Feel restless after so many wildlife encounters

This morning I didn’t end up packing until it came out light. After last night, I didn’t have it on the night walk this morning. At least I could see a really beautiful dawn just for the place of my camp. Then I went back to the path and continued. And honestly, this morning was one of the most difficult I’ve had in a long time.

I spent all the first hours of the day in a very repetitive thought pattern. I simply couldn’t stop thinking about all the bears I saw last night. I also kept thinking about all these different meetings that I have had. It seems that each one has been such a close call. It is one thing to see an animal from a distance. But walking on so many animals and not realizing until you are 10 feet away is quite scary. It simply leads to a very intense reaction and response.

Due to the high stress that I have been all the encounters, I only have a lot of anxiety when remembering the scenarios. Which is expected after experiencing something that scared you. This morning, however, I felt restless and nervous. Which really is not how I feel here normally. Even after so many animals, it wasn’t until the latter that I really felt scared. The other encounters made me feel restless immediately after. But I don’t remember feeling stressed or scared in the days that followed. It simply seems that everything has completed so far.

For a mile more or less, the path walked just along this river. That could have been my favorite part of the whole day.

I tried everything I could to get my mind from animals. And it ended up being a very beautiful and beautiful morning. The path continued along a river for a while, which was impressive. The foliage was also really pleasant. Part of the leaf color has changed here and it was for spectacular images.

These last 10 miles more or less in Yellowstone were some of my favorites.

At some point in the morning, I actually met some hikers who went north. It seemed that they were walking through the section, and there were four people completely. That honestly felt like a relief. Knowing that someone had just walked along the path in front of me made me a little less nervous for animals. Although from my experience, it really does not make a big difference.

Leaving Yellowstone and entering Teton.

I chatted with those hikers for a couple of minutes before continuing. In general, it does not seem super pertinent to tell people about animals. But because I had read a distant comment about the mother and the three puppies, and I experienced them in the same area, I felt it was important to mention today. And it turns out that these hikers were planning to camp in Heart Lake. Apparently, it is the area that has most frequently seen the mom and puppies. So I was glad to have known so they could take it into account.

Walking through an open grass.

During most of the morning, in general I was uphill. Then I arrived at the top of a mountain pass and sailed throughout that for a while. When I was approaching, the weather was definitely changing. I just hoped to get up and on the highest point before things started. I didn’t realize, but I really went up to 10,000 feet today. Above, the clouds just began to roll, so I continued quite fast.

A new wooden CDT marker.

A little rain ended up, but nothing too crazy. It rained a little and then stopped. And from then on, I continued downhill for most of the rest of the day. Then the path would level and really did not have much more escalation to do until tomorrow. That was quite pleasant!

I saw on my map that there was an alternative route later tonight. No mileage was not shaved in reality. In any case, he added a little mileage. But he turned a section of the path that has not been maintained. Apparently, the blows are so bad that it is worth doing this alternative of Cross Country, Fording Río and being the way again. This was going to be about 33 miles in my day. And honestly, I really ended up focusing on that throughout the day.

You may not have been doing the best mentally today, but at least the views were beautiful.

Although it was a super short section of cross country walks, I was very anxious to do well before dusk. Only with everything that has gone to the idea of ​​making a route outside the path at night made me nervous. I knew it would probably be the shortest segment outside the path. It was probably also easy and obvious. But today I had a great PEP in my step while trying to reach that section of the path long before dusk.

This was a great sign to pass! I did not take this route before, so this was new to me.

As the day continued, it rained a little more. Honestly, the worst part of the rain in Wyoming is the state of the path. Something about clay and dirt in this area causes crazy mud. And with all horses trafficking, you can get incredibly messy. I have memories last year by Mud Chaking Up, Literally thick in my feet. To a point where my ankles were so sore to support all extra weight.

The path passed this great waterfall!

Today the mud began to get crazy after only 20 or 30 minutes of rain. I did my best to jump and avoid it when I could. Fortunately, much of the path was flat or downhill, which facilitated the mud trip a little easier. I was doing everything possible to slide and slide without falling. Because the path had actually rained completely cleaned on the slopes. There were some sections with tons of horses impressions, just because of how deep these impressions are. But apart from that, the path was now completely clean and free of animals or feet.

That was until some new clues appeared. Suddenly, I was watching huge bear tracks that rose along the way to me. At some point in the last hour, a huge bear had walked exactly where he was. And you knew that I had to have been recent, because I recently began to leave my own clues behind. Until the mud formed, he left no distinctive impressions on earth. At least they are not significant. I guess I felt a little relieved that the Bears’s footprints came towards me. That meant that I was not going to reach it soon. But we also met that we probably walk very close to each other in the last 20 or 30 minutes and I didn’t even realize. That is the fun of most of the experiences of wildlife. You probably find animals constantly when you are in the forest, you just don’t know.

Seeing a beautiful sunset tonight.

I continued sliding and sliding as quickly as I could to get to this crossing. I arrived just after 7 pm, which was absolutely perfect. Then, for less than half a mile, I continued on an alternative path. Then the forest opened and there was a meadow to my left. Basically, I had to walk freely through this meadow, making a «cross country» route, as someone could call it. I continued until I got to a river, which I had to cross. Of course I had to get my feet at the end of the day! And then almost immediately after that, I returned to the CDT. Which saved me an annoying time sailing through the trees.

At this point approximately 34 miles had passed per day. I grabbed water and basically planned to walk to just before dusk. I didn’t see another camp marked by a while. There was one just when I returned to the crossing, but it seemed too soon. And after that, there really was nothing. But lately, my standards have been very low. I can basically camp anywhere if it is even remotely flat.

While I continued, I could see a really beautiful sunset. That is the only good thing about the storms here in Wyoming. It seems that the sky is so spectacular. I wonder if it has something to do with barometric pressure or who knows what. But the sunsets always seem even more incredible at the time of the storm.

He began to be late and knew it would be dark at any time. But he had not gone for anything in terms of camping. I almost stopped a couple of times different at really bad points to configure. But I was still waiting if it were more and further, I would find something. But I almost never did! So I eventually did it with a super mediocre place. It was flat enough and expected not to rain too much. I prepared and tried to get comfortable inside as I could.

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