After my first bout with giardia and a long five days off trail, we headed into the Wind River range. Still not feeling 100% when we got our hitch back out to the trail, I felt worried that I wouldn't be able to do the mileage I needed to not run out of food. When we got dropped off and we're touching the trail again, a wave of excitement rushed over me and it felt right to be back out there. We hiked for a few hours before a huge dark cloud caught up with us and began pouring the biggest and hardest rain we'd experienced yet. It soaked through everything and lasted much longer than we would have liked. Luckily it ended and we dried out before making it to camp that evening. It felt so right and yet so foreign to be back on trail after so much time off. I fell asleep happy that I had made it back without missing anything. We got up in the dark the next morning and started moving as we could barely see. Little by little the sky brightened up and after an hour we had clear views. It was a chilly morning with a bunch of clouds blanketing the sky so we kept moving fast to stay warm. By our first break we had only gone six miles. Which did not bode well for our 31 mile a day average. We climbed up a river valley as the trees began to change into rocks and the elevation increased. A cloud caught up with us and let down some light sprinkles that worried us about the downpour the day before. Suddenly the trail disappeared and we grew frustrated with the constant route finding. We got to a bowl with massive walls surrounding us and knew we would have to climb up somewhere. With no trail, we picked an area we thought would be the safest and headed up. As we began to climb, thunder roared behind us and was moving closer. Sprinkles began to rain down on us and, as we looked behind, we saw a wall of rain closing in on us and nearing the pass.
The thunder was on top of us. I panicked as I tried to speed up. My heart was racing and I was out of breathe but we had to move quickly. Each crack of lighting made us shudder. The wind blew stronger, pushing the clouds towards us. We made it to the pass and we're met with a massive boulder field about half a mile long. As we hopped from rock to rock, trying to move fast and not get hurt at the same time, the wind began to die down. Luckily the thunder got trapped by the peaks on the other side of the pass and no longer threatened to kill us. We took a deep breathe and slowed our pace. We climbed down the rocky slope cautiously, beginning to realize that our goals for this section were unrealistic and we would soon run out of food. We made it down to a lake for lunch where we began to hatch up a new plan. We felt extremely discouraged and slightly pathetic at not meeting our goal but we were beat. We hung around too long, not wanting to see what the trail would throw at us next. We finally left and found the views were spectacular and the trail, when it existed, was pleasant with a nice downhill trend. We ran into a group on a commercial backpacking trip and stopped to chat for a bit. Our spirits rose and our egos were thoroughly stroked as they gawked in amazement at how far we'd come. And it was true, we had come so far already. It's hard days like this that make us forget what we've already accomplished. We ran into a bunch more groups that afternoon and felt excited that we were finally in an area that people wanted to go. One group had come out on a spur of the moment trip to do the Cirque of the Towers trail, an alternate from the CDT. We had also planned to do this route after hearing it was a must. Unfortunately the group hadn't prepared very well and didn't have any maps. Beaute and I generally stay within sight of each other, so I gave them my maps and told them where they were before they headed off in the wrong direction.
Thunder began to boom again, ending our dreams of doing the alternate. There were three high passes of rock scrambles to get over and no where to go at the chance of thunder. So we decided it was too dangerous and stayed on the official route. It rained on us for hours after that but we felt very lucky as we heard the thunder rip the sky apart behind us. As the evening grew darker, it turned colder than it had been in a long time. We moved faster to stay warm and eventually found a nice spot to set up for the night. Right as we got our tents out it began to rain again as we jumped in our shelters for the night, trying to stay warm. To make matters worse, I could barely stomach two bites of my dinner before feeling nauseous and calling it quits. We slept in longer than usual the next morning even though we had a long day. We got moving and hoped for the best. It was an absolutely beautiful morning as the sun peeked through the clouds just enough to keep us warm. We had small moments of showers but they never lasted long and we dried out quickly. We ran into a horse caravan who first asked us if we were frightened to be out here and then mentioned that our parents must be rich to support us for six months. Two things you should never say to a pair of fiercely independent women in the backcountry. We made sure they knew that we were self supporting our trip and that not too much scared us anymore. A few hours later, as we hiked on, a seriously foul smell whacked us in the face. Something was dead and it was nearby. We were starting to gag when we saw a sign hanging high up in a tree. A horse had been put down by the lake and they were warning about bear activity. We moved a little quicker to escape the rotting carcass and eventually could no longer smell it. We took lunch early when it looked like a storm would roll through and rain us out. We both ate a rare hot lunch but were soon sprinting into the forest to dig an extremely urgent cat hole. We took a short nap but were both still feeling terrible as we pushed on north. It took a few hours before we finally got into the swing of things and started moving faster again. We were chasing the clock to try and get up and over a pass before dark but we weren't moving nearly as fast as we needed to be. A pair of southbounders came up the trail and showed us a route that they had taken to go around the pass and stay low. We jumped on the alternate and made it a fair distance before my hip started cramping up every few minutes. I was doubled over in pain so we got to a water source and set up camp for the night.
