You just never know where a day will take you out here. You may remember I’ve been having some stomach issues, if I’m honest with myself I’ve known something has been off for a while. Possibly for a long while. I haven’t really developed the hiker hunger, sure on days I feel like I can eat anything and everything, but that’s actually been fairly infrequent. I’ve only gone into town having eaten all my food once, ONCE! In over 3 months! And I’ve had trouble eating a full meal in town sometimes. Isn’t that crazy? Who has ever heard of a thru-hiker that couldn’t eat a whole meal? I’m embarrassed to say I left fries on my plate in Pinedale. Anyway, since I haven’t had any other symptoms I just haven’t been thinking too much about it, other than the fact that I’ve lost quite a bit of weight. But yesterday and today when I had to dig a hole (I’ll spare you the gory details), I could tell something wasn’t right. Perhaps I’ve had guardia or something for a long time and it’s just now acting up? I know the body can get used to the parasite; when I lived in Africa for the Peace Corps I ended up getting guardia about 5 times, and the last time I had no other symptoms other than one sulfer burb…so time to take some action I thought.

I had a pleasent morning of walking through big open parks…we are in cow country again and they were everywhere. I ran into another flip-flopper, Cathy, who had received a warning the night before about the active grizzleys and wolves in the area, dude! I would not have thought this landscape was grizz and wolf territory, but I was super cautious to make lots of noise the rest of the day.

After lunch when I discovered all was not well with my bowl output, I reevaluated how I would get to the next highway and to my next town, Dubois, a 38 mile hitch from Togwotee Pass. If I did a 30 today and a 20 tomorrow I could make it to the pass, or I could check out some alternates. The Ley maps have a ton of alternates, and as I was trying to determine my options, an ATVer came along and suggested taking a road behind Fish Lake that would get me to the highway where I could hitch, he thought it was maybe 20ish miles from where we were, a lot less than the 35ish I would still have to go on the CDT, and if I walked roads I would have a chance of getting help from a car if I needed it.

The stomach was wierd. I would feel fine, and then have a pain, the feel fine, then not fine. I really didn’t eat much today, don’t have an appitite, something must be wrong! Thru-hikers need to eat! Thru-hikers want to eat!

Fortunately I had downloaded the area topo on my Trimble Navigator App, and was able to find a good route…there were quite a few ATVers out, and had a couple offers of rides, but I felt ok to walk, and if I hitched from out here it would be next to impossible to get back to connect my steps. I needed to get to the highway.

The walking was easy on the roads, and there was plenty of water. I walked and walked until I could see and hear the highway, I’m on a ledge overlooking a stunning valley, and will walk the last few miles to the road in the morning and then hitch into Dubois where I’ll go to their medical clinic.

I’ll have to come back to this spot and walk the highway up to where I can reconnect with trail tread, but as you all know, I’m no stranger to highway walking, it’s all part of embracing the brutality.

I slept well on top of the pass. Today I would go down, down, down quite a ways to the Green River & Lakes…and boy was it a beautiful walk.

The water took on an icy bluish tint thanks to all the glacial silt in the water, but the color! I’ve never seen anything like it!

And that continued to the lakes, the view is just one of the best out here, and some lucky folks can drive in and bring their boats, there’s a campground on the far end of the bigger lake, and as I skirted it I thought breifly about trying to find a soda, but then kept on walking.

There was a lot of climbing this afternoon, and the landscape changed suddenly.

This is beautiful too, it’s all so diverse out here.

More rain tonight. What’s up with all the rain?

Rain during the night. So much rain always, the divide has had the wettest spring/summer ever. Ever on record. Wet feet for days.

This would be the day to hike the stunning and challenging Knapsack Col route in the Winds, but with the heavy dark clouds and wet morning, I decided against the alternate. Regular ‘ol CDT for me today.

The moody sky put me in a contemplative state, today I mainly just walked and the day happened. Oh, but the landscape was stunning. And i narrowly missed getting hit by an errant lightening strike. That will get the blood flowing!

These mountains and lakes and endless vistas remained from start to finish today, and I’m perched on the edge of a pass into a dramatic canyon, it will be a good day of walking tomorrow!

