Category: Meetup

Meetup: Day 9 – Tuesday 7/21/2020 – 1404.9 – clear, sunny, hot, windy afternoon. I woke at 4:20 am, packed up, had my pop tart and MIO water, and was on trail at about 5:05 am. Today was going to be my longest day yet – 22 miles. I was zipping along. First part was on a dirt road. I did a climb up to a hill top and on the far side was a very steep descent. I had to get out my hiking poles for the first time. I went by several evaporation ponds in a park. The country is changing. It is getting more hilly. But then after a while the road stopped and I had to navigate point to point. Now it was very slow going. It was very hard on me. After a few miles I was exhausted and finally came to a dirt road. Just down the road I saw Justin’s Jeep driving towards me. What? He was supposed to meet me two miles later but here he was early. Yippee! I’ll take it. I put my pack in the Jeep, had a short 30 minute break, drank a Coke, and prepared to slack pack the remaining miles. He left to do more errands. It was a slog even with no heavy pack but I completed all 22 miles by 2:30 pm. A NOBO thru-hiker named Moonshine stopped by for a free cold Coke. Justin and I had chicken quesadillas, chips, bean dip, and lots of water. The plains are ending and the hills are coming. I can feel it.

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.

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.

Meetup: Day 3 – Wednesday 7/15/2020 – 1300.3 – sunny, hot. I got up at 4:36 am and was on trail by 5:23 am. I’m finding that eating Raisin Bran isn’t good right now. I seem to be choking it down. So I’m switching to pop tarts next. I only have 9 miles. It should only take me to 9 am to get there. The trail was a double track road. It isn’t exciting but so much easier than cross country point to point across brush & sage. Along the way I passed more markers for the California Trail and its Seminoe Cutoff and the Oregon Trail. Near the end was a CDT paddock with two cases of water and a register. I sat a few minutes and wrote in it. The previous entry was NOBO on 7/11, four days ago. Immediately after leaving I noticed a stick or something in the distance silhouetted on a hill. My next glance showed it had moved to the right. Then my next glance it was gone from the top and appeared to be moving down. I was less than a mile from our meetup and it was Justin coming to meet me. Sweet! We walked back to the Jeep together talking about our adventures for the past three days. The rest of the day was resting, eating, cleaning, and prepping for the next section. He offered to cook breakfast but I wanted to leave early so instead he cooked sausage, scrambled eggs with cheese in a bun for lunch. Yummy! The afternoon included a short drive to a hilltop where we got cell reception. I was able to post a bunch of pictures to my CDT blog. Because hiker hunger hasn’t struck me he made small burgers with chips for dinner. Now it’s time for cowboy camping again beside his Jeep. I’m in my warmer sleeping bag tonight. There are cows about but generally they stay away. Tomorrow I’m going to try pushing it a bit to cut the distance to the meetup from 2.4 days to just 2. It’ll be my first MIO and Advil (ibuprofen) day. Good night all.