Date: 9/11/20
Daily Miles: 18
Total Miles: 1399
Last night was a really cold night. Beardoh was able to warm up good and slept really well. SweetPea on the other hand could not warm up her feet and so stayed fairly cold and couldn’t sleep. We got another dusting of snow last night, so we know it was officially cold.
We had decided not to get up early today because of the expected cold. But, for SweetPea, she was anxious to get moving because of the prospect of warming her feet by walking. As we walked out of camp, our fingers and toes were so cold they were in a lot of pain. We had our feet wrapped up in garbage bags again today to try to help keep them warm.
We just had a few miles today before we came to the WY/CO border. Wyoming has been a really great state to hike through with lots of diversity. From Yellowstone to the Winds to the Great Basin, there was a lot of new areas for us to explore.
After the state line, we were pretty much only on forest roads for the rest of the day. Between the many downed trees across the roads, the slippery mud and the steep/short ups and downs, our pace wasn’t very fast today.
We came across multiple hunters and their camps today. Seems that muzzle loader season starts tomorrow, plus bow season is still going, so there will be a few more folks out here. Several hunters told us about being out here during the winter storm four days ago. They described hurricane-like winds that were bringing down all the trees we have been seeing across the trail. They said it was pretty scary and they were just glad to have survived it. We are very glad we were safe and sound in a motel during the storm.
We ran into a US Forest Service crew that was out clearing downed trees from the forest roads. It looked like they were just getting started, but there was a big group, so chances are they were able to make quick work of the trees. They had a quad, three motorcycles and two trucks, so they had the manpower to get a lot of work done.
The day was quite chilly, but once we were walking, the cool air felt really nice. We stayed bundled up until the middle of the afternoon when the clouds and fog finally cleared out and we had blue, sunny skies. Once the fog cleared and we could see around us, we could see some big mountains nearby completely covered in snow. Luckily, we aren’t going in that direction.
We made it to camp before six this evening. We were starting to head into an area that had been burned in the past, so we decided to find a place to hang in the last of the live trees for a mile or so.
It is completely still out tonight again. We can hear some coyotes nearby yipping and howling as we lay in our hammocks…one of our favorite sounds.
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