The winds part 2
I guess technically yesterday was the last day in the winds. Today I was out of the mountains back into a rolling hill setting. Not dry like the basin, but visually similar with added trees and lakes dotted around.
Yesterday was a doozy though, for sure. Why? Because I like punishing myself and might be slightly insane/bipolar. My clear cut average of 20 miles. Day for 8 days jumped down to 13 day to, and ironically, up to 31 yesterday. Not sure if I was standing on my head when I was thinking of that 13, and decided to flip it. But hey, miles.
That morning I woke up pretty quickly and got a move on before River was on his way. The start of the day was a bit of a climb over a pass. And a stunning place to wake up. The last day up in the mountains, it wasn’t going to let us out easily. We had about 4-5 climbs up and over a few passes and bumps. Nothing overall huge, but still quite tiring. Lots and lots of people out and about though, even though we were easily 20+ miles away from any type of road or trailhead. So the folks I saw out there were pretty legit. Climbers, backpackers, campers. All enjoying the epic Winds.
After about 15 miles into the day, the descent out began. I’m not sure what hit me, maybe excitement for consistently eas(ier) terrain, the fact there was a big campground down the way, or the notes that anywhere along the river you have to camp 200 feet from trail and water. Either way, I decided I was going to push it hard to the campground. My battery pack is on its last leg, my fuel for my stove is dwindling, and I figured a campground would be the best bet to try and snag a charge and some hot water to save a days worth of fuel.
On the fuel note, there are three sized isobutane (or similar mix) canisters. The most common is the 8oz, and likely the first one you’d think of when thinking of camp stove fuel (but not the flip open more real style stove that uses propane in the green canisters, that’s a whole different ballgame). Those weigh nearly a pound. To be honest, I’ve never burned one completely dry before, so I’ve never really known how many days I can go with one. Typically I’d use one for about 6 days and get nervous and replace it.
The more hiker friendly, and harder to find size, are the 4oz cans. These weigh significantly less, and also take up less room in the pack. I’ve always thought those last about 3 days.
Doing a little research online, I found the 8oz typically burns straight through for 3 hours, thus the 4oz 1.5hrs.
Well shoot. I think I’ve been wasting fuel all these years. I don’t “cook” food, so I don’t burn for long periods of time. Most the time I boil about 2 cups of water for breakfast and dinner. It takes no more than 5 mins to boil that, meaning I typically won’t burn for more than 10 mins per day. So mathematically speaking, I should have up to 9 days of fuel from a small can, the way I cook. With 8 days of food on my back, saving nearly half a pound would be huge. It was a wee bit risky to decide to try this theory out on a big stretch in the mountains and away from pretty much anything. But, if not now, when? So little one I got. It’s now nighttime day 6, and I successfully made dinner. I’ve been using purified water so I don’t have to boil it to clean it, but just bring it up just hot enough for coffee/oatmeal/mashed potatoes/ramen. I maaaay have accidentally put the stove on uneven ground day 2, and it knocked over. Of course I was right there and quickly turned it off so it didn’t burn the ground, or explode… but some how, I knocked over the pot a second time when something flung out of my tent. So essentially, that day I boiled 4 pots of water (1 morning, 3 for dinner). Ruh roh. There was, hypothetically speaking, 10 extra mins (one full day) of burn time. Which just got eaten up. When I made dinner tonight, it was definitely starting to sputter a little bit. Fingers crossed, as I have three more burns (two breakfasts and one dinner) before I get to town. Cold soaking oatmeal wouldn’t be the worst in the world. But cold mashed potatoes? I don’t think that’d be too enjoyable.
Anyhoo, back to yesterday.
As I ran down the switch backs (literally, at times, I was running. The trail was wide and smooth without rocks, so I’d use gravity to fall down the way, and my trekking poles to stabilize. A “controlled fall” as I believe I’ve mentioned before.
As I got further down, I saw more and more people. Then once I got to the river, it was weekend warrior madness. Super flat, nice wide open trail, with a gorgeous blueish green river (aptly named, Green River) it was a haven for lesser intense outdoors people, kids, etc. but man oh man. Flat. It felt so nice to actually be able to accurately calculate miles and time. I got to my allotted 21 miles before 4pm. Was I going to stop? Heck nah. 10 more miles to the campground! (Just over 3 hours). I threw on some tunes for the last couple hours to zone out and cruise. And that I did.
