Week 12: Empty as a pocket with nothing to lose

Steamboat Colorado to Rawlins Wyoming

166 miles

July 18th to July 25th

Day 75: Zero 11 – Steamboat Springs

We decided to call Steamboat Springs ‘half way’, as we believe it to be roughly that, in time and in miles.

Collaberating this with the celebration of my brothers birth yesterday, we drank much in the way of alcoholic beverages.

Though what we belive to be ‘a lot’ , is now, not very much as we seem to be adequately lubricated and excitable after our first half pint.

We woke happily to Snakes bringing us (Maps and I) coffee in bed which she’d fetched from across the road.

Maps and I agreed the bringing of coffee in bed was most special and important a gesture.

After a few phone calls we soon departed for breakfast to see off Dutch and Bear who would be returning to the trail today.

It was easy to lure them to breakfast with us.

After this we all boarded a free bus to the other end of town to complete chores.

The first stop was Steamboat Chamber of Comerse as we heard they have goodie bags for hikers. This was very true. We were each issued our pack of joy. With many thanks we routed through, CDT embroidered hiking socks, energy gels, waffles, a free beer token at the brewery, many stickers and a discount on the hot springs. How very kind.

We went for a swift resupply at Safeway and Walmart. I looked for new pants, but there was nothing but inappropriate lacey numbers and HUGE lady briefs which promise to disguise one’s ‘muffin top’.

Fear not, my favourite mother is sending me some in a parcel. I just have to patiently wait for the end of August.

We lost Maps somewhere in the store and she found Taz Baz.

Snakes and I caught the bus back to the post office and posted a resupply box off to the next town, Encampment.

Then to the town library. Snakes wanted to back up her photos onto a memory stick and my last blog was misbehaving.

This was probably the best library ever.

No ID, no forms to fill out, just walk in, pick up a log in card and use a very speedy computer sat in a most comfortable chair.

The bathroom was a spacious wonderland of free tampons and nice smelling soap.

We operated quickly and completed our tasks. The day was ours.

We collided with Maps and Taz as they entered the brewery, we all picked up our free pint and some un-free ones too.

Meanwhile, my stomach decided I was not to fully enjoy this zero day and started cramping in a truly horrible fashion.

We promptly returned to the motel where I remained horizontal for the rest of the day and watched Snakes sort out the food and pack my bag. She’s a love.

Domino’s had a half off deal and we had Netflix. Needless to say we ate Domino’s and watched Black Mirror.

I’m feeling a bit better now, thank you for asking.

Cliff is walking a lower elevation route to Rawlins after her altitude struggles and is 2 days from Encampment now. We miss her hilarious one liners “out here I only wake up when I’m about to pee myself” and hope to catch her soon. Baby food is in a similar situation, and we miss him just about as much.

Day 76: I smell Wyoming

I went across the for coffee this morning. Coffee in bed is probably my most favourite ever thing and feels so incredibly luxurious. Have I already mentioned this?

We packed up slowly and swapped music suggestions.

A hitch came before long, 2 people stopped but weren’t going the same way as us, then Mike stopped and shoved us in his little orange square of a car.

Before long (10;30am) we were back at Rabbit ears pass, gently ascending through forest and lakes abundant.

I was sincerely overjoyed to be returned with the bagel lunch option. I’ve now added mustard sachets, Cahula and both salt and pepper to my ever expanding condement bag.

We three chit chatted most of the day, about both important and totally unimportant things.

After lunch we broke again at 10 miles to make a cup of tea and indulged in our goodie bag waffle.

Tea time on trail is probably my most favourite time.

Onward and still kindly ascending. The terrain was favourable, the day not too hot, water abundant.

We stopped at 6:30pm and made dinner between snow patches. We’d decided to do this then hike on a bit more to get some miles in after our late start. We made it to camp for 9pm, just as the sun was turning all red.

18.8 miles on the day.

Day 77: Oh, hello snow, you little shit.

We woke tired and late (by 10 minutes) after our later than usual night.

We still made it out of camp for 6:25am.

The first 6 miles to breakfast were undulating with a general uphill trend. Patches of snow were unavoidable, but they were hardened and easier to walk on than the previous slush.

The snow covered the trail a out 90% of the first 10 miles out of camp.

I found myself first in line and therefore spent a lot of time route finding while trying to stay moving and therefore upright as I slipped about the place.

Route finding slowed us down somewhat.

