Mileage: 29.6 miles (1456.2-1485.8)
I woke up and took a glorious shower at the campground, continuously having to press the button to keep the water coming, but I didn't mind. I had a gas station breakfast, which consisted of a couple breakfast sandwiches, a breakfast burrito, and some weak coffee. I found some new superfeet insoles at the Trading Post in town, which will hopefully get me to South Pass City - I had so many choices I wasn't sure which was right walking around the store. They didn't have one in my size, another was "super insulating" and the other they had in my size was $10 more so I just went with the standard blue kind, which matches the rest of my outfit - so that's good. After my purchase I walked up the highway looking for a ride back to Battle Pass.
Right as I started to get frustrated, a lady rolled down her window and asked if I was 'going up the hill?' I said, 'yeah!' She told me to get on in. It turned out her name was Allison and she owned the Red Wagon, a coffee shop in town. As we got to talking she mentioned offhand that she'd also given Karma a ride to pass as well. What a coincidence!
It was a cloudy day and the mountains felt almost primordial in the gray drizzle. On the way down from Bridger Peak, at a little over 11,000', I met three forest service guys om ATV's. We talked for a bit and I learned the majority of their job was building picnic tables at campgrounds and cleaning out porta-potties. I all of a sudden felt bad for them - that's not how I imagined Forest Service rangers would spend their days - I bet they didn't imagine it either.
It rained a bit more but not too bad. The divide was beautiful here, gently rolling down into the high desert. The landscape was mottled with the olive sagebrush and bronze grasses which had grown so well with all the rain. The grasses on top of the divide seemed almost like waves being swept by the wind, undulating with each breath of air that passed over their blades.
I had dinner at a nice little creek and decided I'd take a Ley alternate to get to Rawlins - if all went well it meant I'd be there tomorrow night instead of the next morning. In fact, I made my own alternate, connecting a few jeep roads on the map with Ley's route, probably saving another mile or two. It turned out the jeep roads on the map were almost non-existent at times and I just had to follow the contours of the land. Suddenly, as I crested the shoulder of a hill, a coyote nearly bumped into me walking in the opposite direction. As he scampered off back the way he came I saw a Blue Heron who soared above the marsh, evidently also startled by the commotion. Families of ducks also swam along as the male Red-winged blackbirds vied for territory in the reeds along the edge of the wetland. As I walked on, the rolling hills seemed endless and the divide so small compared to just a few days ago back in Colorado.
The sun had begun to set and as I admired the changing light, a Greater Sage Grouse took off almost right out from under me, making my heart skip a beat. The gunshot sound of a Grouse's wingbeats never fails to make me jump. The Ruffed Grouse back in New England did the same thing to me all the time as I wandered through the dense spruce and fir forests.
I saw clouds gathering in the distance and eventually made it to Sage Creek Rd, a very well-maintained county road. It would save me about fifteen miles and, in my estimation, I wasn't missing much as I'd already seen more wildlife in a few hours than I had in the last few days combined. Pronghorns pranced along and the males let me get pretty close as they were each defending territory. They'd bark at me as I got closer, but then glide away before I was within 75 yards.
Seeing lightning off in the distance I found a flat spot away from the road and called it a night, with close to 33 miles to get into Rawlins tomorrow.
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