Steamboat Springs to Encampment, WYoming (Mile 1,462 to 1,546)

September 12th to September 17th

Day 1: I woke up this morning and didn’t want to get up. I was enjoying laying in a warm bed. Around 8:15 I decided to get a move on. I got dressed and took the city bus downtown to eat some breakfast before getting on the trail. I ate at Winona’s Diner and the French toast was about an inch thick! I had a few last minute errands to run before I left town. After breakfast I wanted to get some thicker gloves, since the weather is getting colder. I went to the North Face shop and the Marmot shop, but they didn’t have what I was looking for. The gloves they had were either too bulky or to thin. Soon I’ll probably need some more bulky gloves, but not yet. The guy at the marmot store recommended an outdoor bike shop down the road. I went in and found some gloves and the guy knocked off 30 percent for me. I then picked up my package from the post office that contained a thicker fleece cap, a pullover, new shoes, and some bear spray. Midway through Wyoming I’ll be entering grizzly country. Around 11:30 Soren picked me up from the hotel and drove another hiker and I back out to the trail. The other guy was going south and I’m going north. People are starting to look at me crazy when I tell them I’m heading north, I think I’m the last one heading that direction. I finally got on the trail around noon and it made for an easy day. I passed several lakes along the way I only did about 10 miles. About 8 miles in I stopped at Lost Lake because I heard news of good fishing there. I am still determined to catch some trout for dinner. About 40 minutes and I still hadn’t caught anything. I watched a doe walk through the woods to my left and she didn’t see me. Then to my surprise she squatted down and started urinating. I was like, “Well that just happened.” It was starting to get cold so I decided to pack up my fishing stuff and move on 2 miles down the trail to Round Lake where I planned on camping. The high today was 56 degrees and the low tonight is 32. I figured I could set up my camp and try to fish some more. At least that way when I’m done I can get in my sleeping bag and warm up. About an hour later I made it to Round Lake and set up my tent along the bank. The fish were jumping a little so I felt hopeful. I threw my line out and waited. Nothing. I kept trying but around 6:45pm with the wind slightly blowing it was starting to get cold the sun was setting and I could see my breath. It wasn’t much fun to continue fishing and I settled on what I had in my backpack for dinner. Right as I settle down for the evening around 7:30 the fish start jumping right in the water next to my tent every 20 seconds. At this point though I’m already warm in my sleeping bag and it feels like the temperature is in the high 30s, so I don’t want to move. One of these nights I’ll catch something.

Day 2: I woke up this morning and there was a thick layer of frost over everything. It got down to at least 32 degrees last night. I was warm though. I got out of my tent and my rain fly was covered in ice. I packed my stuff up and got a move on. There was still patches of snow on the ground from two nights ago. The snow melt made the trail all muddy for pretty much most of the day. It didn’t help that they were having the Rabbit Ears Pass 50 mile and 100 mile race, so all the bikes and four wheelers setting up for that further tore up the trail. The day was relatively uneventful, I didn’t really see any wildlife. About noon I made a peanut butter and honey sandwich. I picked up some honey back in Steamboat. I continued on and for most of the afternoon about every mile or so I’d be running into people. A lot of hunters, southbound hikers, and race prep people. I came to a really nice overlook and started walking over to it to get a picture when I stumbled on a hunter sitting down on the rocks. His name was Jesse and we chatted for maybe about 30 minutes. I learned from him just how expensive an out of state elk tag is vs. the resident price. It’s around $50 for a resident tag and around $600 for an out of state tag. Out of state people is where they get their monies worth. After awhile I wished Jesse luck and continued on. I passed a few hunters on horses with a pack horse. Before to long about 6:30 I made camp. I didn’t stay outside of my tent to long because it was getting cold. I’m now a day and a half away from Wyoming.

Day 3: This morning was very cold with the mountain wind blowing. It wasn’t long before I was off the mountain and into the meadows where the wind died down. The trail began to descend in elevation from 11,000 feet down to about 9,000. It was mostly downhill today. I crossed over the Middle Fork Elk River and sat down along side it to take a break. A fisherman maybe in his late 30s with his golden retriever came walking up. When his dog saw me eating my snack he came over to give me a warm greeting. He was practically in my lap and soaking wet as the fisherman was yelling at him to leave me alone. I didn’t mind I hadn’t showered in 3 days anyway, so what’s a little dog smell gonna do. I started talking to the guy and he congratulated me on my trip. Before he took off he gave me two flies for my fishing pole and told me to try them. I thanked him and we both went our separate ways. I continued on and about 2 miles later I was walking along the trail and an extremely awesome young couple with their two kids came walking my way. They stopped and asked me if I was doing the trail. When I told them I was they asked if I wanted some fruit. When I accepted their offer they ended up giving me a whole bag of grapes and a bag of pears. The juice from grapes never tasted so good I ate half the bag and stopped when I started to feel it in my stomach. By this point I was about 4 miles out from where I planned on camping. Not much happened between there and camp. I followed the river the whole way and planned on trying my luck fishing once I set up my camp for the evening. When I got to my spot across the dirt road some hunters had their camp area set up. I started fishing from the bridge and one of the guys, Dan, came over. He’s about my age and we got to talking and before long he was hooking me up. I was gonna go down the river a bit past his camp and try my luck in a pool area of the river where I saw some fish jump. Dan introduced me to his friend Tony and then asked if I wanted to barrow his waterproof boots. I took him up on it and we started talking about hunting and my trip. Dan offered to make me a hot dog and while he was working on that I tried my luck fishing. I had one fish bite, but it didn’t get hooked. Before long I was heading back over to eat some hot dogs. Then two other guys pulled up on four wheelers, Paul and Dave, before the evening was over we were all sitting around a campfire having a good time. Around 9:40pm I decided to call it a night and thanked them for everything and headed back over to my tent. I got closer than I had on getting a fish, but lucked out with being able to hang around a camp fire with some good company.

