Meetup: Day 5 – Friday 7/17/2020 – 1335.3 – clear, sunny, hot, dry. I was up at 4:36 am and on trail at 5:23 am. I passed a hiker’s car who was camping right on trail. Because of that I got a little off trail, but soon was back on it. Also I met both Five Star who is tidy and not an army general, and Songbird. They are both NOBO thru-hikers. I was very surprised that she remembers meeting me on the PCT at Goat Rocks in 2014. What?! Now that’s quite a coincidence! Then later on I met Montuckey, another NOBO thru hiker. Think of that… these hikers had left the Mexico border and now they’re in Wyoming. Wow! I again finished hiking quite early at 11:30 am, but no Justin at our meetup spot so I sat and waited. Five minute later Justin arrived. We parked and set up at the nearby reservoir. As we sat and relaxed another hiker named Saul, a NOBO hiker stopped for a soda. He had met Justin’s friend Danny on the PCT the year before. Another coincidence! A few minutes later yet another hike stopped for a soda. His trail name is Wolf. And it was his car and campsite I passed that morning. He is an incremental yo-yo. That is, he parks his car, hikes NOBO half way to his next parking spot, hikes SOBO back to his car, drives to that next spot, hikes SOBO to where he turned around, hikes NOBO back to his car, and repeats that over and over. Also he’s done 2 Colorado trails, 3 PCTs, 4 JMTs, 5 VT Long Trail, 5 ATs, but zero CDT. He said that he got the Billie Goat award for more than 25k miles of hiking, but no triple crown yet. At dusk a Tour Divide biker named Ian pulled up to camp. It was a very busy day socially. I resupplied and refilled from the Jeep and now I am ready for the next mini-section. Cowboy camping again tonight next to the Jeep and Justin.
