Day 53 - welcome to Wyoming, thought it would be easier (31.3 miles)

July 1, 2021

Miles: 31.3 miles

Steps: 68,423

No rain last night but my stuff with a little damp but was able to get an early hike as I had 31 miles to get a hitch to town.

I only had 11 miles to the Wyoming border which for the most part was pretty easy and got there before 9am. All of it was on jeep roads, rolling hills.

At the border I got several pictures and ate an early lunch before moving on.

Once in Wyoming the trail got much harder. I was under the impression that Wyoming would be super flat and easy for the first half. However that was not the case.

The trail was very rocky with several steep climbs. The climbs weren’t long but not what I expected.

Then the thunder and rain started, off and on all day. Only the last mile before the highway did I see the sun.

I did have one easy section as I took a gravel road detour around the trail as there were 3 miles of blow downs. That detour saved me probably at least 30 minutes.

After the detour and back on trail it was very hard to stay on trail but there were plenty of cairns and posts to mark the way. At times I had to stop and figure out where to go. Also didn’t help the trail was very rocky so hard to get a good pace going. The rocks were tough on my feet as my new shoes aren’t the best and gave me another blister. I may be looking into a new pair in the next town.

After the rocky trail I entered a swampy trail and got my feet soaking wet, the rain didn’t help either.

Got to the highway around 5pm and knew it would be a hard hitch into town as not much traffic especially towards the end of the day.

While trying to hitch the mosquitos found me and just kept swarming so put on all my clothes and kept moving around.

After about 30 minutes and 4 cars passing, someone stopped to give me a ride into Riverside. The guy was very nice and even gave me a cold drink.

Got dropped off at the gas station where I picked up a few supplies to get to Rawlings. Then walked a quarter of a mile to the RV park to camp, shower and laundry.

While my clothes were washing I went across the street for dinner. Then charged my electrics and watch a little tv while my clothes dried in the RV park activity center.

Be interesting to see how long it takes to hitch back to the trail in the morning.