Daily Log: Day 5

05 1763.8 6/19/2021 sunny and some clouds. Woke at 4:45 and did my abolition’s, then went back and waited for Justin to wake at 5. I ate breakfast in my tent waiting. Then we packed up and we’re off. Overall the trail was better but we still had 4-5 bigger blowdowns. We got to the Big Sandy River and his campsite about 8:30 am. A neighbor stopped by to say hello. He mentioned the trail was ok north for three miles and then it had blowdowns. We packed up the Jeep and drove about two hours to Pinedale. We got a room and took showers to get the dirt off. All my scratches were yelling ow, ow, ow. But I felt so much better by scrubbing the dirt from the wounds. We went for lunch at a brew pub. Next door was an outfitter where I bought two pairs of pants and new hiking shoes. Oh and a pole tip. The pants were too long so we dropped them off to be altered. Justin is a great help. I couldn’t get all this done without him. Ate dinner at Pitchfork Fondue.

Colorful sunrise for Justin and I approaching the Wind River range of mountains
Together we hiked out towards the Jeep with bug nets on, because the mosquitoes were miserable (Photograph Courtesy of J. Watt)
Some of the blowdowns have been cleared. This one had the CTD logo sawed into it. Look how disheveled I am after only a few days on trail. The bug net makes me look even dirtier.
Justin, my savior and hiking buddy, with his bug net on and happy to have a bridge to cross over this rushing stream
Finally at the hotel in Pinedale WY and ready for a shower to get some of the trail filth washed off
Now the dirt is washed off. My legs are clean but chewed up from climbing over, under, and around the blowdowns.
Justin’s text message to family: “Better (read: worse) angle” (Photograph Courtesy of J. Watt)
Pitchfork Fondue consisted of a large tank of hot oil and used actual pitchforks with the chefs dressed as grizzly old cowboys – or maybe they were actually cowboys playing the part of chefs! (Photograph Courtesy of J. Watt)
Skewered streak à la pitchfork fondue (Photograph Courtesy of J. Watt)
We had the choice of steak, chicken, fish and corn so we tried all four – all very deep-fried and very very well-done, which bespeaks to the assumption that the chefs were probably real Wyoming cowboys. Yet it was quite fun and I needed that after the last few very difficult trail days. (Photograph Courtesy of J. Watt)