So, today wasn’t supposed to be a zero-but man am I glad it was! We all woke up early, and packed up with all of the intentions of hiking out of town.. and then someone randomly says, “uh guys? Should we zero?” I’m pretty sure it was Firefly. I was immediately in. Everyone else agreed too, but to help save money, we decided to go to the free park for tonight. Awesome.
We took our time and walked over to the park, explored every inch of it, and then decided where we’d set up our tents when nighttime came. There was a lot of hanging out, reading, writing up these posts, relaxing.. you know, typical zero day things. Once evening hit, I decided to walk to the Italian restaurant in town that has excellent reviews. I’m still a sucker for some mushroom risotto after all.
Everyone was dressed so nice, and here I am with my holy hiking shirt and sandals. Yikes. They probably didn’t want to sit me outside and have me be the face of the restaurant as customers walked up, but too bad-I wanted the view. I sat down and ordered a glass of wine, a caprese salad, and the mushroom risotto. As I was sipping my wine and munching on the free focaccia bread (getting ready to ask for more) the hostess walks up with some man all dressed up.
She smiles at me, he looks confused, and clearly I am too. He can immediately tell I am not dressed for a first date and do not look ready to share my table.. come to find out, his gorgeously dressed date was seated at a table inside! Ha! He and the hostess apologized and the relief that washed over him was visible! How hysterical!
I finished my meal and walked back to the park. Everyone was just starting to decide where to set up their tents, so I joined in. Before long, the entire grass was covered in tents, and most weren’t even CDT hikers, although many were. We chatted and hung out before all settling into our mosquito free beds for the night. I’d say today was an excellent zero day! Goodnight, yall!
Today felt quick and easy. But BOY did we wake up to a surprise!
I knew there would be condensation on everything before I went to bed, so I made sure to put my rain cover over my pack and tuck everything inside-but what I didn’t expect was to wake up to FROST on literally everything! It got cold overnight, and I woke up a few times shivering, having to turn and re tuck my quilt under me to keep me warm, noticing early on how damp everything was. When I opened my eyes and saw the frost, I was shocked! 90 degrees during the day and apparently 30s at night! Who knew?! The stars were pretty miraculous though.
The first few miles were on a dirt road, while the next several were up and down sage brush covered hills with shockingly nice views for miles all around. Out in the distance, I could see mesas and pinnacles reminding me of Monument Valley in Utah. It was truly gorgeous.
Ten miles in brought me to South Pass City, where I picked up my resupply box, got a root beer and an ice cream, and sat out back at picnic tables with the trail family for a bit (I really like calling them my trail family). I semi organized my new food, before we walked the next 4 miles to the highway. It was more of the same, views wise-mostly open pastures of sage brush and dotted with cows all over. I did see some white tailed deer, but other wise, it was cow city out there. Lots of baby ones right now too, so cute.
Firefly and I walked the last 4 miles together and got a hitch in less than 15 minutes by a man doing mobile auto repairs. We shoved ourselves in the half seat in the back, surrounded by every single screw driver and tool set you could imagine. We talked the whole way about everything.. hiking, grizzly bears, auto repairs, life in Lander, Wyoming.. he was pretty cool.
He took us to the restaurant Wolf, Pika, and Redline had recently made it to. I immediately ordered jalapeño poppers, a pizza, and a Mountain Dew. The rush to real food is always so aggressive. It always feels like I’ve never eaten a real meal in my life. So ridiculous. Anywho-food was delicious and came out super fast. We all ate outside at long picnic tables, intermittently petting cute dogs and chatting with the locals.
From the restaurant, we walked down to a gear shop to check their prices and then to the laundromat. The laundromat will apparently have showers up and running next week, and they also have a boba tea bar inside-we started laundry, but we decided to get a cheap motel after all, since we couldn’t shower here. The plan was originally to shower and do laundry then go to free camping at the city park. I was content either way, but a motel is always a good time.
We did our laundry, trudged into the grocery store for quick snacks, then walked the rest of the way to the Motel. Wolf checked us in, and then we promptly set out to turn our room into complete hiker trash! Everyone pulled out their wet stuff to let it air dry outside over the motel railing, and we started taking turns with the showers. Pika taught us all how to use Gaia (we’re all amateurs, they’ll have their work cut out for them on this next stretch), and we downloaded the maps for our next section.
The plan: hike together to the Cirque of the Towers cutoff. They’ll go that way, I’ll go to Big Sandy Lodge on the redline (because Pebbles and I had already sent boxes that way-if I had realized sooner, I wouldn’t have done this, but that’s ok. I didn’t plan on being separated from my friend). Once I get my burger and my box, I’ll then have to keep hiking a trail that will take me to Big Sandy Lake on the Cirque of the Towers route, making me walk 9 more miles than the rest of them, but I’ll get to hike the rest of the Cirque of the Towers with the tramily.
Apparently, Cirque of the Towers is truly epic and shouldn’t be missed. I’ll obviously be missing half of it, but I’ll still get some views and I won’t have to separate from the group for very long. They’ll have a short day and I’ll have a regular hiking day with a burger in the middle. That doesn’t sound so bad.
