Journal Entries

This is Island lake, our first night back on the trail after Pinedale. A storm blew through on our way up there, but man the clouds made for some dramatic skies. If you squint a bit, you can see knapsack col, the alternate we took the next day. One of the scariest traverses I have done but also one of the most rewarding.

Ok, now I'm just sharing photos so I can float about how beautiful it was.

But seriously. Look at that.

Well, to nobody's surprise, we loved the Wind River Range. Naturally, we did the Cirque of the Towers alternate, and loved it. The going was tough at times, since we had all got out of the habit of mountain climbing as we trudged across southern Wyoming. Texas pass was a particular butt kicker, we climbed 1500feet in 1.5miles, which is pretty steep! Then the descent was a pretty vertical down-climb on loose scree and slippery gravel... Not my favourite, especially since the tread on my shoes was all but gone by the time we got to the winds. Oh well, I survived and only fell over three or four times that day (I swear I'm meant to be getting better at this hiking business, but it doesn't seem to be happening.

Today was Surgeon's birthday in Etna, I made her a card in oil pastels of a sturgon fish, because I call her Sturge. After carrot cake milkshakes, Bang and I relaxed at the park where I was invited by a conservative Norman family to break bread. "You better have some cobbler," they said. I had ice cream and cobbler until they left, upon my return, others offered me cobbler which I brought to other hikers. Next was the brewery for Sturge's birthday celebration, where a band played some ol rock and roll. I danced with Thumb for a song, doing my best Charleston from pulp fiction. I suggested the distillery, and so we changed locations. I had the most phenomenal whiskey sour of my life while explaining American Ninja Warrior and learning how others reflect upon a year, and what it means to be more proud of whom you are now than who you were a year ago. I remarked, when asked, that I know not what my future will brinf, but I'm confident I now have to tools to be happy no matter my path. And so I lay in the city park, after a brief hangout with some folks, Including a particularity funny Aussie, eating that left over cobbler in my tent. How sweet it all tastes...

The following link contains my photos and videos from Mile 900 - Mile 1500 (Mammoth Lakes to Mt Shasta)

Still the pretty ones, folks!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tBT9AuT5A5BKemRS8

Here's a gratuitous photo of one of the sunrises we hiked into through the Basin.

The best and the hardest thing about the views in the Basin are that you can see for miles and miles and miles. I took this photo just so you can see the trail we followed all the way from the horizon. It took a fair bit of extra self motivation to keep walking because there were no trees or hills or waypoints to measure your progress with. It felt like we were moving on a treadmill sometimes, walking over the same slightly rocky gravel road past the same 5 sagebrush bushes. But it also felt good to be able to see all that way back and finally think "oh we walked over that!"

The Basin was a beautiful few days of walking. It gets a bit of a bad wrap, but we got a good (for the Basin) weather window and actually really enjoyed it.

Don't get me wrong, we will not be suddenly doing 30mile days from here on out! The days were exhaustingly long, and we fell into bed each night wondering what on earth we were doing, but man the views were worth it. It was fairly flat sage brush for miles and miles and miles in every direction, which reminded me so much of the hiking in the north of Australia. So pretty.

Well, the terrain is pretty flat, the water is pretty alkaline and the road walk felt pretty endless. We put in a 28.5mile day so we could do a shorter day into town. It was our longest day yet, and left us all pretty tired. But, we are pushing through the miles, so hopefully we can get through the Basin pretty quick. We are stuck in Rawlins today waiting for a package, but hopefully we can push on tomorrow. I'm excited for northern Wyoming, so hopefully we can get there soon!

The first day out of Encampment was much greener than I expected. And the bonus of a flatter landscape, is that it leaves you feeling like you can see into the future. Those views are wide open.