Eventually I ran into a couple hikers I met way back in Chama, Hush and Sideview. They were going to the camp as well, and we had just over 2.5 miles left. A bit of an older couple, they were a hair slower than me, so I told them I’d dart up to secure a camp spot for us. It’s Thursday, so fortunately not the weekend, but reports of the busyness of this camp had us worries we’d be left stranded. After 31 miles and coming in around 7:30, I was not going to stand for that. Because… then what? More miles onwards?!
I got the camp, which is very clearly designed for people with cars as I had to walk nearly half a mile to get to the registration board (a box of envelopes and a tube to slide your $12 in). Then I looped all the way back around the campground to try and find something open that was close to the trail, and hazaa, just as I saw Hush and Sideview, there was an open space (and with a bear box!). It drizzled off and on that day, but nothing major. It was nice to be in camp, and off to bed I went.
I started to sleep well, but the air leak in my pad has consistently gotten worse. Still unable to locate it, it now deflates about 30% in a couple hours. That means my butt hits the ground every couple hours. If I’m sleeping in my side, it’s even sooner. So 2-3 times that night I woke up with a cold butt, or a sore hipbone on the ground, and had to reinflate. Argh. Luckily, mama bear sent me my short pad from home. It’s not insulated, but as it’s been warmer it should be okay. It’s also a short pad (saves weight, put my feet on top of my pack) to help compensate for the added weight of my bear bag she’s sending along as well.
Another off topic subject, bears. Mama, you may skip this part (and anyone overtly worried about my safety out here in bear country).
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MOM STOP READING
… alrighty so. Wyoming is the start of grizzly country. While not hugely populated down here, they’re definitely present. A fellow hiker saw one swimming in a lake in the Winds, and that’s the first I’ve heard of them being around me, so far. I didn’t see any prints, or any poop. No major signs that I’m in imminent danger of any bears. In fact, after the first night out, I went back to sleeping with my food. There weren’t many trees around our camps, and I wasn’t going to leave it outside for critters to chew up. All my food are in individual ziplock bags (for organizational purposes, but I also cook in them; the freezer ziplocks are thick enough to hold boiling water without softening to poke through. When I’m done eating, just roll them up and put them in my trash ziplock. No cleanup, no mess, everything neatly contained), then I have all my food in a waterproof stuff sack (technically speaking, if water proof, it’s also smell proof. But after 3+ months of use, inevitable micro holes make that not entirely accurate). Then, I put that stuff sack in another stuff sack I use for my sleeping bag to double the smell proofing. finally, I put the bag under my knees, under my pad. Makes it quite cozy for sleeping, and hopefully my smelly clothes masks any slight odor coming out. Definitely on the “eehhhh, I’ve done this enough” side of things rather than the intelligent side, but in the low population grizzly area, I’m not too worried.
MOM, I said stop reading. And for real now.
Four people have been killed by bears this year already. One was a black bear in Colorado. Which is fairly uncommon. The others were grizzly attacks in Montana. One in Yellowstone (where I’ll be next week), and another was a Bike Packer doing the Great Divide who was camping in town (with her food). The Yellowstone one was a guide who rounded a corner on a trail and startled a bear feasting on a moose. It got territorial of its food and swiped at him (bye bye). Second, a grizz came into town, sniffed around the bike packer and woke her up. She hung her food and went back to bed, and a little while later the bear came back and dragged her out of her tent, even though she didn’t have food in there anymore, I guess the bear thought there was something still inside. There was one more but I can’t recall the details. And a little closer to home, my buddy, Rad, who had flipped up north to let the snow of Colorado melt (he’s on a strict time schedule so he can southbound the Appalachian Train right after). He was just outside Browning, MT and hung his food up and took a nap in his tent. He woke up to a branch breaking and opened his tent to be met face to face (3 feet away) to a growling grizzly. In his panic, he whipped around and grabbed his bear spray, but as he was doing so it got snagged on the side of his tent and sprayed himself directly in the eyes. Designed to shoot 30 feet with pressurized mace, he said the force knocked him back into his tent, with a blinding fury of pain. Thankfully, either the wafting bear spray scared off the bear, maybe Rads screams of agony, or simply the bear realized he was having a bad day, but he remained unscathed by the bear. Fortunately another hiker came up along trail shortly after, threw all Rads gear in his back, and led him out of the mountains and off trail. Rad said it was a blur of brown and green streaks as the fellow hiker helped him along the way. By the time he got to the hospital, the doc said he was extremely lucky to have not only gotten off trail, but also gotten a hitch to the nearest hospital, so quickly. It would have been very easy to have permanent eye damage had he not.
