CDT Day 69 – Alkali Creek

Date: 8/30/20

Daily Miles: 26

Total Miles: 1238

Before starting our hike across the Great Basin, we figured it was going to be pretty flat. While we certainly aren’t in the mountains, we are definitely in the hills. When you look out at the horizon, there are hills all around. A much more interesting landscape than expected.

This morning we got up at 6:00am. We had a beautiful sunrise and watched the glowing red sun come over the horizon. We figured we would wait until daylight before getting up, since we are getting used to packing up with a tent. It was a pretty restless night of sleep, which we expected with our first night on the ground this summer.

It was a pretty nice temperature out this morning and the air was still. We had about 10 miles to walk to our only water for the day. There is a maintained water cache where we were going to fill up our bottles.

We made it to the cache by 10:00am and took a break in the first bit of shade we had seen all day. There was an information board with a small overhang which gave a bit of shade.

Apparently the water cache is restocked every Sunday. Today is Sunday, but the water cache hadn’t been restocked, so we figured they probably come in the afternoon. Luckily there was still water for us, but there wasn’t much more remaining.

We headed back out after a short break. The wind started to blow and became pretty ferocious for the rest of the day. When we stopped for lunch, we walked down the side of a hill looking to get out of the wind, but it was hopeless. We ended up laying down to try and be out of the wind, which helped a little.

The rest of the day was spent trying the keep ourselves upright as the wind continued to try to push us over. It was blowing so hard and catching our backpacks, it would twist us to the side. Sometimes it felt like we had to walk sideways in order to go forward. SweetPea ended up using her bandana to tie her hat to her head, and Beardoh had to tie up his beard, because the hair kept getting whipped into his eyes.

That amount of unrelenting wind is brutal. And in this area, there is no escape…no rock or tree to hide behind. It can really wear you down.

We managed to find a relatively flat spot to camp. It is frequented by cows, but there weren’t any around now, so we’re hoping for a quiet night. We are tucked between several willows, so the wind is blocked a bit. The temperature really started to drop when we were setting up, so we decided to put up our tent for the added warmth and protection from the wind.