Mile 1537 to rabbit ears pass

Survived the storm last night but had 5 extra miles to hike to get into town. The view from my saddle was very nice for the sunrise but the place I had planned to camp would have been better. It was a sheer cliff with an unobstructed view to the east. Ah well I got to see it a couple hours after sunrise so it was still fantastic just not as amazing for the photos.

Right around there I got a little spooked. After last night's storm I was a bit sensitive to thunder. So while I was hiking and suddenly there is the sound of thunder on a perfectly clear blue sky I get a little skittish. Turns out I had snuck up in a herd of about 40 elk and they got spooked within 30 yards of me. That's a unique sound. 40 600+ pound animals sprinting away from you as fast as possible. Very cool.

Not much to say about the hike, nice easy rolling hills no big climbs with a bit of down towards the end to get to rabbit ears pass. I did get worried for a few minutes when I saw some smoke rising out of a valley ahead of me but a quick map check showed a car campground there.

Steamboat was a bit less entertaining this time as the entire town was getting heated up for a major bike race coming through town over the weekend. That meant almost all the hotel rooms were booked and I had to spend a bit more.

South pass city to a&m reservoir

Biking is so easy. I met up with the bike packers at the restaurant in town. We all had the same idea of eating a big breakfast before heading out. We wouldn't be riding together for long, they were riding 15 miles then taking a nap and doing the whole basin overnight. After a few miles I caught up with handstands, machine gun and iceman and talked with them for a bit. It was silly how quickly I caught them and how fast they were out of sight.

I stayed on the bike route for almost the whole day. I tried following the CDT but the trail was either deep soft sand or big rocky jeep track instead of the nice packed gravel that the bike route followed. I had to do an extra 20 miles by following the bike route but considering how much easier it was I think I made the right choice.

There were only two water sources listed on the bike path for the entire basin. The first was 22 miles out where the bike packers were taking their nap and the next was a reservoir 55 miles later. To a hiker these are big numbers. On a bike it was a half days ride.

The basin was amazing. Just this wide open area of nothingness. I got to see the antelope and have wild horses run along next to me for a mile or so. The colts were so cute one kept running with its tail sticking straight out while the other never got more than two steps away from its mother.

I got lucky with the wind. It's supposed to be really crazy out there at times with it changing direction at different times of day. I had a strong wind blowing to the east the whole time and since most of the day I was biking eastward I had it helping me out most of the time. Of course the time I really wanted the wind at my back it wasn't. I had just finished dinner when I notice a thunderstorm rolling in. Not a bad one but when there is no cover except sagebrush and nothing taller than my knee getting caught in a thunderstorm is a bad idea. It looked like if I could bike a few miles south I could avoid the storm. At that point the road was heading in a south westerly direction. It was also heading up hill, not a big hill but enough to slow me down. Then the wind kicked in. Since I was going almost right into it and it was stronger than normal due to being a part of the storm I was struggling. I did make it but my legs were jello after that push. I still had 12 miles to go and less than an hour before it got dark. I was trying to make it to the next water and even a giant black column of thunderstorm to my south pushing me on wasn't enough to get my jello legs moving 12 miles an hour. I eventually just camped by the side of the road about 2 miles from the reservoir when it started to rain. I figured if that thunderstorm was going to catch me I'd prefer to be in my tent. Thankfully the storm stayed south cause I doubt my tent could have withstood that storm.

Mile 1247 to south pass city

So I got up and was hiking by 530 thinking I had to meet my sister in south pass city by 5 pm with 28 miles of hiking to do. Turns out I'm bad at math. I was thinking I'd meet her on the 8th at 5 pm. I left town at on the first and had 7 days of hiking to get to south pass. 1 + 7 = 8 right. Wrong I stated hiking on the 1st. So the 1 should have been included in the 7 days. So when I got enough reception to send my sister a txt saying I'd be in town at 5 pm she was confused thinking I'd be there tomorrow. Woops. Luckily she was able to come out today so all I had to do was hike 28 miles by 5 pm. Easy I had it done by 4.

It was almost all downhill and over half was on jeep track. With just a few miles of crosscountry find the next trail sign. After losing the signs for the third time I just hiked the road right next to it and to hell with stupid ranchers. There were several times I had to hike a mile or two out of my way to avoid the checker board private lands, so annoying.

I did the tour around south pass city which was a cute old 1900s mining town. The preservation society had done a fantastic job of maintaining the town.

My sister showed up around 6 due to some traffic but she had my bicycle. We stopped by Atlantic City and said hi to iceman, handstands, and machine gun and I managed to get a picture of the bike route from some bike packers. That was a trip saver. We were going to head to lander since there was nowhere to stay in town but on our way out we passed a blm campground with 1 slot left. I so stayed there instead of doing the 30 mile trip from lander.

