Slots!
Yeesh. What a doozy that was. Three days, 30 miles or over each day (30, 36, 36) and over 100 miles in three days. All through the basin of Wyoming. Long, flat, exposed, dry.
Day 1 out of Rawlins, I was up and attum. The local coffee joint (only) is supposed to be open at 7a, but yesterday they were closed due to staffing. Since it wasn’t in the direction of the trail, I decided to rather walk 1.5 miles to the only diner that was open. They were trail miles, so while I wasn’t thrilled for the walk, they were counting for something and weren’t a waste of time. Although technically, they were in the same direction as trail, not the trail itself.
As I was walking up to the diner, I quickly noticed it was a diner associated with a Belmont hotel. So already I was growing skeptical. A fella that worked at the hotel happened to be walking into the restaurant and noticed I was doing the same. He then informed me that the chef hasn’t decided to show up yet. And 5 people quit last week, so they’re already short staffed, and now without a chef. Yikes. McDonald’s it was! Luckily next door, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy their hash browns.
Then off I went to hitch back up to the trail. I was sitting in the side of the road for a little while, but not after a terribly long time, a pickup hauling a big camper honked and pulled off to the side! Most the time with RVs and trucks towing things, I don’t even throw out the thumb because it’s harder for them to stop, have enough space, etc etc. most the time, a decision to pick me up when hitching is a last minute impulsive decision. So I always leave room to pull over BEHIND me, instead of in front of me. Anyhoo, as the fella jumps out of the car to arrange the back seat, I realize it’s the owners of the hotel I just stayed at!
They were fantastic people, and were off to a family reunion up north. They saw me and felt they had to pick me up! As I’ve been staying there for a few days and saw my painful hobble when I first rolled in.
Eventually I was back on trail. I walked right passed a no trespassing, beware of dog sign (which was the official trail, so I felt I was in the okay). Got to the corner of the road where the trail veers off and didn’t see anything. Went into the comments of the area and noticed a few people mentioned not to go passed the no trespassing sign as the owner yells at hikers, and to go around to a county road that meets up with the trail and runs parallel to it for about 5 miles. While a majority of lands the CDT runs through is federal or public lands, occasionally there are easements on private property. But maybe a new owner wasn’t aware, or didn’t care, who knows. I scurried off the road and looped around and then the haze of the next three days began.
The day wore on as I was thinking about Lauren quite a bit. It’s hard not to think about her pretty much all day as I have nothing to do but… think (and yeah, walk, but that goes on auto pilot). I really just miss having her to chat with and her in my life. Now over a month since she ended things, and a couple weeks since she last told me not to contact her, it’s not getting much easier to bare. But I’m hoping the heavy mileage will dull the pain in the heart, if not likely replace the searing pain with foot pain.
My intention was to get to Lander in 4 days (120 miles) that’s 30 miles a day. The elevation profile showed negligible gains and losses over the next stretch, so the boosters were to go on.
Fortunately, there was a bit of cloud coverage and I wasn’t completely baking out in the sun and walking crazy miles. There was a little pot of rain spitting down at times, but nothing for more than a few minutes. While being surrounded by very much non spitting rain clouds, where the downpour was visible from miles away, I hurried along to ensure I got my 30 miles in.
I ended the day at a “reservoir”. A 50’x30’ pond. There were a couple tents already setup, but as I rolled up and noticed they were bikers. A lot of bikers are around the CDT now as the Great Divide Bike Trail runs congruent with the CDT around here (we’re mostly on old forest service roads). Not more than 15 mins after I arrived, the dark storm clouds rolled in quickly. I ran off to setup my tent and it started down pouring. I was fortunate to get it up and inside before I got too wet. For anyone who doesn’t know what it sounds like to be in a heavy downpour in a DCF tent (the material my tents made out of, kind of like a thinner sail cloth), imagine being inches away from a tin roof. Yep. Loud as fuuuurk.
Luckily it didn’t last more than 30-40 mins. I needed water and to cook dinner, etc. after it did, there was a beautiful rainbow behind the lake, and in front of storm clouds. One of the bike couple packed up their gear and dipped when the rain died. At about 7:45, they had about an hour before the sunset. “Oh just going to do a little 20 miles before we sleep tonight”. Oh yeah, 20 more miles after setting up camp. Hikers foam at the mouth around bikers mileage when trail runs parallel. Then one of the other guys let me know they were leaving at midnight to do 87 miles to get into Atlantic City by lunch. It was nearly a full moon, so lots of light and cooler (temp). Said they would try to be quiet, but of course I barely shuffled when they left. So many miles.
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When I woke up on day 2, the camp was empty, the skies had clouds but nothing storming, the sun was rising with a reddish pink. Not a bad way to wake up at all. I got packed up and was on my way by 6:40.
I didn’t see a soul this day, until the last 20 mins when I waved at another thru hiker from afar and looked at their back from 1/4 mile away until I made camp and they continued on.
The trail is now almost entirely old double track. I.e. technically a “road” but very unused, old, in the middle of nowhere. The thing that was most terrifying about this, is it’s noticeable from afar. Typically with single track trail, it buries itself into scenery a little more. Sometimes you can still see trail cut from afar, but not like this double track road. I could see where I was going to be in approximately 3-4 hours. The road went off into the distance over one small hill to the next. Once I reached that point? A new perspective the same endless road in a slightly new setting.