Day 4: I CROSSED INTO WYOMING! This morning I woke up and got on the trail about 8am. It was mostly a forest road the whole way. It was slow going for a little while, so I turned on some music to walk to. The landscape wasn’t as beautiful as it has been. It’s been mainly rolling hills and a lot of downed trees. About 5 miles in a four wheeler was coming down the road and I saw that it was Paul. We stopped and talked for a bit and then wished each other luck. I continued on and it seemed every couple miles 4 wheelers were parked on the side of the trail or passing me. I didn’t see much wildlife today just a doe jump across the road and a hawk fly over me. I looked back behind me to look at the mountains in the distance and I thought about everything I had seen crossing over them. For the remainder of the day I just made the miles and finally I came to it. Up ahead posted on the tree was a white sign that read, “Wyoming State Line.” I thought of all the eagles, moose, elk, and deer I’d seen in Colorado and hoped that Wyoming would measure up. The feeling of excitement welled up inside me as I crossed over the invisible line and I set another milestone of my trip. That marked 1,525.3 miles. I walked about a half mile more down the trail and found a nice spot to camp on a flat soft grassy area beside some trees. I can’t wait to see what this state has to offer!

Day 5: I woke up to the sounds of the woods last night around 3:54am. A moose was making its way through the outskirts of my camp. It was grunting and breaking every branch in its path. I just laid there listening as the sounds made their way further away. Then I rolled over and went back to bed. The morning was overcast so the sun didn’t wake me up like it usually does. I woke up around 7:15am thinking it was 6:30 till I looked at my watch. I just decided to ease into the day and take my time since I had two days to do 20 miles. (I booked a hotel in Encampment for Tuesday.) When I was done eating breakfast I started packing my stuff up. Meanwhile in the woods around me all the squirrels were barking and the birds were chirping flying from tree to tree. Occasionally a woodpecker would be pecking a tree. I started walking enjoying how quiet it was. Nothing but the sound of the wind and wildlife could be heard. The occasional chipmunk would scramble over a log squeaking. Just as I was walking along beginning to love the Medicine Bow National Forest, I put my foot down in a muddy bog. Waist high grass was all around and at the base of it was water and mud. I managed to cross over the wet field with just slightly getting my feet wet. I only got one shoe covered in mud, before I climbed up a hill and got out of there. Once I was on dry ground I started loving the forest again. I was just about to the top of the hill when an older man on an ATV came up the road behind me. He was sporting his Trump 2020 hat and had a beautiful black and white Australian Shepherd type dog sitting in the seat next to him. I told him I liked his hat and we talked for about 20 minutes. He has several flocks of sheep in the area that graze on the National Forest lands. He showed me a picture of what a black bear did to one of his sheep and showed me the bear his Shepard shot. He then told me about the wolves up in Yellowstone that have done so well they’ve began to make their way out of the park into the Wind River Range. I asked him about Wyoming’s laws on wolves and bears and he told me they are pretty lenient which is good to know. After awhile he wished me luck and continued on down the road. I was starting to run a little low on water since I hadn’t filled up since the border of Colorado, so I stopped at a stream 3 miles up the trail. Since today was an easy day I sat beside the water and read a little bit of the Last of the Mohicans book. (downloaded on my phone) The sound of the water trickling over the rocks was very relaxing, not to mention having a constant supply of ice cold water. After about 45 minutes I continued on to finish up the last 3 miles of today. The terrain is now rolling hills with tan and green grass. Pine trees and big boulders are dispersed all around. It will be quite different once I enter the Great Basin here soon.

Day 6: This morning was overcast and windy. A storm seamed to be moving in. I only had about 8 miles to go to get to the trailhead at highway 70. I made good timing and crossed through some beautiful meadows. The wind was blowing across the tan grass making it look like a wave. I stopped and watched it for a few minutes. By 11:30am I was in the parking lot along the highway just as a storm came in. It started hailing and raining so I stood under the little outhouse overhang to stay dry. I called the bed and breakfast I was staying at in Encampment, because when I last talked to them on the phone they said to call if I need a ride. About 20 minutes later the guy pulled up. He was a real nice older guy. I threw my stuff in the back of his pickup and we headed down the highway. One of my friends from the Army, Aaron, came up for the day from Colorado and was waiting at the house. So when we pulled into the driveway Aaron was waiting there. The bed and breakfast is a classic ranch style home with the porch that goes all the way around it. Aaron and I went a few miles up the road from Encampment to Saratoga to resupply and get some food. There’s not much in Encampment. After spending the day catching up he left to head back to Colorado. My next stop is Rawlins, Wyoming.