We saw a great deal of moose, deer and we think, coyote tracks in the snow.

After our final summit, we met Kevin, from England and more specifically The New Forest, which is one of my favourite places ever. He’d started the trail after us and had barely seen anyone along the way.

As such, he’d been recently questioning what he was doing and why he was here. In two days he is to head home to the UK for a wedding. After the wedding a group of the wedding guests, including Kevin will be going camping, in the Wye valley.

He’s flying home to go camping.

He’s unclear if he is returning to the trail.

I’m addition to Kevin we saw a posse of Mountain Goats, which pretty much made my day. Especially as they were all lined up with their bums facing us.

We 4 all descended downhill for the remainder of the day. Stopping for a lengthy cup of tea as has become the afternoon ritual I look forward to so very much.

We pretty much hike to the next meal, all day.

We descended to lower elevations which my chest, which had been hurting for the last week, was happy about.

The decsent went on for quite some time, we were eventually spat out on a road by a river which we fell across the other side of, on the first tent appropriate space we saw.

We ate surrounded by mosquito bastards as they ate too.

By 8pm, Papillion joined us, briefly, having hiked 40 miles, practically from Steamboat. Almost the same distance we took two days over.

Unfortunately Papillion had no friends, and had seen barely anyone on trail. Because no one is that mental.

22 miles on the day

Day 78: Oh for goodness sake

Today was Wyoming day. We camped 22 miles from the border.

Out of camp early as usual, the trail was unusually smelly. This time it was the fresh scent of glorious morning, green things and pine. This joined with bird song made for a happy morning.

We took a short detour due to a washed out bridge over a river we couldn’t cross ahead.

The trail now rose incredibly steeply, on and off for the next 6 miles.

While the elevation profile looked like today was a mere walk to town, it was in fact masking the mammoth but irregular ascents on the day.

I prefer one big climb in a day, rather than lots and lots and lots of short ones.

I felt like Wyoming was not letting us in easily, Colorado and Wyoming had banded together in elevation, steep ascents, the trail was hot and exposed and full of mosquitoes.

We met some horse riders, (I won’t say ‘horseback rider’ as I’m confident you’ll know where one rides a horse) they had a dog following them, a stray who was particularly affectionate towards Snakes, she named him Fly. As he had a fly on him.

We hiked on to lunch were we had 10 miles to the border. Maps joined us here.

The remainder of the day was hot and sweaty and on a speedy 4 wheel drive track.

Before long we left this dirt track and walked through woodland, covered in blow downs and arrived here:

Wyoming baby!

We basked in our glory for all of about 7 minutes before motoring on.

Suddenly everything was different. The woods were new and the light, unfamiliar, we were in Wyomingland.

All 6 of our feet hurt and we made it 3 more miles to water and camp.

25.5 miles on the day.

Day 79: Wyoming, why are there hills?

We woke exhausted as we knew we would.

We had 18 miles to Encampment which was no mean feat. As there was still a respectable amount of height gain.

We did all the same things but just cut our breaks down a smidge.

The trail was an undulating hurdle assault course of fallen trees.

Then it was a few miles of my favourite game: ‘who can find the tiny cairns’ while the trail leaves for a long coffee break.

Can you see the cairn? No, of course you can’t.

And then a beautiful meadow bog fest where we saw an almighty herd of magical Elk.

Magical Elk

We were so drawn to their majesty that we wandered off trail, lost it and spent a good 15 minutes trying to wander back on to it.

Eventually we marched to Battle Pass Trailhead, just as a thunder storm was rolling in.

A big hiker box welcomed us and I drank Americas second worst beer.

We’d heard mixed things about the liklihood of a hitch from here, it looked desolate.

Many cars drove by, and none of them stopped. Lots of them waved though so that’s nice.

Maps arrived and began to call and convince the locals of Encampment to come and pick us up, to no avail.

Just as it began to rain and all sense of hope was leaving our pitiful looking bodies, a truck pulled in. No room in the cab, so we had to sit in the back, and in a tire, if you’re Snakes. Less than an hour but still our longest wait yet.

Maps and the ditritus

God bless these two Encampment beauties.

They dropped us at a bar. We loved them for this.

The bar filled us with good advice, beer, crisps and bleach (for water purification).

We booked a room at the RV Park Lodge, Maps easily convinced the lady to come and pick us up from the bar and take us there. It was a full mile away afterall.