From there, we’ll get back on the redline for a while through the Wind River Range-also Iconic. From there, instead of going into Dubois, Wyoming, we’ll detour off to the west and go into Jackson, Wyoming! Jackson Hole is one of my favorite places, and the town base for the Grand Teton National Park! From Jackson, we’ll hike the Teton Crest Trail-ALSO known for unbelievable views, and then make it into Yellowstone National Park.
I am SO STOKED for the upcoming weeks! It’s about to be some of the most gorgeous hiking, and most exciting views on trail, and everything I’ve been looking forward to since knowing I’d hike the CDT. I can’t WAIT to see it with my bare eyes!
Now that we mostly know how to work Gaia we all feel better about our side quest to some incredible beauty. I think that’s all I got today. We have to resupply tomorrow and they have to send a box to Yellowstone, thankfully Pebbles did that for me a few days ago, so I don’t have to. And for the record, I’m still sad he’s not hiking with me and isn’t a part of this tramily right now. I know he’d have the best time with these guys.
Calling 24 miles a short day sounds so weird, but, that’s what it was! A short day! We all slept in until well after 7am. It was glorious. I got to hiking around 8am, 2nd out of camp. I never saw Firefly again, until making it to camp, but I saw Redline around lunch time, and sat with Pika and Wolf for lunch, though they had been there much longer than me.
Sometime around 9am, I decided to look and see if I had phone service. I did, so I checked the website for a race I want to sign up for, and they changed next year’s dates! I started to panic a little since I’ll be out of the country already on the new dates listed and won’t be able to do the run. This is only a big deal because of the time constraints I put on myself..
I want to run a half marathon and a full marathon on every continent before my 40th birthday (December 13, 2027). I want my last full marathon to be in Antarctica, because when I went for the half marathon, the celebration for 7 continents club members was so awesome.. so, that is planned for March of 2027.. my South America marathon has to be before that. So, as any normal human thru hiking across the country does while in the middle of the Great Basin of Wyoming with a slight cell signal: I googled “South America Marathons” and scanned for races and dates that looked good.
I can now tell you that I’m all registered for the Maraton Monumental de Brasilia in Brazil on November 23rd of this year. Surely I could wait until next year-but what if they move dates or cancel it or something silly? That’s too close to March to risk it in my opinion. Don’t worry, I already know I’m a lunatic.
Since I’m rambling about that, I’ll tell you the ones I’ve already gotten marked off. For the Half Marathons, I’ve completed North America, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Antarctica. I’ll do South America in April of 2026, and Australia in August of 2026 ◡̈ For Full Marathons, I currently only have North America and Europe completed, but Asia is already booked (Japan in March) and now so is South America! I’ll have to sign up for Capetown once the registration opens, which will be for May of 2026, and Australia will be in August of 2026 as well. Leaving only Antarctica in March of 2027!
Fingers crossed all of this works out the way I want it to!
Anyway-back to today. I hiked easy dirt roads all morning, signed up for the race, and got water wherever it happened to be. The first water source was pristine water under a lid in a metal thing. Not sure exactly how that works, but it does and it was fantastic. The rest of the day was the same endless views of rolling sage brush hills dotted with cows and wild horses. It was hot, but it had its beauty.
I hiked with Pika once I caught up to them talking with a sweet trail angel who gave us water. We talked to him for a bit then walked the rest of the way to a bridge with a small stream under it. Wolf was waiting for us there. I was so happy! The 3 of us went swimming in water barely waist/stomach deep. Something about getting into cold water on such a hot day just makes the world better. It was awesome!
All my aches and pains in my feet started to ease off, the girl time, talking and laughing and cutting up was almost as refreshing as the water we were swimming in. Eventually, it started to get too cold to stay put and we all got out and got dressed. The 3 of us walked the last 4 miles to camp together, non stop talking about life and friends and anything that popped into our heads.
When we got to camp, down a dirt road and across a tiny stream, we all harassed the boys for not staying at the swimming hole and waiting for us! They both got there, got water, and hiked to the camp spot-which was in direct sun for hours. They both admitted they should have at least hid out under the bridge to have some shade for awhile at the very least. We missed them, but I doubt I’d have skinny dipped if they had been there, so, no real love lost. I’m quite happy I’m not laying in wet underclothes right now.
Anyway. It’s 8:30, the sun is setting and the mosquitos are making an appearance. We’ve all eaten dinner and we’re cowboy camping. Tomorrow is 10 miles to get to South Pass City, where my box is being held, then 4 more miles to the road to hitch into Lander, Wyoming. I was originally planning to skip Lander all together, but since Pebbles and I agreed he’d keep going his pace instead of slowing down for me to meet up with him, for us to both potentially hike alone in Grizzly Country anyway since he’s several days ahead.. I might as well go into town, enjoy it, and also get a few random things-I might try toe socks for one.. and I need bear spray.
Hmmm.. ok, I’ve rambled so much today. I think this is all I have. Also, my fingers are cold so time to tuck in and get warm! Goodnight yall!
