Ann’s parents have found the trail crossing near Crooks Gap! They’ve strung up a tarp for shade, making a little oasis for us. A hot meal and cold drink top us off. I say goodbye to Ann, and Pete and I set off again. Quickly the terrain changes as we climb into the Crooks Mountains.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…