hobolog :: CDT 2009

Wyoming is the land of my birth, the source of scars, friends, habits, and fears. It’s a patch on the earth with nearly as many quarter sections as citizens, dappled by clean bright light and dark dreams. The same air that kisses the skin for an hour can flare into a wicked icy wind the next. In all ways, it’s a place whose kindnesses are unforgettably enhanced by its cruelties. I’ve never felt confident that it would allow me to traverse its wild expanse on foot, but I’ve always wanted to try.

The time has come to embark upon the realization of this fantasy once again. My chances are much improved by my walking companions, Ann and Pete, and RV support team Bob and Carol Fish (Ann’s parents). We’ve been making our plans for months. We may also find ourselves among the first northbound CDT thru-hikers who yearly cast themselves into the great plains to meet their fortunes, usually with far less support than we will have.

I am going to attempt to post some maps of our progress, but this is dependent on the sort of fragile human constructions that I know Wyoming can easily rip to shreds without harming our ability to travel. So don’t take the lack of information here as a sign of distress. Bob and Carol will be aware of our progress and our needs.

Thanks for following! I invite you to stop now and then and feel the love coming from The Equality State.

When we arrive at Bottle Creek campground, Pete remarks that it looks like “the Land of Mordor”. The surroundings are beautiful, but the campground has been clear cut to remove trees killed by pine beetles that could fall on campers. The entire region is peppered with brown trees fallen victim to beetles. Eventually it will burn or be logged, and the landscape will look completely different.

My dad and Sarah come from Indian Hills, Molly and Jay show up from Laramie, Kate comes from Fort Collins, Jim rides with us and takes our car back to Denver, and finally our pit crew Bob and Carol arrive from Nampa, Idaho. We thank everyone who made the journey to see us off!

Near Encampment, WY

Posting from Rawlins! The phone system works, but consumes too much time and battery power, especially with a weak signal. So probably no real posting from the trail, oh well!

Sunny and warm to start, and even a nice bit of cross-country navigation. Soon we’re into snow, and I lose the divide and find it again a few times, sometimes having to crash through the woods for half an hour before finding a trail marker. Snowy up high, and wet wet wet as we descend. We start looking for a dry spot to sleep at 8, and give up after and hour of sloshing through marsh, settling for moist spots under spruce trees.

• GPX Viewer Track Map and Graphs (viking-20090701)

Near Encampment, WY

We wake up pretty dry!

First resupply rendezvous at Battle Pass is excellent – hot drinks and all.

Slow slogging up snow to Bridger Peak. More minor misnavigations – keep thinking we’ve gone further than we have.

Much snow along the divide, bright sun, and quite a few mosquitoes.

Again I think we’re further than we are on the descent, leading to the erroneous belief that we’re starting a long waterless stretch. We pump water from a trickle, then soon cross the creek I thought we had passed. Later when we taste the water, it’s mediciney. We deem it “yuck water”.

After much descending, we leave the snow and emerge in high prairie, complete with barrel cactus. Camp is a pleasant stand of aspen on the divide. Still have only yuck water.

• GPX Viewer Track Map and Graphs (vik-20090702)

Near Ryan Park, WY

Starts to rain at night, still raining while we break camp. Stays with us until we reach fresh water. No more yuck water!

The road walking begins, a relief at first from the snowy hills. The only major road hosts RV traffic for the 4th of July weekend, after that we see no one.

Rinsing my feet in a nice creek, I spot our first tick newly attached to my calf. It pulls easily with tweezers. We pick several more unattached ticks off our legs before leaving.

Feeling tired and leisurely, we camp on the divide at the head of McCarty canyon. Two trucks pass on the road during the night.

Near Rawlins, WY

On the divide we meet the one person we see all day, a guy driving around in his truck smoking a cigar. We appeciate the three bull elk that just jumped the fence in front of us.