The bears are a bit more wild this year for many reasons. First off, last year they essentially had free roam of their territories with lockdown and national parks being closed (now Yellowstone is having its busiest year ever). That and dwindling food and water sources drying up, it’s making the bears a bit more open to walking into towns. Acclimatization to humans is their most dangerous enemy. Once they get comfortable around us, walk into towns, drag out people from tents… they get put down. But they’re hungry and have less food options, so they’re trying to find a way to survive.
Today, I saw my first bear print. Clear as day, walking northbound on the CDT. Comments and reports have shared that there’s at least one in these parts, with the prints confirming that. Still, I’m confident that it’s not yet much of an issue. But that being said, it’s about that time to start taking it seriously. Some hikers will continue to sleep with their food. Some haven’t seen any their entire sobo hike through Montana and Wyoming, and some have seen 5 or 6 (up in MT). Bears. The real kind, too. I’m looking forward to seeing one, but hopefully from the far side of a lake, or across a valley.
Alrighty, back to the trail day today.
MOM! You may continue to read now.
Today I woke up at my normal time, but didn’t get moving quickly. Hush and Sideview were packed and ready to leave by 6a. I mozied around, used the privy, and talked to a few folks camping nearby. I was finally on trail by 7:30a. A full hour later normal, if not a bit more! After yesterday’s 31 mile day, I was definitely a bit tired. Although not sore or actually hurting. Just drained a bit. Calories! Need more.
The first 6 miles or so were pretty much an incline. Nothing too crazy until the last mile or so, but still. Exhausting, especially when exhausted. With my big mile day yesterday, I now only have 55 miles or so to the road. So today I decided to stick back to my 20 average.
Well, since I wasn’t going to have big miles, the world decided to give me another challenge. And it rained pretty much all day. The 30 mins before I got to camp it poured. I was completely drenched. My rain gear held up well! But my feet and hands were soaked and pruny. Also, my rain pants have a bit of a tear in them from a glissade in Colorado (sliding down a mountain on snow on my butt). So eventually, the rain was so heavy it started seeping through to my pants, making my butt wet. Then dripping down my legs into my already squishy wet shoes. The next water source around the time I had planned to stop was in the wide open. Wind and rain blasting by. Up ahead was a group of trees and I quickly sought refuge. Of course the stretch of trail to that point. Was “new”, which means not packed down, fully grown over, and I was walking through fields of wet grass, just to make things more wet.
As I got to the trees, of course the rain stopped. First time pretty much all day. The storm was chasing me down, so sometimes I could get ahead of it, have a rainless break, and then would continue on when it caught up. I thought about continuing on another half hour or so to let me stuff dry, but my feet hurt and I was tired. Already 22 miles into the day, I did plenty.
So I’ve got my tent setup in the trees, listening to the dead ones which have already been partially blown down creak and away in the wind. I’m nestled in between some large ones, and not near any that are cracking. So only a freak wind storm will put me in any danger.
With the exception of the first night out of Lander, this is actually my first night sleeping alone out in the grizz country. Especially after seeing the prints today, ever branch crack I hear I shoot up to peak out my tent. I’m hoping it doesn’t rain so I can leave my fly doors open and be able to see easily. Bear spray at the ready next to me, off to bed I go.
Tomorrow I’ve got two options. A) hike another 21-23 and position myself for a 10 mile or less hike to the road (and lunch in town!) orrrr, B) I can hike 27 miles to a yurt on a river. Then I’ll only have about 3 miles into town, and can possibly have breakfast there! I’m hoping with the lighter day today I can kick out the 27. But we shall see.
