Posted by 27.1 miles
On the corner of the main road in Encampment there is a bench known as the hikers hitching point that all the locals know about. It even has a hiker box there to drop off any extra food you might have, gran some food if you want it and a log book to sign to see who has come and gone.
Looking to get back on trail early and trying to time a hitch out to potentially coincide with any locals headed to work out of town, I positioned myself at the bench at 7am. I had a ride out within 15 minutes with a logger of 45 years headed to his job site. He had me back at Battle Pass at 0740am.
Having forgotten to dry my wet tent yesterday I took the opportunity to do so at the trail head while there was sun and wind about. I hit the trail around 8am keen to see how fair I could potentially push on the flatter Wyoming terrain. I had packed out a full 4 days of food but would attempt to reach Rawlins in 3 days.
After a few miles on single track most if the day would be spent on forest roads, sections with at least an inch of powdery dust. With sunscreen on my legs they were quickly an ugly mess. It looked like I’d been crawling through mud.
I don’t so much mind walking on forest roads this far into the trail, particularly when they are traffic free, which today’s roads were, the exception being a single Polaris; as forest roads mean fast walking and longer distances for less effort. They are extremely boring though with the same repetitive foot motion and invariance underfoot. I much prefer single track with its varying surfaces and multiple obstacles requiring changes in stride and use of all muscles.
I tend to distract myself on roads with music, podcasts and audio books. My body goes into auto pilot mode and the time flies. My bluetooth shockz bone conducting headphones have become one of my favourite pieced of gear that I brought on this trip. The bone conduction technology means there is nothing directly inserted into my ear allowing me to hear what is going on around me – peoples voices, thunder, approaching traffic and animals like rattlesnakes. Distracted though, it means I don’t pay much attention to the scenery I’m walking through. This is not so bad on roads as it mostly through thick tree cover with few views anyway. I keep reminding myself to stop and turn around occasionally to appreciate any views that do present themselves. So I don’t recall much more of today.
I was impressed with a 27.1 mile day given the later start to hiking.
I ended up camping right next to a small stream in open grassland, the North Fork of the Savery Creek. Handy to have water immediately available but it would mean lots of condensation inside my tent in the morning. Normally I would avoid camping near water and out in the open at all costs however there is no other option from here to Rawlins.
Mick Beckers 