Rawlins, WY

We had breakfast at the Ox Bow with Mike, Naomi and Found. Naomi then gave us a ride to the trail, along with Lost & Found, and we got going. We arrived at South Pass City, which seems to be a re-creation town, some old mining from the 1800's. We went to the store, where I found an official Beatles Fan Club Tie Tacks, which I bought and may use as bling. We left the town before Lost & Found, and followed jeep road all day. It was monotonous, but we did see a few antelope. It would have been hot, but we had GoLite Chrome Domes to keep the sun off. We rested at the Sweetwater after about 16 miles, and got our fill of water. As we left, we saw Lost & Found coming up, but they took the purple route. We set off on our route, crossing through the BLM campground over to Harris Slough. We kept on the dirt roads through Buffalo Gulch to Antelope Hills. We came to a small hill with a rock formation on top, and decided to make the best camp possible with the ground full of rocks and sagebrush.

It rained briefly last night and we woke to coyotes howling. We tried an early start but only got going around 6:30. We passed up dry creeks and Upper Mormon Spring, continuing on the road to Weasel Spring. Here we tanked up and moved on, hoping for a long day. We passed by Coyote Gulch, watching cows and antelope roam around, as well as wild horses. The day was pretty dull, dry and monotonous. The only change was a late in the day thunderstorm, but it never broke above us. Instead, it happened around us, with lightning strikes making for fun watching. We camped somewhere near Crookes Mt.

Tried again for an early start, but failed. Kept walking on the road, coming upon cowboys doing a roundup. Unfortunately, we startled the cows, so they had to round them up again. Stupid cows. We pumped water from a barrel with a faucet. We loaded up to get us to a solar spring. The long walk on the road was hot, and not a whole lot happened. Saw antelope, horses, cows and a badger. We came to the A&M Reservoir, and got some bonus water there, so we could push past the solar wells and go all the way to Bull Spring. We got there at sun down, with sore feet, loaded up, and moved out. We used our headlamps, got lost by taking a wrong turn (so we lost an hour of hiking), but pressed on until 11:30pm and made camp.

Woke up late and not feeling all that refreshed. But we were set up to get into Rawlins today. We reluctantly broke camp and moved. We were going for about an hour when we spotted a can of Pepsi in the middle of the trail, unopened. Throwing any caution to the wind, we chugged it, then found a cache not much further. Trail magic! We drank another each and pressed on in better spirits. We got to Mineral X Road and followed that to Hwy 287. We walked the highway a bit, then turned toward the CDT sign, only there was no actual trail. I did almost step on a rattlesnake, and he let me know I was too close. We found a jeep road and took that until Fish Pond Spring. We grabbed water just before a her of cows came by for a drink. After we left, a herd of wold horses came to the spring, chasing of the cows (what jerks!) We followed CDT signs until we came to a frontage road, which technically was trespassing, but it was shorter, faster walking. We took this until it ended into the highway, then road walked into town, got a room, and bunkered down for the night.