CDT Day 71 – Bull Spring

Date: 9/1/20

Daily Miles: 26

Total Miles: 1288

It was another cold night and our tent was covered in ice when we woke up. It was so cold outside that we were reluctant to get out of our sleeping bags, but we couldn’t put it off.

We started the morning with all of our extra layers of clothes on. In fact, we didn’t take any layers off until 10:00am. We had finally managed to warm up and we didn’t want to get cold again. Luckily the sky was clear today…not even a cloud in the sky.

We made it to our first water source at 10:00am and took a long break. Our bodies have been feeling the effects of the higher mile days, the repetitive walking on roads, and the ground sleeping. It was good to just lay down and take our shoes off for a bit.

The majority of the walking today was on a dirt road that seemed to be completely straight. It felt like we were bee lining for Rawlins. Eventually we came out to a paved road. Some previous hikers recommended taking the paved road to avoid some bad trail, so we decided to do that. That meant that we were walking on pavement for about two hours…not our favorite thing, but the road was mostly quiet so it wasn’t too bad.

When we got back on the trail, there wasn’t actually any trail. We were just going cross country, but there were almost no trail markers and no cairns. What there was a lot of were cacti, so we really had to keep our eyes open.

Our day ended at a really nice solar powered spring. We collected our water for tomorrow and then set up our tent in a grassy area nearby. We are basically camped in a field of cow poop…luckily our little spot was clear. We are near a state highway, but the noise is pretty minor. A group of wild horses came galloping near our area when we were in the tent. We always enjoy seeing them, however we hope they won’t bother us tonight.

It was nice to have a day that turned out warm and that had only a normal amount of wind. It is completely still now as we lay in our tent.

We are looking forward to getting into Rawlins tomorrow. It will be nice to be able to wash off all the sand and dust that has been blown onto us these past few days.