Turned out there wasn’t a trail to follow last night, so today I just kept rolling down the valley. Eventually I had to climb out and then down out of the Winds. My legs were not happy with the climb at all, totally rubbery.

Out of the Winds, and down into grasslands, completely different! I was suddenly on smooth jeep roads, and I motored all the way to the highway that leads to Lander. Overall the day couldn’t help but be a let down after all of yesterdays highlights.

I got a great room at a little motel, then ate a bunch (shocking!) I had trouble sleeping, then got woken up by a kind of giant siren or klaxon maybe… at 1am. Turns out it was a call for the volunteer firefighters to come to a fire. So loud.

Daily Summary
Date: Aug 22, 2011
Day 59
Daily Distance: 29.2 miles
Trip Distance: 1150 miles

Zero day in Lander on day 60. Was very successful at doing nothing all day. Just kept my shin elevated and iced most of the day.

Day 61, got a ride out to the trail with a trail angel Chance has been staying with in town, Bill, around lunch time. We ran into A-Bear chatting with a police officer where the trail crossed the highway. Turns out everything was fine, the PO was giving him water. Bill drove A-Bear back in to Lander, so that was cool.

We walked and chatted, catching up since we hadn’t walked together in a week. We just followed a series of jeep roads, although we started in private property so we had to jump a barbed wire fence or two to get on track. It’s pretty damn flat out here, basically desert. Looking to the horizon, this is it for the next hundred miles. I don’t even mind, easy sounds OK right now.

The only problem is water! We stopped at dinner time at a water pump powered by a windmill. The only trick was it doesn’t pump out accessibly, but into a locked tank. We were able to get in to the pump and by jamming a handkerchief into a certain spot, get the water gushing out onto the ground temporarily. Then the wind died and we had to wait for it to pick up before the water would pump again. This could be our new game, kinda like tilting windmills.

The rest of the evening flew by, I didn’t want to stop, but I ran out of light. I may have to do some night hiking to beat the heat in the next few days as it’s been well over 30C for the last 3 days.

Daily Summary
Date: Aug 23, 24, 2011
Day 60, 61
Daily Distance: 17 miles
Trip Distance: 1167 miles

Chance got me up at sunrise and off we went into the desert. I forgot to say yesterday that we are entering an area called the Great Divide Basin or also, the Red Desert. Today we actually got it easy though, as a big thunderstorm rolled through, keeping it a bit cooler. It even rained a bit.

The miles came easily and my only concern was water. I got some out of a spring around lunch, and the next water from there is 25 miles. Walking away from that spring I felt quite vulnerable. Any big mistake, getting lost, missing the next water, or getting more injured… Big trouble. I don’t ever remember feeling that way on the PCT, probably because there were way more people and lots of cached water on top of the springs in the desert.

Anyways, the whole day was a bit of a grind, but at least it was quick. I scared off tons of antelope, but I’m still looking for wild horses, which are apparently out here somewhere…

Daily Summary
Date: Aug 25, 2011
Day 62
Daily Distance: 31.7 miles
Trip Distance: 1198.7 miles

I was woken up this morning by the sun shining directly from the horizon to my eye. Very effective alarm clock. Most of the morning was just a blitz along good jeep roads. When it got to lunch time, I was nowhere near any shade. No big rocks, cliffs, trees, nothing. It was super hot, so I set up my tent and used that for shade. I put my sleeping bag on the roof to keep the worst of the heat out. It was still very hot. Turned out to be a quick lunch, then back out into the heat.

In the afternoon I had to walk on the shoulder of a highway for a bit, and a cyclist came up beside me (scaring the bejesus out of me) to chat. He was riding from Jasper to somewhere. Nice guy, from Brisbane. I was a little jealous he was getting to town today…

After that I hit a spring, which had a ton of wild horses outside. Inside the fenced spring area I scared a huge snake out of it’s grassy hiding place. I then had to walk to the spring through many grassy potential snake hidey holes and completely freaked myself out.

