Day 76     7/14     6 miles 

Had a very nice time enjoying the comforts of town today. We hitched about twenty miles west to the town of Saratoga because of the better grocery store and this place ended up being a really cool little town. There was a restaurant right on the North Platte river serving Navajo burgers and then an old dairy with homemade ice cream nearby. Right behind the town pool is the free Saratoga Hot Springs better known as the Hobo Hot Springs. Probably because that’s where all the hoboes, travelers, and thru hikers hang out. Queen B fit right in, she did her laundry in the shower there in true hobo fashion. From the hot springs we walked over to the supermarket and resupplied for a couple days. Desi, the owner of Vacher’s Bighorn Lodge where we stayed last night, spotted us and gave us a ride back to Encampment. We met Judy at the visior’s center earlier and since she lived in a log cabin up near Battle Pass, she had offered us a ride back to the trail if we were back from Saratoga by 5. Perfect timing! We got back on trail this evening and walked a nice pleasant half a dozen miles crossing into Medicine Bow National Forest before calling it a day. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!Hobo Hot Springs

Day 77     7/15.    31 miles

Today was a bit difficult. At least for awhile it was lots of ups and downs and I think I encountered the most blowdowns(trees down in trail) that I’ve seen anywhere else on the CDT. It’s tough to navigate these blowdowns and each one requires a different maneuver. You have to climb over, under, or around them and they’ll slow you down. We ran into Spice this morning who we haven’t seen since right before we got off trail to go to Chicago. And we also saw trail angel Crazy Joe again who was car camping next to the trail and provided us with cold sodas. After about 18-20 miles the trail dropped out of Medicine Bow into the Great Basin. We’re back in the desert again. No trees, barely any water, relatively flat and wide open views forever. We joined a road and grabbed water at what will be our last good source for about 37 miles. Walking along the gravel road was easy but not extremely exciting. This guy Colt stopped and had ice cold sodas that he carries in his truck for people like us. So awesome! After about 12 miles we stopped on the side of the road, watched the sunset and set up to cowboy camp for the night, Wyoming is the Cowboy State after all. Oh yeah I saw my first coyote of the trip this evening(only my favorite animal) plus lots of deer and antelope. Dropping into the Great Basin

QB gearing up for some serious road walkingEverything the light touches is yours 
Day 78     7/16     26 miles

The wind was ferocious last night. I watched the stars for awhile and saw a handful of shooters but after awhile the wind made cowboy camping an impossibility. Sleeping in a tent wasn’t much better and it not until about 2:30 the wind died down and I could finally crash out for a few hours. In the desert sun, it’s imperative to walk during the early morning so I couldn’t even sleep in. There was about 26 miles of road between me and Rawlins this morning and I was tired, hot, and thirsty. Luckily about half a dozen cars stopped to give us water, and since there were very few cars on the road the percentage of cars that stopped was very high. I’m impressed with Wyoming and how nice the people are. Early on today I saw a dead rattlesnake on the road, not a good sign. Then later on I heard that the city of Rawlins is having a problem with rattlers and we even met a couple that was going out to hunt them, vigilante style. Queen B and I finally got into Rawlins after this long non stop road walk and each ate a whole pizza before napping out for an hour or so and then going out for Chinese food. On our walk from dinner to McDonald’s for ice cream we saw the most amazing sunset. For some reason it looked eerily apocalyptic. I thought there would definitely be a tornado or something. Rawlins is right on I-80 and is the epitome of an interstate town. I found that it felt very similar to Grants, NM. It’s not exactly charming and although it’s spread out it has everything that a hiker needs. I like the town and I definitely needed a comfortable place to sleep after last night’s winds. This view for miles and miles and mileslots of people stopped to give us water and the rattlesnake vigilantes even gave us bananasthe end of the world sunset