CDT Day 59 – Lake of the Woods

Date: 8/19/20

Daily Miles: 17

Total Miles: 1049

It was so warm when we got up this morning. Probably one of the warmest mornings this summer. It was nice waking up in the light, and we had both slept really well. We both heard coyotes making a bunch of noise before dawn, but hearing that usually just makes us smile.

This morning we passed by Lake of the Woods, which was so still in the morning. We stopped near the lake for some doctoring of Beardoh’s finger, as the rope burn has continued to be painful.

The sky this morning was half blue and half dark gray. We got a chance to try out our new raincoats when the rain finally arrived. Luckily the rain was gone within a half hour and we just got to walk in the cool air. As the skies cleared up, we were back to the usual very hot weather we’ve come to expect in Wyoming.

When we were stopped for lunch, two northbound CDT hikers, Box and Hygina, came by. We chatted with them a bit about the alternate routes coming up in the Winds. It is good for us to hear the perspective of other hikers, but at the same time, we don’t really know the skill or comfort level of the other hikers. The alternates coming up can be seen as difficult or sketchy by some, while others think they are no big deal. We’ll find out in a few days what our feeling about them is.

We didn’t need to do a lot of miles today, and the hiking was quite easy, so we had some extra time in the afternoon. We decided to take an hour break just to read or nap or whatever. We stopped near a creek and just had a good chunk of time for relaxing. We’ve talked for awhile about wanting to be able to stop and read in the afternoons, but we usually need to hike all day to make our miles. The next few days should be light days, so hopefully we can have more reading breaks.

Tonight it was a bit tricky finding a good campsite. We were getting too close to being out of the trees for a long stretch, so we decided to hang our hammocks in aspens, since that was all there was. We have avoided aspen since getting sapped on overnight near Steamboat Springs. But, tonight’s hangs include three dead aspen and one live aspen, so hopefully there won’t be any problems. We are hanging our tarps tonight for the first time in Wyoming. As the evening went on, there were more grey clouds, so we decided to play it safe.