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Day 66 – 70 The Winds!
Day 66
Not the most restful night. My bunk was cozy enough, but the bunkroom itself was fairly loud for a spell. Oh well. Still a good zero and I was glad not to be out in the evening storm that blew thru town.
Victim of the storm. Mostly cleaned up.
Hitched out mid-morning. Spent awhile hitching before I realized that I wasn’t wearing my watch. Sprinted back to the bunkroom and found my watch behind the mattress. Sprinted back just in time to catch the pickup that Tropical and Toodles had flagged down. That worked out well and could’ve been a huge mess.
Pickup truck bed hitches are the best (usually).
Pack seemed really heavy. Feel a bit like I overbought food. Though I do need to eat more and this works as a strategy because I want to eat a bunch just to make the pack smaller and lighter.
The actual hiking was beautiful. Broken up at one point by a search and rescue helicopter surveying the area. There’s been a missing hiker for the past few days whose last seem / planned location was fairly close to where we returned to the CDT.
Day 67
Had some coyotes yapping quite close to the tent last night in the middle of the night. Tropical got out of his tent and looked around for a bit but they went away shortly after that. The rest of the night was cold but uneventful. Come morning there was a lot of condensation, though.
Swimming and gear drying break. Also where I put a hole in my sleeping bag (?!). And patched it.
I got a somewhat late start to the morning. Which I need to start being better about. The days are noticeably shorter, and I need every hour of daylight.
The length of hopping I’ll go to in order to keep feet dry…
Hiking alongside the Winds was beautiful. Mixture of alpine meadows or lake valleys all day. Though with many blowdowns to navigate over or around.
Dinner. Cheddar broccoli soup.
Camped a bit under a mile from the cirque of the towers alternate. It’s supposed to be one of the most beautiful parts of the CDT so I’m looking forward to that.
Dinner guest. Though we may have disagreements over who is the guest.
Day 68
Well, the cirque didn’t disappoint. There were pretty spectacular views from all of the passes and down by Lonesome lake in the middle. Lots of landscape views and a number of pika’s.
Sometimes you go to put your shoes on and find a survey marker?
The passes themselves weren’t too bad, though going up the final pass I did get cliffed out once and had to backtrack.
Coming down Texas pass into the cirque.
Other side of the cirque.
View from (what I thought was) the top of Temple pass.
The actual top of Temple pass. Way over there. Past the boulder field.
I don’t always post pictures of pika, but when I can, I do.
The remainder of the trail back to the official CDT seems to alternate between cruisy mild downhill and horrendous blowdowns. I’m told the last couple miles before the junction are particularly bad, so I have that to look forward to tomorrow.
Almost done with the Winds. Which is sad. Though I am, sort of, looking forward to the basin as a change of pace.
Day 69
Goodbye, Winds.
The feared blowdowns weren’t horrendous and, for the most part, easy to avoid. There were blowdowns for the rest of the Winds but judging by the number of downed & cut trees, it used to be far more difficult.
*really* glad all these blowdowns were already cut.
Ran into a number of hikers in the morning. Tangent, Encore, and Spood, who have just finished their high route. They were making a push for Lander today, so I didn’t see them again. I also saw Windu and Skiggles later in the morning. We ended up hiking together for a decent chunk of the day.
The green tunnel now has a roof.
South Pass City tomorrow. Despite the name its just a historical site with a small store. They supposedly have soda, icecream, and power outlets. Everything a hiker needs. Also, they hold packages which is probably a bit more important.
There’s a road down there somewhere.
Scenic, though later regrettable when a storm rolled in.
Day 70 – South Pass City
After a not very restful night I booked it down to South Pass City. On the way finding Windu and Skiggles camped in a much nicer sheltered glade. Felt a bit silly being out in that field.
I was not the only one who wanted passage thru the gate.
You. Shall. Not. Pass. Moo.
Sometimes the trail goes… right thru a barbed wire fence. Sans gate.
South Pass city is a neat little historic site. Spent most of the morning hanging out. Charging, resupplying, and…. getting rid of by bear spray!
Very excited to be ditching this. Clearly others were, too.
While hanging out here it went from very hot to cold, windy, and looming storms? Not the hike out I anticipated.
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