Day 86: Crossing into Wyoming!

Mileage: 32.3 miles (1423.9-1456.2)

I started hiking by 6am. It was a beautiful, crisp morning and I was hiking fast to keep warm. The route was straight up and down on forest roads, which easily could have skirted around the mountains they were scaling. I followed muddy footprints from this morning, and wondered if I'd run into their owner at the border taking a break. I started the day less than 15 miles from the border and I was definitely anxious to get the heck out of Colorado. As I got closer I kept worrying I'd miss the sign or that the tree had been blown down and I wouldn't have my moment to celebrate. 

I could say the moment when I finally reached the border was bittersweet. But it was just sweet. After nearly two months in Colorado enduring endless bouts of snow, rain, hail, cold, lightning storms, high elevation, and exposed climbing I was ready to leave. It was stunningly gorgeous and perhaps the most mentally exhausting thing I've ever done, but I made it! I was ready for Wyoming.

When I got to the border an older fellow, Maine Guy, was sitting next to a tree on the Colorado side. I yelled with glee and maybe startled him a bit and purposely sat myself down on the Wyoming side. We chatted for a bit and I learned he actually had to get off trail at the highway to deal with family issues. I felt bad because all he needed to do was finish Wyoming and he'd have completed the entire trail (he'd done the Montana section in a past year).

He had a pretty Zen attitude about the whole thing, though was bummed he'd miss the Wind River Range. He had some spare fuel and gave me some when he learned that I was out (errrr...forgot to pack any). I felt lucky to be a part of a community of hikers who all looked out for one another. We hiked together for awhile exchanging stories of trail magic and slogging through the San Juan's, for the first time feeling enough distance to laugh at some of the horrible events.  On one of the steep uphills Maine guy told me I should push on ahead if I was going to make it to the pass - I had a feeling he needed some alone time to make peace with the trail, so I obliged.

There wasn't really much flat in between the steady ups and downs. Headed up one rocky section I spotted a scarlet tanager flitting about in the pines. I had entered Huston Peak wilderness, which was full of exposed red rock and not much defined trail. I headed cross country with cairns and posts along the way, many shorter than the trees themselves which made navigation not always easy.

I pushed on ahead, taking only one more break before the highway at the lone stream for ten miles. It was glorious in the shade, splashing my hot, dirty feet in the water and eating my ramen noodles.

I pushed on the rest of the day and made it to the highway by 6:15. There was almost no traffic heading either way and I felt lucky to get a ride from a construction worker and his wife in their old Ford pickup after about half an hour. They told me they had been roaming the country for the past fifteen years on construction jobs, from Nebraska to just a few miles from Canada. 

They dropped me off in Riverside and I grabbed a campsite and headed to the one restaurant in town, the Bear Trap. I had a burger and tater tots with a giant Bud Light. I wasn't full after so I ordered the same thing again, this time with fries. After downing the second round I paid and went back to the campsite and called it a night, happy to be sleeping in Wyoming.