Truly One Foot In Front of the Other – CDT Edition
My journey hiking the long-distance Continental Divide Trail
For a stretch in Wyoming I had a 20+ mile road walk. The CDT is not complete and sometimes it has you march along a crushed gravel road. Although it can be boring it sure beats going cross-country from marker to marker with no trail at all.
Meetup: Day 8 – Monday 7/20/2020 – 1381.5 – clear, sunny, hot, dry. I woke after a fitful sleep with gusting winds at 4:40 am, packed up and was on trail at 5:20 am. It was an easy 7 miles to Justin. I arrived at 8:10 am. I drank a Coke. We chatted and decided after a few minutes that I would slack-pack through Rawlins WY and get more miles in. I left at 9:45 am. I took Justin’s daypack, 2L of water, some snacks, and my InReach. This was my first slack-packing ever. I never did any on the AT although many other hikers did. I zoomed along and did 7 more miles until SOBO mile 1381.5 at 12 noon where I again met up with Justin. We had hot sausage wraps for lunch and pizza for dinner. Yum! I did my standard resupply stuff out of the Jeep. In addition I also took a shower and washed my clothes. Tomorrow I will be attempting to do 22 miles. We shall see. It will be 14 miles to water, 4 more to meet Justin where I’ll again switch from my backpack to a slack-pack and then 4 more to our official meetup point. Overall it’s been a good day, but I’m tired because I didn’t sleep well with yesterday’s wind.
As I slack-packed (a light day pack with water, and snacks) through Rawlins WY I passed under a Union Pacific train depot. Along the walls of this pedestrian tunnel was art work. It included one for the Continental Divide Trail.
Sometime there is no trail and you go cross-country from trail marker (a marked stake in a pile of stones, a cairn) to trail marker across open land. It can be frustrating finding the next marker and not getting lost and off trail. It is also hard to miss stepping on rocks, brush and small cacti and not twist an ankle.
Then there is a dirt road and you walk in one of the tire tracks. You can make good time and it’s easy to follow.
There are times when it’s only a single track trail, but so far it’s been point to point or dirt road.
Finally there are road walks on the side of a paved highway with traffic zooming by at 60+ mph. These are my least favorite because you can see where your heading for miles and they aren’t very scenic.
Day 7 – Sunday 7/19/2020 – 1367.6 – clear, sunny, hot, gusty afternoon breezes. I was up at 4:39 am. Overall I slept well for once. Also I had to immediately poop. Like on the PCT I need to dig a hole the night before. I then packed up, ate breakfast, and was on trail at 5:20 am. My goal was a spring in twenty miles. Yup, a big mileage day. Today the trail was less off-road track and instead it was hunting for a footpath through the high desert. There were also a few more climbs. Also I got cell service and down loaded all my text messages but didn’t stop to read them. I didn’t have a lot of water so I had to conserve it. I arrived at the spring and three other thru-hikers were there: Matt, and Wyoming, who were hiking together, and S’mores, who had two other partners that weren’t there. We saw them passed by on the road and didn’t stop. I was thirsty and downed three 0.7L bottles there. S’mores said there was a stand of trees ahead that had campsites. He left to catch up to his friends. I ate lunch and then after about 90 minutes I proceeded on to those trees. I was officially done hiking for the day so I went slowly. The trail is barely a path. It was very rocky. I went from trail marker to trail marker. I had to climb some too. The wind was very gusty. I got there and the trees provided shade but the wind was channeled directly through them. So no tent tonight. I tried to cowboy camp and hide behind a tree. Only about 7 miles or until about 8 AM tomorrow to get to Justin. I can do this. Hopefully nothing will blow away overnight.
Justin’s BLOG Post “Why I’m sleeping on top of a Jeep in Wyoming“
Today I completed 100 miles of trail hiking from just north of South Pass City WY to just north of Rawlins WY.
Day 6 – Saturday 7/18/2020 – 1350.0 – clear, few clouds, sunny, hot, dry. I was up at 4:39 am and on trail at 5:16 am. Today was only 14.7 miles. Along the way I thought I saw a cell tower and indeed I got a signal and received text messages from the family. It’s nice to be connected being so far from civilization. I met Bard, a NOBO thru-hiker. A few minutes later around 10:00 am I heard a beep behind me and thinking it was someone’s truck I stepped off trail and turned around to wave. Surprise, surprise, it was Justin in the Jeep. While packing up our campsite he found a valve for my air mattress and was worried I’d have nothing to sleep on for the next two nights. So he drove the trail to find me. How nice! He too had met Bard, and he was also surprised how far I had gone. The air mattress was fine. It was a spare valve that had unfortunately fallen out of mattress storage sack. He left and I hiked on. Next I met two section hikers Eric and Balto. They had started in Steamboat Springs, CO about 10 days ago. We didn’t chat long and we went our ways. In a few minutes I was at the spring where I’ll stay overnight. I found a shady spot – yippee! I pooped – yippee! And although it’s early in the day I’m sitting in the shade with a nice breeze blowing. You’ve got to relax and enjoy the little things when they pop up. Soon I’ll eat lunch and get water at the spring. Then in late afternoon I’ll set up my tent in a sage bush grove which will hopefully reduce the buffeting by the gusty afternoon winds.
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.
I’m getting absolutely burnt up with the relentless sun. As soon as the sun comes up I apply sun block. I apply it to my nose, cheeks, and hands. I reapply it every two hours. Everything else is pretty well covered. I always wear a cap or else I put up my umbrella.
My nose is getting the brunt of it. When Justin met me today he said my nose was bleeding. It’s because I wear a nose strip at night to help me breathe and somehow I had removed it along with some skin too. Ugh! It didn’t hurt. My dear son Justin applied a bandage with Neosporin onto it. I’m trying not to burn. Really I am.
