Its almost midnight here at the Days Inn in Rawlins WY - I would have thought I'd be dead tired after all the miles of the last couple weeks, but it seems I can't sleep very well in a comfortable bed anymore. I don't understand. So I thought I'd take advantage of the "free" internet access before we hit the trail again. It's actually pretty interesting sitting here in the hotel lobby at this hour in this I-80 pit stop town in the desert. Turns out Rawlins is jam packed with people for the Carbon County Fair; all the hotel rooms are full - if we had arrived any later we'd have been camping somewhere in a vacant lot, and I'd probably be sleeping soundly...
We've been picking up the pace of our hike lately, usually doing 25-30 miles - walking pretty much all day, from first light until its too dark to see. And definitely noticing the days getting shorter as summer wanes. We've had thunderstorms just about every afternoon or evening since Lander, but nothing to make us too soggy. Building all day, but mostly just a lot of bluster and rumble, a little hail or a sprinkle of rain, and then they move on, leaving us with beautiful, dynamic cloudscape skies to watch as we walk. And amazing sunsets tinging the remnant thunderheads golden, crimson, and purple, and far off lightning flashes until late in the night.
Highlights of late:
We've been eating great food on the trail, thanks to the NOLS store in Lander - these guys run all sorts of groups out in the wilderness, teaching outdoor skills to young people primarily, for those of you who don't know NOLS from - well - any other fancy acronym... We've actually learned to recognize NOLS groups from pretty far off - marching in a tight formation, each NOLSy with a huge full backpack towering over their heads, and, most distinctively, shin high gators, often the entire group with matching gators, worn at all times, apparently. Looks like a lot of fun... but despite the comical appearence these guys cut on the trail, darn if they don't eat pretty well - the NOLS store was loaded with all sort of dehydrated goodies (dehydrated brownies, anyone?) one could only dream of in your average Safeway or small town hitchin post - and best yet, a big free box for hikers such as ourselves... so its been a bit of a feast for us since Lander.
Ran into a nice size griz about 40 miles south of Togwotee Pass - as we sat eating our lunch by the trailside, Beth glanced up, and calmly said to me, "there's a big bear watching us over there". And indeed there was, about 50 feet away - he must have been coming down the trail and stopped when he saw our legs stretched over the trail and our stuff sprawled out everywhere. So we got up and tried to do what one is apparently supposed to do - speak to the bear firmly but non-threateningly - meanwhile trying to figure out which of the spindly little spruce trees we might actually be able to climb should the need present itself. Well the bear kept right on watching us for a minute - and then suddenly turned around and ran off. So it wasn't all that exciting, but that was fine with us... nice to know they're out there though.
The Wind River Range was just beautiful, as we'd heard rumored. Miles and miles of granite peaks soaring above us, I don't know how many thousand lakes. And just about as buggy as we'd heard, too, enough to keep us moving most of the time. Unfortunately, when you are on the main trails in a place like that, and covering 25 miles a day, you are bound to run into a lot of other folks, which we did - Boy Scout troops, families, horse packers, llama packers... about the most popular place we've been yet, as far as the backcountry goes. Did I mention the NOLS groups? I guess its good to be reminded how little wilderness we really have, and how much demand there is for it. Even in a place as vast as the Wyoming Rockies, it can be surprisingly hard to find solitude on a weekend in August. Ah, if only those in charge of such matters shared the same view as we do, there would sure be a lot more places set aside for their wild and lonesome qualities. But they don't, I guess - when we met the governor of Idaho he was touring around in his RV- and we see the president is down on his ranch again.... meanwhile oil and gas drilling, road building and logging continue to eat away at the few remaining wild places of the western U.S. But I digress...
But it was sure pretty up there, even with the mosquitos and crowded trails. And plenty of swimming opportunities. Definitely wished I'd had my fishing pole with a few times - but there was ground to cover, and we had plenty of food as it was...
Our next segment of the hike took us straight out of the mountains and into the desert of the Great Divide Basin. Strange to be eating dinner at an alpine lake one night, crossing snowfields at a 11,200' pass, and then the next day be dropping out into the vast, arid expanse of sagebrush and rocks. But we loved it. A brief stop at historic South Pass City (winter population: 2) to pick up our food box, and then neighboring Atlantic City (not much bigger - why do they call these things cities? Probably the same logic that leads to subdivision streets called "Elk Trail", etc.) for lunch and to fill our fuel bottle - the gas station is a 10-gallon jug at someone's house.
Then out into the desert - crossing the old Oregon Trail a couple times, where we encountered a guy whose mission is to drive the trail in his SUV "if you don't use it, you loose it" he told us. Then we actually spent most of a day wandering the canyon of the Sweetwater River, delaying the inevitability of the dusty dry roads and gas pipelines we'd be following the rest of the way to Rawlins.
The desert itself, the next 3 days of our walk, was great - abundant pronghorn, wild horses, coveys of sage grouse flying up, sagebrush, and wind. A lot of cows too. But not a lot of folks. In 3 days we met one Peruvian shepherd and saw a couple of distant pickups. That was it. A welcome change from the crowds of the Winds. And no mosquitos either. And it wasn't even that hot, with all the thunderstorms and wind, and good springs spaced at nice 30 mile intervals. And as mentioned before, beautiful sunsets, and the easy dirt road walking allows one to look up at the sky and watch the clouds as much as one wants as one walks. Last night best of all, giant thunderstorms flickering off to the east and the Perseid meteor showers like fireworks in the starry sky.
Today a kind of crummy highway walk, 20 miles of blacktop to Rawlins, I don't know how many dead pronghorn, cottontails, rattlesnakes, and miscellaneous unidentified mummified wildlife parts we saw and smelled, I lost track. Not so pleasing. Unfortunately the land ownership is a giant checkerboard around here and to do anything but walk the highway would involve some serious trespassing, so thats just the way the trail goes. But it provided ample motivation to get here early, which allowed us to get the hotel room, and hence the blog update...
So its been a pretty good adventure of late - now "enjoying" "civilization" here in Rawlins - since I started writing I've watched a countless bikers getting turned away, a drunk get told to return to his room and leave the kids alone - and what the heck are all these little kids doing up yelling and running around a hotel lobby at midnight anyway?
Well we'll be heading off again tomorrow, a little more desert, then the return to the southern Rockies and into Colorado. So, until then, dear reader...