The mosquitos are swarming me right now, I’m in my bug netting, but it’s starting to feel a little closterphobic, knowing they all would attack me if given the chance.

I made camp early again, partly because of the view, partly because I need to slow down a bit. I have the opportunity to attend the summer Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City in 2 weeks, and in order to make the logistics work, don’t have to do more than 20 miles a day! I think that might be hard to do once the miles get a bit easier (tomorrow?) but we’ll see, if I have some extra time maybe I’ll check out the Tetons! I have to figure out my Yellowstone strategy soon, I’ll be there this week and there are some permitting issues to figure out.

The map shows me about 2/3 done with Wyoming, cant believe it’s going this fast!

Oooo, so close to 1700 miles for my day 100! And what a day 100 it was. I woke a few times during the night in my urban camping experience, but when I rolled over, the next time I woke up it was 7am. I’ve been sleeping later and later recently…not a big deal to wake up at a certain time out here, especially on a town day!

I pack up and upon reaching the main street noticed a diner just down the way with a ton of cars outside…that’s always a good sign, especially when entering and seeing mostly locals, I like those kind of places.

I sat down at the bar and ordered a pancake breakfast and was soon joined by Vaun, an old timer who had lived in the surrounding area for most of his life. We had a good time chatting about bears, hiking, camping, and more, and towards the end of the meal when I made a trip to the bathroom, came back to find him gone but my bill paid! Wow, so nice!!!! Thanks Vaun!

From there I went to the post office to pick up the food I had bounced from Lander (you remember all those care packages? I couldn’t carry all that during the last stretch, so sent half of it ahead after sharing some with the other hikers; I won’t need to buy much here to make it another stint down the trail!

Then I had to check out the aquatic center I had heard so much about. For $5 you get access to the huge beautiful facility for the whole day. I didn’t really gravitate towards the fitness classes or the weight room…the hot tub is what I had my eye on. I took a long luxurious shower (in some of my clothes…might as well get them clean too!) and then jumped in the hot tub. Mint. Then a swim in the pool and a trip around the lazy river. I had my eye on the water slides, but decided to give them a pass and went back to the hot tub where I had a nice conversation with a few local ladies. Then back to the shower and to the lobby where I enjoyed a few cups of hot cider and tapped into their wifi for a little blogging action and some general web surfing. Very niiiice!

I spent a little time on the patio repacking my food bag and pack, and then headed towards lunch…pizza! My go-to town meal. If I order a large pizza, eat half for lunch, then I can pack the other half out to the trail, cold pizza on the trail? Don’t mind if I do!

After that I went to the grocery store, my list wasn’t long: 4 breakfast & wetwipes (wetwipes are GOLD on the trail). While I was there I ran into Smiles, who I had been in touch with for a ride back to the trail in a few hours, but really, all my town chores were done, so we made arrangements to go back after I was done shopping.

She had decided to go up for a hike since she was driving up to the trailhead, and we had a great time chatting…she was from Portland until just a few weeks ago when she moved to Pinedale to work as a wilderness ranger in the Winds! Cool job! Since she had just hiked the CDT last year we had a lot to talk about, and the 3 miles from the parking lot went quick with trail talk and a lot of laughter, so good to be around another badass hiker chick!

I wanted a short day, so I pulled off to find camp near Miller Lake, and she kept going. I’m overlooking the lake, and there is a smattering of rain beginning to fall. The mosquitos are getting bigger and hungrier, and I’m sure glad to have my bug condom (I hang it from the top of my tarp when camping, it’s perfect!)

Tomorrow I’ll get back in the thick of the Winds and do what I do best, head north!

I intended to hike more than 21 miles again today, but this afternoon my stomach started feeling iffy, so I took an early day to lay down and hopefully rest-off whatever that feeling is. I should make it to Pinedale tomorrow with another 20ish mile day, and am leaning towards a quick resupply and then out…although some thru-hikers say Pinedale is their favorite trail town on the CDT, I can’t pass up a recommendation like that!

