Reference 16 | Rawlins to landing
Day 65, 34.4 miles.
In general, in the CDT and in the basin, especially, I am walking through a large amount of private land through a servitude that allows hikers to go along the way or the way or less than 30 feet of it. But the path here is sometimes so difficult to continue that I am not really sure that I am following the rule. The easements are the reason why I pass so many doors and why I see won everywhere. Sometimes, a private owner has not accepted a servitude, so I generally have to walk along the road or take a long way.
Today’s landscape was incredible. He stretched in all directions as far as I could see. I thought Wow, so this is what a country means. It really is so vast. I’m really so small. What a privilege. Here are some things you can do if you are the only person by miles around you. You can organize an outdoor concert and correct the songs in any volume. You can shout all your secrets, hopes, fears, dreams and deeper frustrations in the wind. You can choose any place you like to urinate or dig a catole, even if there is no coverage anywhere. You can carry out a symphony with your trekking posts. You can have a dance party in front of a herd of cows. Or try to win a look contest with an antelope. You can be as strange as you want. It is his room, if his room stretched 20 miles in any direction. And yes, I used my limited service to find and read an article about the geology of the basin. Listen to you if you want but I like to learn.
Day 66, 36.3 miles.
The first day of this walk I said that I am not doing well in the heat. So I am very happy that my days in the basin have been mainly on the coldest side, especially with the wind. In fact, yesterday I used only my alpha fleece without my base layer to let the wind ventilate the fabric. I’m starting to feel a bit rigid, so I’m stretching more and that seems to have helped reduce pain in my ankle. In my reading about the geology of the basin yesterday, I knew that in the afternoon I left Rawlins two days ago, I crossed the elevation of Rawlins, which is the southeast limit of the basin. Yesterday I crossed the Ferris Dune Dune field, which is where an old river would have drained outside the sand gap 50 million years ago, towards what is now the North Platte river, before the 10-8 my elevation in the corner of the bowel bowel down everything there is nothing. That is why there are very few sources of water here and I had to drink water from a muddy disaster covered with algae. In a moment I heard the mosquitoes buzz and excited myself because if there are mosquitoes there is water somewhere. Today and tomorrow I will walk along the north limit of the basin to the southern end of the Wind River mountain range, which limits with the subset of Green River. I could see about 4 days in the distance where the range of Wind rivers is located. I spent a large part of the day walking through the sand on the Dunas floors. I don’t know why people talk about enjoying long walks on the beach. I probably walked 10 miles of sand and constantly tried to escape the cow roads through the Salvia brush instead of trying to cross the loose sand. Today I saw a flock of sheep and a sheep dog. I love to see dogs doing what they are destined to do. I feel that I am a bit the same.
Day 67, 36.3 miles in Mander.
Yesterday night I had excellent views of the Milky Way from the wide plains of Sagebrush. Sometimes it is easy to get caught in logistics and forget why I am here. But I suppose that is also true. Today I was starting to be a bit claustrophobic in the basin. Not because I was too small, but because I felt too small. I felt trapped in this place without features of land, without shade, without water and, sometimes, without path. There was no respite of the relentless wind and sun. I felt that I was working hard and yet I couldn’t see much progress. As if I was finally facing the immensity of my effort and overwhelmed me.
Often, when I tell people that I am walking to Canada, their eyes look like. But for me, along the way, Canada is very abstract. Everything that suits me is in the next city where I stop, the next source of water in which I will fill, or the place where camping tonight. But today I really had to face how far I was walking. And anyway, the day I walked to the city, any mileage for the day feels too long. If I have twenty miles in the city, I will be impatient in Mile 12. If I have 9 miles in the city, I will yearn for real food for mile 4. Today I had 36 miles in the city and wanted to enter dinner. On Mile 26 I was ready to do the day. I just wanted a shower and wanted to stop walking. But you always get there eventually. Liz and George, who had received me in their ranch south of the border, a week ago, welcomed me tonight in their main residence in Lander. Coincidentally, my last shower was also in place, at the ranch south of the Wy-Co border. I hope to be able to take it easy tomorrow and prepare to enter Wind River Range.
Day 68, 0 miles.
I took my second zero of the path today at the place of Liz & George in Lander. George had to get out of a PCT attempt in 2022 due to an injury, so he let me replenish his leftovers and his bear spray for Grizzly Country. After breakfast in the city and go through the grocery store, I made boxes to send me for Wyoming and Idaho. George left to return to the ranch, but his neighbor allowed me to borrow a car to leave the packages in the post office. It is the first time I drive since I got on the way. His neighbor is a doctor, so I talked to him about my ankle, who is in repair. When I returned, all I really did was turn from the bathroom to the hydromassage to the roof to the sofa. I left and did many stretching and in general. I am always more tired in the city, maybe because my body can finally relax or there is much more stimulation. I am so comfortable that it is crazy.
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