Making it to Pinedale filled in the northern hole in my completion of the CDT. Now I still had to fill in the southern hole that extended from Rawlings WY south to nearly the southern border of Colorado. After a very welcome visit with Vanessa , friends, and my brother Lou and his family in Boulder I found myself back in Rawlins WY.

Deer in front of Library in Rawlins, WY

Apparently Darn Tough socks are only good for about 1000 trail miles.

Time for new shoes while in town. Pair number 4 and pair number 5.

40 miles of paved road walking next. Sigh…. That’s. what I had to look forward to. The official CDT trail south was purported to be poorly marked and hard to follow, was 20 miles longer, with views that weren’t any better than the road walk, and without even an antelope to keep you company. So the road walk it was and whinging about it didn’t bring Colorado any closer.

Fortunately road walks are fast and I was done with it in a day and a half. I’ve never listened to so many podcasts. Course it didn’t feel so fast at the time as I was running out water and had to rely on muddy streams and a silty reservoir for water.

I was too afraid to push this cloudy mess through my water filter so used bleach instead. Mmmm.. delicious pool water 🙁

After the road walk, I was so happy to see trees again and the last 25 miles on forest roads and trails went pretty uneventfully. The hitch into Encampment WY went quickly. I’ve been getting much better at looking more like a harmless hiker and less like a serial killer.

Resupply consisted of a walk to the neighboring town of Riverside and the resupply was from a gas station. Glad I’ve been packing extra vitamins. The next day, a very nice woman soon picked me up and went 24 miles out of her way to drive me to the trailhead. Once again, I was amazed at how generous folks have been to me on this trail.

I was happy to be back on trail again since my goal that day was to finally cross the Colorado border.

Finally at the Colorado border.

Left foot Wyoming, right foot Colorado.

Mud sometimes sucks your shoes right off.

So many wildflowers on trail.

Sunset

The highlight over the next few days was the hike through the Mt Zirkel Wilderness. I have to admit that after 2100 miles on trail, I had stretches of wondering why the heck I was out here. Was I just working on checking a box off on my bucket list? Was this really worth it? These thoughts usually came during long road walks or days of hiking through swamps swarming with biting flies and mosquitoes. Climbing up Lost Ranger Mountain in the Mt Zirkel Wilderness reminded me of why I was here. Finally I was in the mountains again.

Mountain Goat near Lost Ranger Mountain

The descent down to Steamboat Springs consisted of meadows full of wildflowers and lake after lake. Suddenly there were lots of people who were clean, happy, with new gear, and smelling like strawberry infused shampoo. Civilization. This was a huge contrast to the previous days where maybe I was seeing 2-3 folks a day and they generally smelled, let’s call it earthy.

On the hitch into town I was picked up by Karen and Johann who invited me to stay in their home in Steamboat Springs. Wow!!!! What an incredible act of generosity inviting a complete stranger into their home. They lent me a bicycle to do chores around town, fed me a delicious dinner, and sent me on my way back on the trail bright and early. What incredible folks.

Johann and Karen

Directory in local Safeway showing where to find different food items. Why don’t we have this back home?

Description of what free range, cage free, and conventional eggs means in local Safeway.

Wildflowers everywhere.

Wildflower meadow outside Steamboat Sprints.

There is a saying that “The trail provides”. No, it’s actually kind and generous people that provide.