See the thing about Pinedale is that it requires a 10 mile (off trail) hike out to a trail head and then a 15 mile hitch. That’s 20 miles that don’t count towards Canada! However the alternative is to do a 6-8 day food carry in the Winds, when it’s nice to slow down and not rush through. So there’s my delima, and since I only carried 4 days of food of out Lander, my decision has already been made! Pinedale is next.

Today was more granite spires and peaks. This area is amazing. No words.

I left the challenging terrain behind when I rejoined the main CDT (after the Cirque of the Towers alternate that I had taken), but first had a nice talused climb up and over Texas Pass.

The steep passes turned into gentle rolling terrain with tons of lakes and even more mosquitos. Oh yes, they are out for blood.

I met another flip flopper, Matt…I had met Stabby, Kiddo, and Banjo yesterday. So fun to see hikers! Although they are going the other way…

My stomach started feeling wierd before lunch and I just didn’t feel like eating more than a plain tortilla. I slowly walked a few more miles before deciding I wanted to lay down. Hope this passes overnight.

The Wind River Range baby!

The morning was quiet as I packed up, drank my coffee, and surfed the internet. Tom, Laurie, and their friend came by at 9am for my ride, and we had a great time chatting the 30+ miles back to the trail…Great people!

The walking was pretty gentle, rising up and down small rocky buttes, crossing many streams, and the terrain still seemed like the foothills of the mountains, not quite great divide basin, not quite high alpine mountains. I could see the landscape changing though, and the mountains rose up around me and the summits became more defined as I hiked during the day.

It was quiet and serene…not much happened other than I put a dent into all the good food I’m carrying now, and listened to a few new podcasts.

Tomorrow I’ll take the Cirque of the Towers in the Winds! STOKED!

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!

Now I have a whole house to chillax in and a bed with my name on it. The trail provides!

The glowing horizon beckoned this morning, but I had a hard time rousing myself…no matter, these guys are not early risers, and even after I was up and drinking my coffee they slept. Its pretty interesting to see all these different hiking styles out here. As much as I love hiking with others, sometimes it’s hard to give up your method for anothers…but since our time together is coming to a close soon I happily hike what this crew wants to hike. Onward!

This was the Oregon Trail!

The day was more rolling vast tracts of land. As we wandered in and out of the rises and draws I tried to soak it all in since the Winds were getting closer and closer. Soon I wouldn’t have these vistas, instead I would have towering granite peaks and high alpine lakes, Yes! I love all the diversity out here. Just as you are getting tired of one type of landscape, here comes its polar opposite to mix things up.

Justa was meeting us at South Pass City, which really isnt a city…it’s a historic site, with many of the old city’s attractions placed behind glass so the modern day man can marvel at the days past. It’s also a place where hikers can send themselves maildrops, and in my case, a place I put on my blog as a mail drop, and did I get mail!!!!!!

Thanks!!!!!!!

Thank you my dear readers! I was blown away by the goodness contained in cardboard which included:
-chocolates from FRANCE from my Peace Corps friend Christine!
-chips, goodies, and a little reminder of our Jennifer Connely movie marathon from my ladies in Bend Brooke & Adryon…they even included Sparrow Bakery cookies!!!!
-a box of letters and coffee and yumminess from my fellow board members at Art in the High Desert, I’ll be missing the show at the end of August in Bend, but they have me covered out here!
-delights from my parent’s friends Pete & Verona, and a little rum to ease the aching legs!
-socks, mini packets of deliciousness and more from fellow hiker Bethany (Gloves) who knows first hand what a hiker would need out here

All of this comes at a very good time, because I want to:

Hiker Hunger!

Ok, after all of these eats we decided to walk the next 3 miles to highway 28 where Justa would drive around, meet us, and take us into Lander – about 35 miles away.

I didn’t want to hike anymore, my knees have been ACHING from all the high miles, but I knew this would make getting back to the trail MUCH easier since I wouldn’t be with the Justa-mobile after this.

I decided my body needed a day off, and the rest of the crew would be hiking out the next day.

We made a bee-line to Cowfish, the brewery and steak house in town, had an AMAZING burger, and then checked into a hotel down the road.

Time to go comotose.