CDT Day 76: July 20, 2025
Start: 1549.6
Stop: 1554.4
Today’s Miles: 4.8
Total CDT miles: 1226.2
I left camp at 6:55am, before anyone else, but everyone was awake, stretching, having coffee.. I sort of like their morning routine, I’m just afraid I’d never start hiking if I took my time in the morning.
It was an easy 4.8 miles to the road that we needed to hitch to Encampment, Wyoming from. There were some hills, but nothing bad-there were a ton of water and mud bogs-which made for wet feet. At one point I sank up to my left hip when I misjudged how deep the other side of a water crossing was. That was NOT fun. I popped up looking to see if anyone coming behind me saw it.. they didn’t, but I’m sure it would have been quite comical. I counted it as my first fall in Wyoming. Thankfully it wasn’t painful at all.
Redline caught me soon after and continued flying by. I was hoping to see some moose or deer or elk in the big grassy meadows, but no luck there. I really haven’t been very lucky spotting big wildlife on this trail.
On the final downhill to the road, Wolf caught up to me and we walked through the parking lot together. She diverted to the privy while I walked up to the other hikers expecting to see Redline-he was no where to be seen, apparently after hearing the other 3 hikers there say they had been trying to get a hitch for 2 hours, he just started walking the 13 miles to town. Crazy man.
The other 3 hikers were Thomas, Lone Wolf, and Chestnut! I haven’t seen him since sometime in New Mexico! Funny how these things happen. Wolf walked over and so did Firefly, we all agreed we weren’t walking to town, but obviously realized we’d wait our turn when a car did stop for anyone. I walked down to the big turn to see what the oncoming traffic situation looked like, hoping there were cars in the other parking lot nearby-but it was empty.
When we all heard a vehicle coming, I went out by the curve and started waving and doing praying hands-not one but TWO pickup trucks pulled over! The both drivers agreed to take us into town, but said we needed to hop in quick because he had a dead moose on the trailer he was hauling and needed to get it out of the sun and to the processing plant asap.
We all piled in the 2 trucks, all but Firefly who said he’d wait for Pika so they wouldn’t have to hitch alone. He’s seriously such a nice guy! Wolf, me, and Lone Wolf got in the back of the pick up hauling the moose, the other 2 guys got in the truck behind us, and off we went.
When our driver noticed Redline walking, he pulled over and let him hop in back with us. Not 10 minutes later, we were pulling into town. Driver number one stopped at the gas station close to the RV park we planned to stay at, but when we realized the only breakfast place was back about a mile, he kindly took Wolf, Redline, and me there. We were starving!
The little cafe was pretty awesome. I ordered sausage gravy biscuits topped with 2 fried eggs and a side of hashbrowns. Plus a cinnamon roll. And coffee. While we waited, we plugged in our power banks and text Pika and Firefly so they knew where to come when they got their hitch. Our food came soon after and we absolutely demolished it.
About an hour later, Firefly and Pika arrived and ordered food, so I ordered a burger and homemade chips.. which I also ate the majority of. Firefly finished off a bite or two of my burger, but I mostly took care of it. I was finally full! Thank god! We hung out a bit, then started walking through town to get back down to the RV campground.
We popped into a liquor store, Redline getting some beer and Pika and I getting a bottle of red wine to split. We walked about halfway, maybe more, when a man in a truck pulled over for us! His name is Gary. When we got to the RV park, he ended up asking us if we wanted to come back to his house for ribs..
About 10 minutes of talking, we got snacks from the little market and then rode with Gary back to his house. He let us shower, do laundry, and hangout at his house for the night! We camped in the back yard on the most lush green grass I’ve ever felt. We had BBQ smoked ribs, baked beans, and Hawaiian rolls, Wolf and Pika had a fresh picked from the garden salad since they’re both vegetarian.
The kindness we were shown was so out of this world and honestly a little overwhelming. The guys went with Gary to pick up some sand, and then they helped him shovel it where it needed to go in the back yard, other than that, he flat out catered to us! It was so incredible, I’m still in awe of it all! A complete stranger welcoming 5 hikers into his home and life. I’m just so grateful. On that note-goodnight yall. Time for some good shut eye!