Shadow creek to mile 1247

So today I went over the cirque de towers. Nuff said.

Oh the final picture that avalanche happened while I was there. Probably my fault from all the echoing I was doing.

Mile 1198 to Shadow Creek

I almost cowboy camped last night but there were a couple mosquitoes flying around bothering me. Then right after I crawled into my sleeping bag Bigfoot noticed lightning off on the horizon, so I setup my fly too. It didn't rain last night but this morning it did, love it when that happens. The rain made it a later start than I had wanted, if I covered 28 miles today I'd be camped at a lake one mile short of the big pass leading into the other big highlight of the winds, the Cirque de Towers. Unlike yesterday I was not noticing the altitude today, guess my body adjusted already. The hiking was also much easier with fewer pointless ups and downs. Of course the other hikers, scenery, and terrain did slow me down. Surprisingly my cough didn't act up at all. In case I didn't mention it the scenery up here is fantastic, I'd highly recommend getting up here if you can.
I ended up covering 26 miles before a big storm blew in. Rather than keep hiking knowing that it'd blow over I decided to setup my tent. Unlike all the other times I setup my tent where I put my footprint down then put stakes in it, I decided to setup my footprint with my rain-fly in it so I could properly position it for the wind. Bad idea. I can get my tent setup in about 30 seconds after staking out the footprint, but with the wind blowing my fly and footprint all over the place it took almost 10 minutes to get it setup. By that point the fly and the footprint were completely soaked and I had to dry it off with my bandanna before I could set my tent up and put everything in it. Of course by that time the storm had blown over, sigh. Off to bed with a big 25 mile day over the Cirque de Towers tomorrow, its going to be epic.

Vista Pass to Mile 1198

Today was supposed to be a big day. I was all setup to go up and over Knapsack Col. One of the most beautiful sections of the entire range according to, well just about everyone. Unfortunately the rain from last night had left a bunch of lingering clouds. As I was climbing up to Cube Rock Pass which is the junction to go over Knapsack they got thicker rather than thinner. Upon reaching the pass I debated what to do, I could go up over the Col and hope that I either got higher than the clouds or they cleared out in the time it took me to go up there. I could setup my tent and crawl back into my sleeping bag and wait for the clouds to clear, except I was on a fairly tight schedule to meet my sister in South Pass City. Or I could just hike on and come back another time to do Knapsack. It was only a 15 mile hike from a car campground and there is a 50 mile loop hike that takes you up and over it. I chose to just hike on and come back. The clouds weren't getting any better and for something like that you really do need to have clear skies to fully appreciate it.
The clouds did clear up a bit more later in the day but whenever I looked back at Knapsack it was still clouded in. I don't know if it cleared up later in the evening but I did get rained on so I doubt it. Anyway once that decision was made I hiked on. Turns out that I had lost my acclimation to the altitude, granted I had only been hiking at 8-9 thousand feet in Montana and here I was at times over 11 but getting very minor headaches and slight dizzy spells was disconcerting. That slowed me down a bit but what slowed me down even more was the sheer grandeur and beauty of the terrain. I kept stopping to gawk and take pictures. There were still way more people out in these mountains than I expected, but with how amazing they are I can totally understand why they'd be out here. I was also constantly running into northbound hikers I knew. Catching up with them on their hikes and giving them the lowdown on what to expect ahead took a lot of time. Time well spent there cause I'm probably not going to many of them again. I ended up camping an hour early to catch up with Bigfoot who I'd spent a lot of time with in New Mexico.

South Fork Fish Creek to Vista Pass

I woke up to a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the creek was trickling gently in the background, the wind was rustling the leaves of the willow bushes gently, the cows were mooing. Sigh so much for being in the back country wilderness. I was up and moving with the sun. I'm not sure if it was me needing to get some miles in due to my deadline of meeting my sister on the 8th or just the nervousness of camping alone in grizzly and wolf country but I had to get up and get moving.

Turns out it wasn't just me that needed to get moving. While I was still packing up my tent at 6:30 a northbound hiker came waltzing by me. It was G-Funk who I had last seen floating across the snow in Colorado. Turns out he had camped just a bit over a half mile from me last night. It was great catching up with him but the most interesting thing was he had had seen a big black wolf last night around dusk. It couldn't have been more than a mile from where I was setup. I'm having no luck seeing these animals.

