Everything was pretty frosted over and it's still pretty chilly this morning. I think Fall's comin'.
You know that's kind of a little unnerving the fact that it hasn't really quite warmed up yet
It's after 10:00 a.m. Is just a little like
It's OK. I'm just gonna have to race the snow Canada again.
I don't have children, so I always say that my
much younger siblings are kind of like, you know having having kids in a way and
So I was really happy for Dakota to come out here and join and it's been
pretty neat to see
some of the changes in him since he started even
Just a few days ago, you know at first it was kind of like, huh? I don't know what I need to do for
like a food supply
I don't know exactly how much I should carry and this and that and you know over the last few days
he's like, yeah when I get to town, I'm gonna get this and this and this for
my next resupply and then also like at first he was kind of
sticking close by and
now it's like he'll go ahead off on his own for a while and
you know, just seeing somebody get more and more comfortable and
this start to feel like
normal to them
is just really cool. His face is gonna be burnt and you know, they say that
hiking can make you
You know more philosophical and makes you think a little deeper and so one of the profound
Observations that he's already made while he's been out here my favorite one. Is that ancient peoples
Must have had calluses in their butt cracks
Look at that would you just look at it? Would you look at that?
Have ya ever in ya life had ya feet so close to the table?
Gingy's, you know
He had some toy socks like I do and you come by the fire to dry and they melted
and so it was like a hard place in the sock and I think that was, was that, that was your only pair, right? You only had one pair.
and I was just like here wear mine and he's like I can't fit yours and I'm like yeah you can
It's cool how we've kind of gotten to planes and rocks again
It doesn't feel like the desert though, there's not sagebrush everywhere
Are y'all playin' tag?
Go go go go
I think I can tell which one's the boy
It's breathing so hard.
Gah lee.
Dakotas like catch some fish catch some fish. I've never seen Dakota So interested in somebody catching some fish
He's hungry. Kyle brought his tenkara rod
For the Wind River Range section just because he remembered that you know
He had caught a decent amount of fish through here last year
And there was some pretty good fishing and I think it was more for the fun of it than anything
But it's actually turned out to be a good thing because this section has taken us
About a day and a half by the time we get to town day and a half to two days longer than we thought so
we're actually supplementing with fish. The last day and a half to two days or so would've it made for some
Slim pickin's as far as rations go
For our food before we got to town. So anyway, the guys are back at the lake behind me still
fishing and I'm gonna go head on to the top of hat pass. It's about two to two and a half miles from here
so and I've got the bag of fish that they were catching last night and it's been
Real cold at night. So they've stayed cool, you know through last night and this morning
so anyway, I'm gonna go ahead and pull my weight by packing
I think I've got like six fish in my pack and then they whatever they catch they'll tow it up and we'll clean them
And cook them at the top of hat pass where supposedly there is cell reception
so I figure we kill two birds with one stone and sit up there have lunch have some time to
check in, you know with everybody in the real world and
also cook these fish and
Enjoy the view. Hopefully hopefully there's a good view there
goin' up Hat Pass
Oh
Lots of rocks
they don't call it the
Rocky Mountains for nothin'
Eagle Scout experience coming in handy
Oh, yeah
We have to do this crossing here
and my feet just got dry from being soaked during the crossings yesterday I don't normally do this, but
I'm refusing to cross
in my dry finally dry shoes and socks because they were wet when I put them on this morning, so
I'm crossin' bear-footed
Some folks, I've really tender feet luckily mine are gross and hardy enough to do this
bear-footed
Alright so this is a junction where we go 11 miles to Pinedale that-a-way it is that way, right?
Like do you actually see a trail?
Okay on a scale from one to ten. How ready are you to be in town?
Really
Think we have like nine or so. I know it's less than ten miles to
the place where we hitch into Pinedale and
I think it's gonna be like a trailhead or campground and we just kind of have to wait for somebody to leave
It's not gonna be like the highway. But anyway, it's gonna be really nice to get into town
This stretch has taken
About a day and a half longer than we had planned for and I'm also pretty excited for Dakota to have his first hitchhiking experience
to Pinedale we go, to Pinedale we go
Food or shower?
Food.
Food or Shower?
Uh, Swimming pool.
It's before 7:00 a.m. And we have to cross this mess
Uh..
Oh God it's so cold
Somebody's got a little hitch in his giddyup
we have been seeing a lot of day hikers and folks coming in to do
a section and stuff like that, so
That means we're getting closer and closer to the trailhead
Plus you can tell when it's a pretty manicured trail that
That it's a heavy use area
But with all the folks that we've seen out here
Hopefully it won't be too
difficult to get a hitch into town
Ahh Yes!
Hey! Noble beast. Hey Darlin'
They're like don't talk to me like that
Its it just one or both?
I mean they both are but this one feels like it's about to rip in half
Oh.
If I just hear a pop, then uh you may have to carry me
I'm mashin' the button for the helicopter.
My brother's
Achilles actually both of them but one was a little bit worse than another
Started flaring up real bad. He's got tendinitis in both of them. We were hoping that by some miracle in town
When we took a zero that it would magically feel better
But alas it did not I think he had some pretty good
Experiences over this last week week and a half including hitchhiking that he got to hike in the Wind River Range
He got to experience, you know, the thought of hiking in Grizz country and carrying bear spray
He survived a pretty intense hailstorm got to harvest some fish on the trail and eat it
I think he had an all-around good time and it's something that he's always gonna remember
Kyle will probably
Instead of hiking be like supporting and you know meeting us at towns or road crossings and such as that
I am really gonna miss
The Wind River Range when we get out of here. It's been amazing
It's been so beautiful and all the little lakes and the flowers and of course Cirque of the Towers had some
difficult
Terrain several passes, but I think the Wind River Range in general is definitely somewhere you could come
And do like a weekend trip and really
Camp and enjoy it a lot and I am glad that we've taken it slow through here. I will pay for that
later in Idaho in Montana
I'm gonna have to pull some
Pretty big days to make up for the slow time. I've had here we have averaged
probably about 15 miles a day and
really should have been doing between
20 and 25 probably but I reckon when you play hard you gotta work hard
It goes something like that
There's a little bit more bad news
So we're in Pinedale right now, which is
84 miles from Jackson Hole Airport
and
the shuttles like $200
So I'm gonna be hitchhiking to Jackson Hole Airport
I'm just gonna go ahead and let you know that oh
Well whenever okay, yeah