Start: 1744.6
Stop: 1758
Today’s Miles: 13.4
Total CDT miles: 1409.8
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.
Alright, that’s it for real. Goodnight!