Start: 1665.3
Stop: 1693.6
Today’s Miles: 28.3
Total CDT miles: 1345.6
We have officially entered the Wyoming Basin. Hot desert miles with gentle rolling hills that everyone keeps calling flat-it’s not flat, maybe it’s not hard-but it’s not flat! That’s a “hill” I’ll die on! Ha
We woke up and got to walking, and everyone stayed within site for quite awhile! I chatted with everyone as they passed me, and watched everyone speed off into the distance. There were wild horses and not a whole lot else out there. Water was scarce. If trail angels didn’t put gallons and gallons of water out here for hikers-we’d probably all pass out.
Sometime around noon, I caught up to Firefly again and we talked while walking-he hikes so much faster than me that he’d ask something and I’d be too far behind him for him to hear me-kinda funny. He’d slow down and I’d try to speed up. I really wish these legs of mine would speed up-shouldn’t I have trail legs by now?
Way off in the distance, we saw a tent and a truck.. we started to get excited. Could it be.. trail magic? It’s one of those things-you don’t want to be so excited that if you’re wrong, you’ve accidentally ruined your own day.. but you always WANT it to be trail magic. Because the basin is so vast and dusty and hot, it took forever to get close to the truck. The whole time I was walking towards it, I was praying I wasn’t seeing a mirage! The heat can do some wild things to a person!
I heard squealing up ahead, and figured it had to be trail magic and that Wolf had just made it there! When Firefly and I arrived, the tent was one of those shade tents with chairs set up underneath, and a man was grilling off the back of his truck!! I was thrilled!
I made me a plate while everyone talked-come to find out-this is the same guy that gave Pebbles and I trail magic back in Colorado! The one that was taking another hiker down to town from trail because of the snow and altitude! How cool!! He even remembered me and asked about Pebbles! I had to tell him that my friend is already light years ahead of me, but that I’m trying my best to catch up to him (even though I think he’d have to just stop walking for that to actually happen..).
We all laid around in the only shade available for miles and miles and enjoyed soaking up every second with this kind hiker dude and his trail magic. The shade was almost better than the hotdog.. almost. It was so hard to get moving again once the time came. It was already after 2pm.. we’d sat around for over 2 hours! Trust me, it was necessary! Before we set off, our new friend filled up our water for us, so we wouldn’t have to collect and filter from cow streams that were slow moving and pretty gross. What a gem!
From there, the trail was basically sandy dirt roads and paths that wound and criss crossed all over the place. When I caught up to everyone, Firefly wasnt there. He was definitely ahead of me though, so he must have taken a wrong turn or was moving so fast he passed the mileage we planned to camp at. To be fair-where we stopped has no where to put up a tent anyway.. but we’re all exhausted and the sun is starting to set (finally!).
So, Redline, Wolf, Pika and I are all cowboy camped on a dirt road tire path-all in a row! There’s so many cactus spikes around, I hope we don’t pop a sleeping pad tonight. The temperature is already dropping with the sun fading away. It’s so crazy to me how the temps can change so dramatically when there’s no humidity to contend with. We’ve all eaten our food and tucked ourselves in. I hope Firefly isn’t too far ahead or off track (I’m sure that’s not the case, but I know there’s no way he’s behind me).
The plan is to get up in the morning and hike until we find him, then decide with him where we all want to get to tomorrow. I’m really loving having this trail family include me. I’m starting to have some serious doubts about my next moves, as far as leaving them to catch up to Pebbles. I really wish he had the time and could just lay low a few days until we caught up up to him and then the 6 of us could go through the Winds and the rest of Grizzly country together. Maybe I’ll try to talk him into that the next time I get good enough service to call him!
Ok, with that-I guess it’s goodnight everyone! Sweet dreams!