Pete’s knees are hurting him, so we’ve chosen the more gentle route with less certain water. The guy in the truck described good water where I have “troughs” on my map, and indeed they turn out to be very nice spring-fed troughs in giant tractor tires.

Starting down Muddy Creek, I reverse my usual navigation error, placing us further back than we really are. This leads to an unnecessary crosscountry segment that increases our tick sightings, but is otherwise pleasant.

We filter water from a slightly muddy creek.

Finally lose battery power in the GPS tracker. I’ll need to give it more time in the solar charger. Just roads today, so I can complete the track by hand.

A dramatic lightning storm comes up fast, and we take shelter under a fortuitously placed bush. When Ann starts walking again, mud instantly cakes on her feet – one inch, then two, then three. We deem it “Sticky Mud”. It’s funny at first, but we have miles to go. It gets tiring very fast.

We anticipate a long stretch without water tomorrow, so we try to find the last possible water source before Bridger Pass. Turns out to be a cattle pond, but at least one with some clear water at the inlet. Pete has trouble with the gravity filter, so I pump eight litres or so and give him some. Later he worries his batch is contaminated and adds iodine.

Again we have no dry place to camp. We settle for lumpy grass on Bridger Pass. This is where Bob is scheduled to resupply us tomorrow, but we’re a day ahead of schedule now. We can’t get a phone signal, so we tape a note to the back of the sign.

Near Rawlins, WY

More lightning and a little more rain come through during the night, making some more Sticky Mud for us. Luckily it dries over the morning, but the first miles aren’t easy.

We see lots of water that looks fine, but our map reports that surface water in this area is very alkaline. We don’t try any of it, since we’re lugging several liters.

Pete finally gets a phone signal and eventually we arrange to meet Bob near Rawlins.

The BLM route seems to disappear into a sea of sagebrush, so we try a stretch on highway 71. Pavement just hurts too much, so we make our way along a line of telephone poles back to the BLM route, now on old doubletrack roads.

Prickly pear is blooming here.

Just beyond Rim Lake recreation area we climb a crazy jeep road that climbs 450 feet straight up the mesa in about a quarter of a mile. It helps reinvigorate us, especially Ann, who powers up it faster than me.

Bob picks us up on highway 71, sparing us a couple of miles of pavement into Rawlins. We’ll have to do it tomorrow.

Near Rawlins, WY

I’m going to add our cumulative wildlife sightings so far to the stats. Maybe I can track them by day from here.

A day spent at the Rawlins KOA with Bob and Carol is remarkably rich and busy. We clean ourselves, package supplies for the next section, fine tune gear, tie everything down in the Rawlins wind, walk the highway section of trail we missed yesterday, and eat another meal at the best restaurant in town, Anong’s Thai.

On our hike we meet Wolverine just starting south for a quick two week blast into Colorado. We give him a few route suggestions and wish him good hiking. He recommends the Cirque of the Towers alternate in the Winds for us.

There is also a couple one day ahead of us that Bob and Carol spotted, and whose footprints we’ve seen in the mud.

Mud is foremost in our minds for the next section. A big rainstorm could bog us down and leave us stranded. We hope it will be dry for Bob to reach us with supplies in three days, otherwise we’ll have to hike out 12 extra miles to Jeffrey City in the mud.

Near Rawlins, WY

Posted from Jackson Hole, where we’re resting up for the final push!

There’s a new route that mostly stays off highway 287, which is very nice, but adds 4 miles I hadn’t accounted for. This makes for a long day, especially once we start to follow a buried gas pipeline across the basin. You can only see it from a distance – a strip through the mud with slightly fewer sage bushes than the surroundings. We watch the very pretty sunset on rocky ground, through tired eyes.

Near Bairoil, WY

All day we follow the buried pipeline across the great basin. The linear route and the vast spaces boggle the mind. We select the next rise as a goal, which sometimes takes hours to reach. Tick checks punctuate the day. Ann’s feet are in pain, and she decides she’ll take a break and exit with her parents from tomorrow’s resupply.