Today's hike was a breeze. I had a "big" pass to go over but it was such a gentle easy climb for me that I was up and over it before I even noticed. At the bottom of the pass I entered the winds for real. I was ready and expecting the amazing sheer rock cliffs, the gorgeous green rivers and lakes, the lush valleys full of wildlife, more stupid fish that even my dad could catch, and you know cows it is Wyoming after all, but what I didn't expect was all the people. I expected a lot of people in Yellowstone and Glacier two of the most popular parks in the country but here I am in one of the most remote wildernesses in the country with some seriously difficult hikes and I saw more people in the first 10 miles than I did in back country of either of the two national parks. Granted I was way early in the season for Glacier but I was at Yellowstone in prime time and there was nobody in the back country there.

Toward the end of the day it started to rain on me. I was expecting it as the weatherman had forecast it but it still sucked. I had 4 miles of uphill left when it started to get heavy. After two of those miles I saw a well used site and just camped there nestled up between two pine trees. After pitching the tent I hardly got wet at all.

Road 538 to south fish creek

Another beautiful day. I say that a lot but I really enjoy these nice sunny cool days. Not much to say lots of easy hiking only got lost once all in all a good day.

Jackson to road 538

We took our time getting out of town. First we had to goto the farmers market and buy more food, then we were offered a ride to the trail but not until 1. Since it wasn't a straight forward hitch we decided to wait. On the ride up Beads got a call saying a pair of dogs and horses would be put down unless she was able to do something. So she went back to town and I was heading into the wilderness by myself. For the first time since I had shin splints way back in April I'd be camping/hiking solo.
I set an aggressive schedule needing to average 25 miles a day plus an extra 20 miles to make it to south pass city to meet my sister by the 8th. Whatever miles I make today would be make the rest of this stretch easier. I wanted to cover at least 10 miles to get away from the problem bear area. I ended up making it 15 miles to a nice clump of trees over looking a valley. Not bad for such a late start.

Dubois to Jackson Hole

So Beads texted me last night asking if I wanted to head over to Jackson hole to float the snake river. Easy answer, hell yes. Finished of my town chores and got a hitch over there easily. After a quick tour of Jackson Hole we went to beads friend's house and got ready to float.
We met a few more of her friends for a total of 8 of us before grabbing some tubes and heading to the river. The water a perfect temperature, just cool enough to cut through the 85+ degree temperatures. We had a nice 4 hour float with only a few small hiccups, we got beached once and narrowly missed hitting a cliff once. After the float we headed back to one of the friends place for a backyard bbq. All in all an excellent day off.

Two oceans medow to mile 1096

Cold. That's what this morning was cold. I left my water outside the tent and there were big ice chunks in it. Thankfully I had brought my filter in or I might have had to replace it. The Sawyer filters break if they freeze. The entire medow valley was covered in frost. I didn't feel this cold in new Mexico even though it was colder temperature wise. Still the cold air made for some great hiking and amazing scenery as the sun melted the frost covered plants.
It was another easy day of hiking with half the day following, as Ley calls it, the horse super highway. The trail was obviously very popular with the horse packers. With sections of it 10 yards wide or 7 lanes across. Beads made the comment that it makes sense that wilderness areas are popular with horse packers since there are no motors or bikes to spook the animals.
After that we headed along the beautiful buffalo river. I was told this section was boring and just a connector between Yellowstone and the winds. That is so wrong. Except for the lack of geysers this Bridger wilderness blows Yellowstone out of the park. We camped a bit earlier than we'd have liked due to my bearanoia. There was a researcher mauled by a grizzly last year near here and they never caught the bear. They aren't letting people camp at the campground where it happened in tents and recommend we stay at least 10 miles away. Surprise surprise we are camped 11 miles away and I've hung the food for the first time since glacier.

Moose creek to snake river

Another easy day. We got out late. We tried to get hiking by 645 but didn't make it out until 745. No problem we only had a 23 mile day. This was supposed to be a very easy day. No big climbs, lots of water and miles of flat.
The first big obstacle of the day was crossing the Lewis river that connected shoshone lake to Lewis lake. Ley warns that it can be a chest deep crossing. I have no idea what he was crossing cause ours was ankle deep. If you were totally clueless and had never crossed a river before you could have found a spot that deep.
Beads and I decided to take an alternate that followed the river instead of the divide. Now we didn't decide this on purpose we just took a wrong turn. I was so busy admiring the scenery that I didn't check. It only added a mile and a half so it wasn't a bad exchange for all the scenery.
The rest of the day went as expected. A thunderstorm rolled in and got everything soaking wet and cold. We were too cold to visit the hot stream we had planned to soak in. Ah well. The storm let up for a bit so we had some nice views before it got nasty right before camp. We saw it coming and ran to the campsite. Making it just in time for the heaviest rainfall. We got the tents up anyway and I'm now warm, toasty and dry.