Day 95 – 0 Miles – She-ra Hikes

Ahhhh, ending the day with french chocolates and wine…where am I? This message was brought to you by the incredibly generous people around me…especially since I’m staying at a stranger’s parent’s house in Lander. Ok, not a stranger anymore, my friend Kelly’s cousin’s friend’s (Matt) parent’s house…she hooked me up with Matt today and we just had a fabulous dinner with his wife Chelsie and their little daughter Genevieve.

But back to this morning. As with many mornings in the hotels, I sleep in, just incredibly happy to be in a bed, and finally rouse myself with thoughts of coffee. I hit the continental breakfast and got back into bed for the next 4 hours…check out isn’t until 11!

The day after that passed quickly, I said goodbye to Lint, Justa, Grapenut, and Patches who were off to discover another chunk of trail, but I really wanted to recover just a tad more before entering the next challenging section…the Wind River Range!

To say I’m excited about the next stretch of trail is an understatement. I’ve heard about these mountains for years, and what I learned from Matt was that it’s one of the most remote ranges in the lower 48…bring it! AND it’s also the start of grizzly country. I’m trying not to get anxious about that yet…and we’ll see what really happens. I have a bear bell and bear spray (I’ve been told to keep it HANDY), so we’ll see.

I got a pizza for lunch and spent a few hours lazing around before heading over to meet Matt. Great peeps are never hard to find in an outdoor town…and before I went to his house stopped by the Wild Iris outdoor store where I met Tom and Laurie Jungst (a bad-ass ski mountaineer!!) where I spent the next hour talking trail. I also met Vogue (AT 2005) who worked there, we had a great time! Tom and Laurie are going to take me back to the trail in the morning, and when I got a chance I googled Tom and found how truly bad-ass of a skier he is (lots of ski movies & ran a company with Conrad Anker!)…so cool!