for lunch, we were passed by Hotshot.  We ate dinner with her last night, and found out she’s a forest fire fighter taking the summer off to hike the CDT.  She said all her instincts are to “go help!” the guys fighting those fires, but she is resolutely hiking.  She’s in great shape, and hikes fast!

As long as the trail remained an ATV road, it was usually easy to follow, even though often steep and rocky, and yes, there were still snowdrifts to deal with.  But there were two junctions where we had no idea which way was the CDT, and I figure we lost at least 40 minutes of hiking trying first one way, then the other.  Finally we got to where we knew soon we’d have to turn off the road back onto trail again.  I was anxious about this, hoping it would be marked and we wouldn’t accidentally just walk past it.  Whew–the trail junction turned out to be very obvious–there were cairns and a post.

At first it was nice trail, but then the blowdowns became worse and worse.  Fixit commented, “I guess we’re in the blowdown slowdown.”  Soon a pattern emerged:  1) The trail would go up on a rocky ridge, with cairns to guide your way (and awesome views–at every high point we’d look hard up ahead to see if we could spot the Great Divide Desert!) then 2) It would go down into the forest for awhile.  The forests were horrendous.  There was no trail there at all, only fallen trees everywhere.  Basically, half the forest was standing, and half of it had fallen down.  It was impossible to hike or even to walk in–instead we had to continually climb over scores of trees while at the same time asking “Where’s the CDT?”   I collected a lot of scrapes and cuts and bruises in those forest segments.  But somehow, we managed to get through each one, and managed to locate CDT emblems or indicators enough to keep us on track.  This ridge/forest/ridge/forest repeated several times.

When we stopped to eat dinner, Freebird passed us.  “I’m not stopping till I get OUT of this MESS!!!!” he growled as he went by.  Our own plan was to hike till we reached the “last water for 30 miles” and camp after that. We ended up having to hike an extra half hour (till 7:30) in order to get there.  Turned out there was water all right, but it was such a small trickle that Fixit had to collect it in a cup before pouring it into our platypuses.  Meanwhile, since there were a lot of cows around, I was busy “cooking” AquaMira to treat the water.

Once we had full loads of water ready, we hiked on for awhile (we try NOT to camp near water–less chance of critters coming by in the night) till we spotted a flat place and stopped.  It was very late, and we were very glad to get horizontal.  We can hear cows mooing all around us.  Tomorrow–into the desert!

SUMMARY:  This morning we confirmed our decision to take a day of rest.  It seems like part of Fixit’s problem might just be exhaustion. Even the twenty-something age hikers are wasted by the CDT in Colorado and are also taking a day off. The “Lazy Acres” RV park where we are staying now has several CDT hiker tents. The park is beautiful, and it’s right next to the Encampment River.  It feels and looks very much like McConnell State Park in California, with lots of big cottonwood trees, green grass, and the river.

Mostly all we did today was 1) lie around resting 2) eating (2 breakfasts- like Hobbits, 2 snacks, 1 lunch, 1 dinner) and we did visit the museum, which was totally awesome—old buildings all moved to the museum site, restored, and furnished to show their historical period. We feel way better tonight and ready to get back on trail tomorrow.

DETAILS:  None needed!  We didn’t do much!

SUMMARY:  Our pine-needle comfortable campsite gave me a great night’s sleep, but not poor Fixit. He ended up battling what we call “runny tummy” all night, and by morning he was feeling weak and wobbly. We had 11 1/2 tough miles of trail to do, so all we could do was start walking.

We faced hunting and searching for the trail among rocks and trees and swampy meadows, and had to go up a lot of steep hills which was rough on Fixit—he crawled and plodded and often just collapsed and lay down for awhile. There was nothing I could do to help.

Finally we made it to Hwy 70 and hitched a ride to Encampment / Riverside. We got a camping cabin by the river. Fixit is on the mend, I think, but we will need to stay another day and make sure.

DETAILS:  I had a very good rest last night (pine needles make a wonderful mattress!) and was zonked out all night long.  But poor Fixit was hit with a really bad “runny tummy” problem, and had to get up at least 4 times.  He did finally take some berberine to try and solve the situation, but by morning he felt weak and wobbly and exhausted.  Not a good start for the day.