It was another freezing morning as we packed up with all of our layers on. It took a while for the sun to finally hit us over the high mountain tops but once it did our whole bodies felt toasty. We ran into a bunch of people that day including another thru hiker we hadn't seen since town and a bunch of southbounders, one of which I had met on the PCT and saw on the AT. It was awesome to think we had run into each other randomly on all the big three. It took much longer than we would have liked but we made it to a trailhead parking lot and started walking down to town to get some food. After a little over an hour, a car came by and asked us if we needed a ride. We needed to walk in to town to connect our footsteps because we would be taking an alternate out of town but our hunger took over and we decided we'd get back to the road the next morning. After gorging on Mexican food, we found a hidden spot outside of town and set up camp. We got up early the next morning to try to hitch back to where we were at on the road but no one would pick us up. We waited longer than we had ever waited for a hitch on this trail and were about to give up was when a truck stopped and let us in. With a voice that had clearly breathed in more cigarette smoke than fresh air for 60 years, he explained to us that recently two men, who were on the run for beating a few women to death, had hitch hiked nearby. After murdering the driver, they took the van up into the mountains on the same road we were on and hid out with a bunch of weapons for a few days before they ran out of food and began to starve. It suddenly all made sense that no one was willing to pick us up. He got us to our destination and gave us both a Gatorade before being on his way. We moved quickly on the road and it felt nice not to have our packs on. We had hid them in a bunch of bushes in town and would pick them up on our way back. We got back around lunch time and went to grab some food and sort out some logistics. We ended up staying there all night and crashing in a church that is left open for hikers to stay at. We got up the next morning and took our time, drinking hot coffee and chatting, before hitting the road. It was still very cold when we left and I wanted to go back to the warm refuge of the church. Eventually, the road warmed up and we made it to a cafe for lunch. We filled up before hitting the road again but we didn't make it far before finding a shady spot and taking a nap on the side of the highway. We made it another eleven dragging miles on the road. The pavement was crushing our joints and feet and it became really hard to keep going. We made it to an RV Park and C-store that was about to close so we filled up on water and sat around to rest our aching legs. The owner told us of a dirt road that paralleled the highway for six or seven miles and had lots of good camping areas. We made it about five more miles on the dirt road before finding a flat spot and going to sleep.
It was below 30 degrees that next morning and I struggled to get out of my sleeping bag with all my layers on. We got back to the road but the wind was whipping at my face and hands, freezing them. In the distance we saw a sign for a cafe and I began to dream of the hot coffee that would surely warm me up. As we grew closer, a large closed sign dashed our dreams and we got back on the road again. After a few more hours, lots of roadkill, and getting to pet a bunch of horses, we saw a gas station in the distance and talked about everything we were going to get there. We were hesitant until we saw two big open signs and the lights on. Relieved, I tried the door. It was locked, there was no one inside. Slightly heartbroken we posted up outside, eating our stale trail food and hoping something was coming up. As we sat there I got a bunch of alerts on my phone saying Yellowstone was on fire and much of the roads were beginning to close. It would mean a few more days of road walking for us and missing Yellowstone altogether. Bummed, we hiked on down the road and hoped it would reopen before we had to decide on an alternate route. We took a short nap in the shade and jumped back on the road. A few people stopped to ask us if we needed a ride which we reluctantly declined. They had seen us on the road for a couple days now and wondered what the hell we were doing. We often thought the same thing. As evening approached we saw a sign for a restaurant but we didn't get our hopes up, it had to be closed too. And, sure enough, we saw a closed sign in the window when we walked up. As we were about to keep walking, a couple came out and said that the bar was still open, serving food. We ran in and grabbed a table, getting weird stares from all the people that had passed us on the road. While eating, we met a guy who was planning to hike the Te Araroa this winter and offered to let us crash at his place behind the bar. We talked trail and hung out before realizing he had bought us dinner and leaving the bar. As we walked out the sky was filled with smoke and small bits of ash rained down on us. It was no wonder everything was shutting down, the sky was on fire. We took showers and talked trail a bit more before tucking into bed in a warm house away from the smoke. Mile marker 2057