I’m on day 86 of this think! About 1900 miles in. There are fires in Montana so the future of our routes is uncertain… Will just have to be flexible and see what happens!

So much has happened since my last post. But basically, I crossed the Great Divide Basin and. I traversed the entire Wind River Range.

My camera broke in the Great Divide Basin, so I took photos on a disposable, those will have to wait! But in general it’s 100 miles that look like this. Extremely flat, it certainly gave me some perspective in the scale of this area.

But the trail changes dramatically as I enter the Wind River Range. From scrub to high alpine in 20-30 miles.

I do a few alternates to get into the high routes. They’re pretty straightforward with Cirque of the Towers and Knapsack col.

There is so much flowing water in the Winds. I see so many lakes, alpine lakes on the CDT have been few. A lot of Colorado is too high on the divide for big lakes.

I guess someone in Pinedale was saying knapsack was impassable so I didn’t see many people on the route. The suncupped snow gave satisfactory but by no means great grip for me to get over by 8 am.

And then I drop into the Green River Valley. There is so much variety in Wyoming in the CDT. The trail will completely change in distance of 5 miles.

I even see three bears off in the distance. Not sure if they’re Grizzlies but they were golden brown and I’m in Wyoming… I’m picking up some bear spray in Dubois.

There are so many mosquitoes in some of these basins. I have to keep my mouth closed to avoid swallowing them as they hundreds swarm and bump into my skin.

I wonder how many calories are in a raw mosquito…

I needed a quick shoe replacement once my altras blew out at 550 miles. The outfitter in town had $130 salomons and keens… Not quite what I was looking for. The xa pros might work but they’re 130 for a much different shoe.

I also lost my fleece on day one into this 6 day stretch leaving me with no insulation layer. The outfitter has $80 fleece goodies…

$130 for shoes and $80 for insulation… I go next door to the church thrift store (the Opportunity Shop)!

I find a fleece and trail runners pretty quickly, the lady working proclaims “God is good!” and I get out the door for a total of $8.50!

These will last me at least another 100-200.

I’m currently sitting in Dubois, WY… Taking it easy for a bit to recover from the 165 mile push through the Winds. I’m a bit beat up but this is a perfect town to hang out in for a day.

I’ll be in Yellowstone in a couple days, Wyoming is incredible! So much geologic diversity. The folks in this town of 1,000 are expecting 30,000 people for the eclipse and are preparing for service losses just due to the sheer number of people.

Caitlin and I are gonna make it out to Idaho to witness!

Yellowstone soon! Montana soon! Wow wow wow.

One morning I’m cowboy camping and wake up to see a coyote approaching me. I scare it off, usually they’re pretty skittish around humans.

Unlike wolves that come back to investigate dead members of their pack, when coyotes come under pressure they disperse either by themselves or with one other. This is why coyote populations have spread across the East coast.

My buddy Ryan rolled through on his motorcycle trip, not a bad campsite.

The trail in northern Colorado is a lot of forest singletrack. I soon hit the Wyoming border. Colorado was an incredible adventure, beat the crap outta me but we’ll worth it.

The trail transitions quickly to scrubland as I near the Great Divide Basin. It’s flat too so I’m able to do big miles.

I end up doing a 50 mile day and 130 miles in 3 days to get to Rawlins, WY where I rest for a night. It’s dry again out here, the terrain reminds me of New Mexico.

Onward to Atlantic City, Wyoming!