We packed up and headed out, but the going was hard.  We had to search and search for each post/cairn.  And to add to the difficulty, much of the route was steep uphill on very rough terrain.  The steep uphills were very hard on Fixit.  He could barely walk up them, and began to frequently just stop and collapse, lying pack and all, on the ground, saying “I can’t go on.”  But we had 11.7 miles to go before we reach any kind of road (Hwy 70, to be precise) where we could find help.

To say I was worried would be an understatement.  At this rate, IF we even reached Hwy 70 today, it would be so late in the day that our chances of hitching a ride into the nearest town (Encampment) would be basically zero.  I thought back to 2010, when Fixit and I were in the High Sierra on the PCT, and I was sick with something “giardia-ish”, complete with nausea, runny tummy and feeling like I just wanted to lie down and rest all the time.  But knowing that I had no other choice, I just sucked it up and kept going, falling behind Fixit a lot, but still trying the best I could. If I had not done that, we would never have made it to our next resupply at Vermillion Valley.

So I ended up begging, cajoling, and finally even bullying poor Fixit, to keep him moving.  Every time he would lie down and say “I can’t go on”, I’d respond with, “OK, rest for a few minutes, then we’ll go for it again.”  I would wait 5 or 10 minutes (depending) and then start bugging Fixit to get up and get going.  At our midmorning Snickers break time, he refused to eat anything.  Stop ‘n Go came by and said, “You know, this hunting for cairns would really be FUN, usually, if we weren’t trying to make it to Canada!”  I said, “No kidding!”   Stop ‘n Go really had it nailed–normally this kind of thing would be a fun challenge.  But with Fixit sick and still a long way to Canada, it was not fun at all.

But on the bright side, I have to say that the scenery on this stretch of the CDT is amazing and beautiful.  The rock formations are dramatic and impressive, and the meadows are so intensely green that you almost need sunglasses to look at them.  Wow!

But those gorgeously green meadows are green for a reason–this time of year they are actually SWAMPS of snowmelt.  We just sloshed on through, still hunting for the elusive cairns and posts.  And since the meadows are relatively level, Fixit was able to walk through them OK, without collapsing.  And the berberine seems to be working–no more runny tummy.  It was obvious, however, that we dare not continue on the trail–we will have to make a detour into Encampment.

We finally reached Hwy 70.  The wind there was strong and bitter cold.  But one good thing was that I could see way down the road, so when I saw a car coming, I had plenty of time to get ready to try for a hitch.  Several cars just went on by; a couple of them stopped, thinking it was just me hitching (Fixit was too weak to be standing out by the road with me) but when they found out there were TWO of us, they sadly said they didn’t have room (which was true).  Finally a guy came along who lives in Encampment, and he gave us a ride.  He recommended that the best place to stay was actually Riverside, which is right next to Encampment, so that’s where we went.

We ended up with a camping cabin (I figured Fixit needed a BED, not the ground, so he could really rest) at “Lazy Acres” RV park.  We never had any lunch, since Fixit was not hungry, and we were worried about making it to Hwy 70, so by now I was starving, and Fixit said he thought maybe he could eat something.  So we went to the restaurant across the street and I devoured a big hamburger, while Fixit ate a little bit.  Then we went back to our cabin, which was right by the river, to have a good rest.  Fixit says he is feeling better–the berberine seems to have worked well.

There are quite a few CDT hikers staying here at Lazy Acres, as well as more of them in the motel in Encampment, and they’d agreed to get together for dinner, so I joined the “CDT crowd” and it was very jolly.  Fixit didn’t go, because he didn’t feel like eating any more, and wanted to just lie down.  But I had a very good time.  The consensus of all the hikers, who are WAY younger than Fixit and I, was, “Colorado really beat me up.”  Many of them, like us, had planned on going straight through to Rawlins, but realized they needed a break.  They weren’t sick, just plain wasted, and that made me wonder if maybe Fixit’s problem was partly just exhaustion.  Everyone is planning to take a zero here before tackling the rest of Wyoming.  I think we will, too.

Back at the cabin, it was so good to just lie on a bed and listen to the river murmuring by and the crickets singing in the trees.  Yes, I definitely think we will zero tomorrow!