At dinner time, I got attacked by a swarm of flying ants. By attacked I mean, they were just everywhere, trying to fly in my mouth, nose, my food and water. Really annoying! I had a nice view from that spot too, but I packed up quick and made a run for it.

As I was starting to look for a place to camp, I ran into a herd of cows with a bull with massive horns protecting it. I would have had to go way around not to annoy them, so I just went through carefully. The bull ended up following me awhile, but just made me nervous, didn’t do anything.

Town tomorrow, hopefully before it gets too hot!

Daily Summary
Date: Aug 27, 2011
Day 64
Daily Distance: 32.4 miles
Trip Distance: 1261.7 miles

Got up before the sun and quickly got into town for breakfast. Met Lucky Joe at a diner, where we sat and chatted for hours. Then we met Chance and checked in to a motel, vegging out for the rest of the day.

Rawlins is not a super great town, but good enough for lying around in a motel. Have to get to the PO tomorrow which is far away and then back to buy food and use all the stuff in my bounce box. Annoying!

Daily Summary
Date: Aug 28, 2011
Day 65
Daily Distance: 4.5 miles
Trip Distance: 1266.2 miles

Got up early to get to the post office when it opened, but in the end we got a ride from the maintenance guy at the hotel, and back (3 mile round trip). Then we had a few hours with our stuff before we hiked through Rawlins back to the PO to mail it off. I stopped at a taco place and got a bunch of tacos to walk with.

We decided to road walk and skip some gnarly cross country desert. Walking with Lucky Joe was nice, new stories, etc. The miles flew by. He told us about getting snowed in on a winter ski of the John Muir Trail, and trying to get out afterwards. Gripping – he ended up getting helicoptered out.

Finally we jumped a barbed wire fence to camp a bit further off our road walking alternative. Good day and looks like a nice night to star gaze – I’m skipping my tent for the first night on the trail.

Daily Summary
Date: Aug 29, 2011
Day 66
Daily Distance: 19.5 miles
Trip Distance: 1285.7 miles

Turns out Lucky Joe gets up at 5:30am, so I was half awake from then. Turned out nicely though, I was hiking before the sun was up and beat the heat all morning. Actually, there was a steady headwind and that kept me cool all day.

I had a really weird lunch – I found a nice shrub-sized willow to hide from the sun and was eating some chips. Some cows came out of the grass and were startled by me being there and ran away. Then a whole herd came by and just stopped right beside me – maybe 10 feet away. They were all crammed together, facing me, just watching and chewing the cud. Then some bulls came up and were slowly creeping towards me. I actually got nervous at this point, and yelling at them didn’t do anything. I kept trying to eat, and when I got out beef jerky, that’s what scared them off! Very weird.

Other than that we got back on the trail and finally off roads. First actual trail since before Lander.

In other news, I think I might be half way done! It’s really hard to tell, due to all my mileage estimates up til now and in my planning not really agreeing. Woo?!?!

Daily Summary
Date: Aug 30, 2011
Day 67
Daily Distance: 31 miles
Trip Distance: 1316.7 miles

It was such a relief today to be out of the desert. There were tons of streams, even some ferns! I didn’t see Lucky Joe and Chance until we chatted briefly at dinner.

I’m now officially a bit worried about New Mexico, which has a lot of very desert-like sections. I guess it’s still a whole state away but ugh, I don’t like rationing water and being super hot all the time. Hopefully October/November NM cools down a bit? I never really researched this as NM seemed so far away!

Daily Summary
Date: Aug 31, 2011
Day 68
Daily Distance: 27.6 miles
Trip Distance: 1344.3 miles

Well the big news of the day is that we’ve crossed into Colorado! There was a very unimpressive sign, which Chance and Lucky Joe actually missed. I got a picture with it, but celebratory beers will have to wait until Steamboat Springs on Saturday.

Other than that it was a pleasant day of hiking, mostly saw a lot of ATVs… Maybe today is the start of hunting season, or maybe Labour Day is coming up? I’ll sort it out next time someone stops to chat with me.

Daily Summary
Date: Sept 1, 2011
Day 69
Daily Distance: 29.8 miles
Trip Distance: 1374.1 miles