I would describe the first pause of my heal hike with one word, frustrating.
My early notes kind show this fact…
“Accumulated Continental Divide Trail, CDT miles-27 miles-Accumulated miles in Wyoming-44 miles-Accumulated hikes/towns-Otto/Burlington-4 miles, Jeffery City-8 miles, Encampment-2 miles, Bairoil-10 miles, Worland-12 miles, Shell-8 miles 4/24/2023”
“First up, Sweet Water Station. Nope, road closed, no access. Okay, no problem, I will drive to Jeffery City access road. The road not closed officially, but road was too muddy. Fine, I drive as close as I can get, then hike the rest of the way in. I strap on my pack, 4 miles in, 1 mile from the trail, I finally give in and turn back.”
“Funny story: trying to hike around the snow drifts and the mud gets old quick. So, off trail again I decide to cut across what I thought was a flat area. I was not paying a great deal of attention, when suddenly, my trekking pole sinks down several feet further in the snow than I think it should have. I pull out my trekking pole and look down the hole left by it. I am NOT standing on a flat spot with little sage brush sticking up, like I was thinking. I am in a gully, and those are the tops of big sage brush. I am standing on about two feet of ice over a cavern with a small babbling brook running under me. Now before you panic, I am safe. I am not going to be seriously hurt if I fall through. However, I really, really, really do not want to, because it is deeply unpleasant. So basically, I know that the next step is going to plunge me knee deep in slush. Cold icy slush that is going to fill my trail runners, (expensive tennis shoes). I curse and take a tiny little step. Sure enough, down I go. The icy impact fades as the least of my concerns, as my struggle to retreat to solid ground become more and more a losing battle. Wet from the knees down, sweaty from the last 20 minutes of work, hyperthermia is always a danger. I will soon start to lose body heat because I am wet. Here is where you “divide the boys from the men,” so to speak. If I was a hard-core thru-hiker I would keep on hiking, knowing that as long as I kept moving, I would dry out eventually. I turned around, cold, wet, tired, and pissed off, a mile before the trail…8 more miles in Southern Wyoming.”
“4/25/2023-2 miles-Encampment
2 mile-Wyoming, 0 mile-CDT
Well, I am starting to realize that the dirt roads that I was counting on using to access the trail is not an option at this time. I remember that there is another road walk near Encampment/Riverside area. The road is closed going south, but maybe I can go east, take a main road to access it from the south side. Snow, snow drifts, road closed. Disappointment. I was turned back in Encampment by my own building seriously bad attitude.
On my way back into town I saw a sign for the local watering hole, the 307 Pub and Grub. Warmly greeted, the co-owner set me up with an extra stiff drink. The kitchen was closed, but they did serve soup after hours. After a grateful cup of home-made soup, and delicious corn bread, I decided if I cannot make it to the trail, I would strap on my pack, and hike around the town of Encampment. And I have to say, that it was a lovely town. They had a free RV/Overnight parking. A place for me to park my van, a place in which I knew that it was okay for me to be. That was so nice. It was in the middle of town, clean and well lit, and I felt safe being there. Funded by donations, Encampment also has a big outdoor historic museum, with old mining equipment, and old settler’s buildings. Very interesting and inviting. Next to the museum is the park, with RV dump and drinking water. And best of all, they had made a Japanese garden and bird sanctuary for people to enjoy. Full of good food, I spent some time listening to the birds in the peaceful garden. My attitude greatly improved. I felt welcome in this town. This was a town that was really living the way we should, as human beings. They were welcoming strangers, tired and weary travelers. Thank you so much to the people of Encampment. It moved me to tears of gratitude. This is also a gift from the trail, it really is not about the miles, it’s about the people and the connections. I felt loved and cared for by people I did not even meet. Thank you to the people of the town who wanted to do something nice for someone else. Thank you to the people who went to the town meeting, to advocate for this place of peace and caring. Thank you to the people who did the work to build it. Thank you to the people who clean it and care for it. Thank you for welcoming me to your town.
4/26/2023-10 miles Wyoming, 0 miles CDT
There was one last road that I had not tried, the road to an oil town. Bairoil is only about 6 miles from the trail. I know that I cannot get to the trail by car, but from town, it’s only 12 miles out and back. Even with the snow and mud, I could do that in a day. I got permission to park my van at town hall for the day, and against everyone’s advice, I headed out. “It looks like Lake Erie out there in places.” I will go as far as I can.
Lovely day, no wind; warm, but not hot; walk around mud holes, avoid all drifts, making miles. My GPS is not working for some reason, but I hit a spring that I thought was on-trail that I had tagged earlier as my goal. Happy to finally feel success, I got water, ate lunch, and headed back. But the hike back was too short. I check my fit bit, I do math…well hell, I am two miles short; I didn’t get to where I thought I was. This time I was turned back by technology failure, and being bad at math. Two more miles of random walking after dinner, just to round this day off to 10, and the trip off with a nice 20 miles.
4/28/2023-Shell Falls-8 miles Wyoming
I know this is going to sound weird to a lot of people, but I have never purposely hiked in a group before. Solo Hiker is my given trail name. (Well actually, the name given me was…Solo Hiker Without a Trail Name, but I shortened it to Solo Hiker for obvious reasons. But honestly, it just fits me.) I was invited to join a group of women for a hike above Greybull, to the beautiful Shell Falls. It was a hard hike. I had stayed up late the night before, rookie mistake. Honestly, I needed it. So far, my Healing Hike was just struggling to get into the grove. I needed a hike with no snow, no mud, no rain, or wind, with a stunning view. That is what hiking is all about, right? But more than that, I needed to be around people. As much as I fight it, as much as I hate to admit it with every fiber of my being, I need to be around people. We are pack animals, but more than that, it just feels good to be part of a group. It is part of my healing, to learn how to connect with people. To learn how to talk and laugh for real, not putting on a mask, not putting on a show, just being real and present, and that is what hiking means to me. It is not about the miles, or the views, it is about connection. Connecting with nature, connecting with each other… just a human, being.
There comes a time in every hike that you finally sit down and do the math. You see, hikers are big on guts, and hardiness, but they usually lack a bit of humility until it is beat into them. Humility always comes when you sit down and do the math. I should have a hundred miles under my belt by now – I don’t even have 50. The reality is, in the first two weeks of May, I must take off to go to a conference in Nashville, so I only have three weeks to do 150 miles in this section when I get back. I am calling it. In sports terms, Southern Wyoming wins this week’s game, but I will win the season!!
Next up, I am going to change directions. I will be heading South Bound, SoBo, from South Pass to…well hopefully to Jeffery City intersection. But I will just have to do what I can do with the time I have left, before I am scheduled to transition to Yellowstone area for June.