We were planning to save time and money and camp at the RV Park as our friends had, but the weather was dicey and we were exhausted. Plus, splitting a room between 3 of us works our cheaper than if we were solo.

Snakes did all our laundry, well, the machine did it, let’s not give her too much credit here.

Then we rushed to the ‘Bear Trap’ bar opposite to gorge on very beige but very edible food items.

I climbed into the very best bed on trail yet which is where am as I write to you now.

Day 80: Leaving Encampment

We woke at 7am, unable to get back to sleep.

The coffee machine was broken which, as you’ll know by now was most, most disappointing.

The lady in charge, Tammy, was not on reception, so Snakes and I left in search of coffee while Maps charmed a police officer (over the phone) in hope she would get news on her recently stolen mountain bikes (from outside her Colorado home).

We had low hopes in a very small town such as Encampment, but found coffee in a shop, come DVD rental store just next to the RV park.

We returned to discover Maps’ bikes had been recovered and we’re now in safe keeping in the ‘evidence’ department. She’d also, of course, found a new friend in the police department.

We left and dropped the key with Tammy. I informed her the coffee machine was Broken and she in turn, insisted we go and have coffee with her husband in their RV, which of course we did.

Bubba, making my day

2 more cups and an insightful chat with Jim regarding the ‘Encampment Wood Chopping Jamberee’ (which I absolutely want to return for next June) we were in Jims truck and receiving a tour of Encampment, an old copper smelting town, en route to the post office.

We received our recently posted boxes of food. Because we realised we could get to Rawlins quicker than we’d anticipated, we had too much food. We therefore decided to mail up the excess, and with this winter gear. This was incredibly satisfying.

Microspikes, waterproof socks, snow baskets, an extra layer, gloves, and my beer koozie. That was a big weight off.

We left for the Red Wagon next door where a kind officious woman let us know the score. She would make us a burrito and bring us coffee and we would sit outside and enjoy the electricity outlets, wifi and shade. This was absolutely fine with me.

Both coffee and burrito were delicious. It was now midday and we had run out of plausible reasons to remain in Encampment, not hiking.

We’d agreed to leave early, not get sucked in to town and have a normal 20+ mile hiking day. This was already looking incredibly unlikely.

As such, Maps rang Jim who was back to collect us in minutes.

He took us back, 11 miles up to Battle Pass where we’d got off trail the afternoon before.

While gassing with new hikers we met at the pass (Ed and Scicilio) I realised my poles had been cleverly stored in Jims truck, which was currently on its way back to Encampment. Damn.

Jim made it all the way back to his wife Tammy in Encampment, before picking up the message that he’d stolen my poles. He retuend, without question and delivered them back, letting me know it was a pleasure to help us on our adventure. What a guy.

We finally set off at 1:30pm, 7 hours after our normal departure time.

Snakes and I chit chatted the whole way up a 5 mile hill while Maps chatted to her Mum (on the phone).

The terrain was gradual and easy. By 6 miles it was most certainly lunch time. I have sun dried tomatoes now and I’m very happy about this.

Maps joined us, then Ed and Scicilio too. I hiked with them for a short while before returning to my real family for some more solid conversation, deep enough to distract us from walking.

Eventually we were heading downhill . The trail opened out from the woods into cowboyland. We were back in the desert.

A short way on and we dumped ourselves down and set up camp.

I liked today very much.

15. 1 miles on the day

Day 81: Exposure

I woke up rejuvenated. Our short stop in Encampment did a lot to charge our inner sanctum.

The morning was beautiful, an undulating tease as we rounded each corner into the desert, into the wild flowers, into the cactus and into the gentle rolling hills once again.

We stopped by a creek for breakfast.

Onward further and the landscape became rolling meadow. Thoughts of home took over.

Eventually and as expected we came out onto the road, the paved road.

We had roughly 36 miles of road walking, with limited water into Rawlins, our first proper town in Wyoming.

We chatted for a good 8 miles or so, continuously, swapping stories or our lives and our old routine. We stopped for lunch under the shade of an aspen and talked of how nice it was that this place, a patch of shade on a barren road would be special to us for this time.

Back to the tarmac.

At about 17 miles in, we met two hikers coming South bound, Peg Leg and Mary, they excitedly let us know of a culvert and a spring a quarter of a mile ahead. This was most pleasing as we’d had no shelter or shade for hours.

We hid out for almost an hour which felt like 5 minutes. There was a spring pumping put clear water next to the shelter.