36 miles today. And not exactly because I wanted that, but because there was a water cache marked there, and with only one or two really reliable water sources between then, which was very much cow poop infested, I was hoping for the cache. Luckily, I could get pieces of service and would get updates on the quantity of water at the cache. There are A LOT of hikers out right now. At one point the cache is full with 20 gallons, and then a big group or two rolls through and it’s emptied. It went from full to empty in the time I was looking at it, and then thankfully back to full again. So I pushed on. It was tough. Hot, even with the reprieve of cloud coverage. Double filtering poppy water to survive. I put in some fruit punch electrolyte mix into my bladder (something I never ever recommend because the sugar in the bladder can cause nasty funk pretty quickly) just to cover up the cowy taste, even after the double filter.
About 20 mins before the sun sets, I arrive. It’s a large corral with a big CDT Amal and billboard in there and two big boxes filled with gallon jugs of water. Oh thank whatever lord you’d like because that (relatively) cool crisp and clean water was glorious.
Plopped up my tent and was ready for bed nearly instantly after dinner. I think there was a cow giving birth near me. There were some strange noises.
Before I did fall asleep, I looked at the trail ahead. Not much water, BUT in 35 miles was a tiny old west town called Atlantic City. Definitely no slot machines. It’s not much for resupply or gear swaps, no post office. But there were comments on a place called Wild Bills B&B. Apparently he’s a trail character worth checking out. I didn’t really WANT to do another huge mile day. But bed… burger…? I think I’ll give it a whirl.
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Sunrise is just before 6a these days. Typically I wake up around 5:30-40. Today I woke up at 5:20 and was actually awake by 5:30. It was a quick and easy pickup, and I was off by 6:15. If I had another 35 miles (plus 1 bonus mile off trail into the town, so another 36 mile day) I wanted to get in at somewhat of a reasonable time.
If lake you say today was any different than yesterday, buuuut it wasn’t. Long roads. Flat lands, slight rolling hills at times. A bunch of cows, a bunch of pronghorn, and even a few kitty prints (smaller maybe like a bobcat or lynx). The other thing of note today, was the route actually followed along the Oregon Trail. That’s kinda neat. Memories of my childhood days on the first Mac with the yellowish and grey Oregon Trail game vividly came to mind.
Towards the latter half of the day, I started to see a hiker ahead, presumably the fella who’s back I saw last night. The pack did look familiar. I passed Bison (his name) and continued onwards. Soon, I saw another back. This one I couldn’t chase down, as I needed a break and my feet were kiiiiiiling me. The blisters from before Rawlins weren’t doing all that great. And with the crummy insoles I got from Walmart, it made the boots a bit too tight and squished my toes in. Also not fun.
Eventually I continued on, and before making it to the final dirt road I would follow all the way into the ‘town’ there was a water source and the other back I saw earlier. I had actually met Wizard back in Creed. He was one of the fellas that didn’t do the red route because someone said they had to turn back. I’m glad I pushed through that, but he said he enjoyed the alternate walk all the same. Still with 10 miles to go, I continued onward after a bit of water.
The last 6 miles were grueling. My feet were hurting. A blister or two popped at some point during the day, so even more ouch. One of the blisters was directly under my heel callus. That means any fluid build up gets pushed up the side of my foot wear the skin is softer and it can pop open. So yeah, fluid separating the skin of my foot with every step. Yay!
With a little more than an hour to go, a gal rolled up on a bike. I continued hiking, but she matched my speed and we chatted for a few minutes. She was off to Atlantic City for a burger and then was going to continue on a bit before camping. And ziiiip. Off she goes.
I pushed harder and as fast as I could without running. Besides the impact of running being too much for my weary feet, I simply don’t like to run. Especially with a big ol pack. But was definitely cooking a little bit over my whopping 3 mph (okay okay, maybe 3.3mph. But that’s big, okay!??!).
Finally I made it to the 1 mile off trail bit. About 6:10, was making good time. I get down into this truly old Wild West town with maybe 20 buildings, most in the original form around 6:30. Bill of wild bills calls up the (only) restaurant in town to see if it’s too late to feed me. Just barely okay, so I drop my stuff and hobble over to find Alissa (biker gal), and Chance (another biker doing the Great Divide). We sit and chat for a while as I eat my burger and have a drink to numb my ever worsening feet. As they get excited to rest, that’s when all the pain floods in. It of course isn’t pleasant to walk, but it’s only the sharp pains I feel while walking if I hit something. After they rest a bit, the deep muscle and skeletal pain is noticeable.
When I get back, Bill shows me to my little cabin for the night. An old rustic style with not electricity or water, but plenty nice enough for me, with the shower/bathroom/kitchen cabin directly next to me.
Tomorrow I’m off to Lander! With my bigger miles last three day, it’ll be smooth sailing day with not a ton of walking before the highway into town where I’ll hitch from. I fortunately have new shoes waiting for me! That will (i hope) help keep the feet in tip top shape. Still a little less than 1300 miles to go! But wow, exactly 1285. But who’s counting down… (oh darn straight I am.)
