Spending your day trying to find your hiking partner is no fun. I've encountered numerous thru-hikers heading southbound (the wrong way) in search of their hiking partners who have failed to turn up at a designated meeting spot. To me, these are the keys to a successful thru-hiking relationship. I know two things: that Appa can take care of himself and that he's not going to be upset if we end up separated. This is one of the great things about hiking with people, but not necessarily hiking with people – you can leave them. BYE APACHE…Īfter what I can only describe as a respectable amount of time waiting, I decide that Appa has to be in front of me (either that or he died somewhere in the 7 mi / 11 km leading up to the Wyoming). I tell him I'm going to wait for Appa (whom Apache says he hasn't seen – I assume he was ahead of Appa before turning around so that means Appa is still behind us).Īpache turns around and heads back into Wyoming. He passed me while I was in the bushes (see? I told you bathroom breaks were important) and forgot his hat at the border. I wait for Appa (who I thought had agreed to meet me at the border) and suddenly, a wild Apache appears – from the north. When I emerge, I hike for another couple of minutes and hit the Wyoming border. The goal today is the Wyoming town of Encampment which means that I aim to minimize time spent not hiking today – must…get…to…town.Īpproaching the Wyoming border, I duck into the bushes to do something private (sometimes I feel as though my recounting of the CDT is more bathroom log than hiking log, but the fact is that bathroom use/breaks play an important role on the trail). Treeman gets ahead of me (I chalk it up to his being over 6 ft / 1.83 m and having that bonus stride power) and I eat a Clif bar for breakfast while walking. I leave camp with Treeman – Apache and Appa are still in their tents, but I have no doubts that they'll be catching up to me shortly. DAY 80: Fire and Ice (Arrive Encampment, WY) thirty-mile day) of July – and the final of Colorado. Today's distance? A solid 34.6 mi / 55.67 km. We're camped 7 mi / 11 km south of the Wyoming border which means that (so long as nothing dramatic happens during the night or tomorrow morning), we'll have officially completed Colorado tomorrow. Treeman is from Germany and loves to tell people how horrible Hershey's Chocolate is, while Apache is a thru-hiking beast from Florida who eats cold instant mashed potatoes like a savage. They've been hiking together for a bit and they might be my favorite hiking duo (as in, the two of them together make quite the team). We find Treeman and Apache at the end of the day and camp with them. He joins me under the tree as the sky erupts in a clamor of thunder and lightning. Before long, I see Appa running up the road as he's pelted by ice (it's very entertaining). It's enough to force me to take shelter under a tree and wait in hopes of this storm passing. I have my rain jacket on, but it does little to protect me from the painful ice marbles being shot out of the sky. I grow increasingly envious of everyone in their hard-topped vehicles as the light rain abruptly turns into a heavy downpour and then into a barrage of hail. The trail turns onto a forest road that, surprisingly, has a little bit of traffic. I'm a bit ahead of Appa when we start a long and gradual downhill toward Seedhouse Campground. Unfortunately, as things tend to go on the Continental Divide Trail, our day of continued greatness is short-lived.Īround 1:00 in the afternoon, clouds have begun forming in front of us, and by 1:30 these clouds have turned from fluffy white bunny rabbit tails to menacing dark thunderheads.
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