Snakes kept us all entertained by writing new songs and singing them to us.

Another handful of miles along the dry highway and a truck (the second one so far) pulled over to ask if we were OK for water. We said we were. The driver, Bob, asked if we would therefore like a cold beer instead. Of course we would!

He and Cindi had driven out of Rawlins to camp out for the night in their RV. What a treat to be drinking cold beer on the hot sweaty hard highway. Cindi and Maps exchanged numbers as she offered her yard in Rawlins for us to camp in tomorrow.

After 30 minute chit chat, we were off and on our way again.

We made it a few more miles to camp, up a hill off the side of the highway.

25 miles on the day.

Day 82: Ass-phalt

And so ensued the worst nights sleep on trail..

After deciding which way it was going to blow, the wind watched us set up our tent, then thought it would be hilarious to change direction.

It blew with a temper all night long, bashing into my side of the tent.

To make matters much worse, a thunder and lightening storm danced threateningly around us. I could see the lightening through my closed eyes.

I felt like I was being physically abused and woke to the tent door having ripped itself out of the ground and pushed itself onto the inner and onto my bed. It was there flailing about when I woke.

This was the first ever camp where rocks (to bang tent pegs into the ground) ceased to exist, I was left at 2am, gently pursuading the pegs back into the solid gold floor with a small uncomfortable stick.

By 5:30am we’d had enough and began to pack up and leave.

We had 17 more miles of tarmac into Rawlins, leaving early was an advantage.

Though the Road bashes up ones feet and legs and is incredibly hard going, it is realitively mindless, which makes for speedy hiking. I joined Ruth Jones, and James Redbanks on their desert island.

We made it all the way in by midday and walked straight into the postal office.

We had 5 packages to collect, 3 bounce boxes of gear and food which needed sorting and two care packages; one from Mum and one from Jay.

Jay had advised: When you go to pick it up, in order for it to be identified… both you and Shelley should look at the postal worker and point to your faces!

It was an Aeropress and fresh coffee, he literally couldn’t have sent anything better.

Mum’s goodie bag was the stuff dreams were made of and Jay’s box may as well have contained liquid gold.

Coffee time about to get a whole lot better guys.

Thank you both so very much!

We hobbled on to ‘Bucks’ which had been recommended by the locals who gave us beer on the highway. I’m starting to realise anything anyone recommends as ‘good food’ merely translates to ‘there’s food’.

Vegetarianism is not offered as an option on any menu, but the servers are usually happy to oblige my collaborating several menu items into one workable meal.

Moments after our meal, our pal Flip Flop joined us. Remember him? Of course you do!

From here we checked into a very cheap motel and began the ablution ritual.

Showing, cleaning bottles, pots, knife and spoons, sorting our remaining food, hanging garments, and separating laundry.

Somehow I found myself with Maps, Snakes, mine and Flip Flop’s laundry going solo to the laundromat. I’m not sure who left me in charge but someone’s in trouble.

Luandromats in the US are full of entertainment. Gaming machines, vending machines, a book shelf and often plenty of TV. I’d probably just come and hang out here without the need to wash clothes.

Snakes arrived having Completed a resupply for the next 5 days.

On route back we met up with Juke Box (remember him? Of course you do!) in a bar. He was technically 5 days ahead on trail, but his hiking partner had gone to a wedding for 5 days, so he was kicking his heels and hitched over 100 miles to see us all. Probably just me really.

Juke Box, what a guy!

This was a real joy. I ordered a beer bigger than my face.

Spooky Noodle was also in town, remember him from the Gila ? Possibly not…..

Spooky

Well, what ensued was one big disco.

Maps, Flip Flop, Spooky Noodle, Girly Girl, Juke Box and two biker hikers we’d met that day, Free and Stargazer.

Maps and Girly Girl

About every 15 minutes a round of ‘mystery shots’ we presented to us, courtesy of someone at the bar.

Pitchers of beer were placed in front of us, courtesy of the owner.

I don’t think anyone bought anything all night.

Before long there was much in the way of laughter, pizza and dancing.

It was great to see these lovely faces.

Pretty much all our kit and clothing has tiny patches of bright green tape, covering wear or tear holes. Things are wearing out or breaking and we look less like hikers and more homeless by the week.

Tomorrow we leave for Lander and the sweaty, exposed ‘Great Basin’ of Wyoming, it’s sure to be brutal…