Steamboat Springs, CO to Grand Lake, CO

We started off this section with a familiar face. Soren, from our Wilderness First Responder class, graciously put us up for the night, fed us, and got us back up to the divide. Thanks Soren. We were blessed with the most beautiful weather we've seen in quite some time. Four days of bluebird! In this section we traveled the top of the divide and made camp at 11400 feet the first night out. The mountains around us continue to grow in elevation, and it always seems that we drop 3000 plus feet in between them. We saw our first bear since Idaho. He was a huge, fat, and shiny black bear. We also saw several mountain sheep on our trek. Today we are hanging out at Grand Lake to hopefully wait out the "big storm". It's threatening up to 8 inches of snow in the mountain towns with 40 mph gusts. But, a sunny weekend is predicted, and so we will hopefully have a window to make it to Silverthorne; before we need our shred sticks.

Rawlins, WY to Steamboat Springs, CO

This section was full of adventure! Just out of Rawlins we met a wonderful group of gentleman from town who shared food, drink, and showed us one of their favorite camp spots. We took off the next morning and made our way back to the divide. We hiked in pine forest with intermittent aspen groves that were beautiful. We weren't as alone as we would have liked. Unfortunately, with the coming Fall, we have encountered the elusive camouflaged bow hunter. Not to worry, Brian and I have already purchased our fashionable hunter orange attire for the hunting season. We camped that night by Highway 70 and went to bed with clear skies. In the morning we awoke to a cold rain storm. We waited till the afternoon when we finally got a break to hike. The storm persisted on and off through the day, but it was nothing like what was to come. Again, we went to bed with clear beautiful skies at 10500 feet. We woke in the middle of the night to the howling wind breaking on our tent; it wasn't long before the snow began to fall. Morning greeted us with over a half a foot of snow and zero visibility. Once again we were forced to wait for an opening to hike. When we saw our chance we descended to lower ground to determine our best route to Steamboat Springs. Unfortunately, our safest and warmest route was to leave the divide and follow a country road to town. The road walking was not as bad as we had anticipated. The views were still amazing and there was hardly any traffic on the road. The temperatures at night were around 20F and the daytime temps only in the high 30s. We were very happy to descend in elevation. We finally made it across the WY/CO state line, making our halfway point official and giving us only two more states to hike! From the state line we continued towards Steamboat and were lucky enough to find a beautiful secret spot to camp. Thanks J+K for everything. The last bit of our journey into town took us by the Strawberry Hot Springs where we were able to soak the aches and dirt away. We walked into town the next day after sharing a camp the night before with a wonderful guy from NZ who was biking the Great Divide trail. Good luck Jeremy. Our arrival in Steamboat was great we were able to get a shower, some good grub, and meet some awesome locals like Corey who helped us find the gear we needed. Now the sun is out where we can see it, so it's off to Grand Lake and more adventure.

South Pass City, WY to Rawlins, WY

Well, to make a long story short, this section sucked. Well, not entirely, but it is really hard to come out of the most beautiful mountains you have ever seen with water abound, and walk into a desert. The land was beautiful, but we walked on sandy jeep roads primarily. The highlights of our day included spotting antelope and wild horses. We were actually approached by one stallion who troted back and forth in front of us. He didn't take his eyes off us until we were out of sight. The sunsets were beautiful. But, I would be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled to get to Rawlins and take a shower. Next we are off to Steamboat Springs, CO. That's right, this is the section that we meet our half way point! We can only hope, since we are not skiing in Colorado, that they have a indian summer and the snow stays away, just for the next 25 days or so. Wishful thinking, we know.

Togwotee Pass, WY to South Pass City, WY

On September 2, Brian and I headed out for the first couple of miles with my brother and mom. We said our goodbyes on a hill that looked out over the Wind River Range. Not five miles down the "trail" we ran into bushwhacking issues and trail that was MIA. We did finally make it to a forest service road that evening, thanks to our handy GPS. We were exhausted from carrying the weight of 9 days of food. The next morning we were greeted by a pack of five wolves that we had heard howling all night. They actually approached us! Good thing they turned around, because I'm not quite sure what we would have done if they had gotten any closer. We made our way south toward the ever impressive Winds. They looked like the Yosemite Valley as approached them from a distance. There is no way that description or pictures could do justice to the beauty of the Wind River Range. We highly suggest that you put this on your list of places to see. The passes were high (up to 11,500 feet), the mountains were jagged, and ALL bodies of water were filled with the most beautiful trout an angler could ever hope to lay eyes on. Brian and I can't wait to return. The hiking in this area was incredibly challenging due to the hairy terrain. We actually only traveled 13 miles one day because we had to climb over 3 11,000+ foot passes. But, it was all worth the amazing views. The Cirque of the Towers, a place we hope to return to rock climb at someday, was beyond words. As we left the mountains, the elevations dropped and we began to walk through arid sage land. And, before we we knew it we were in the flat desert! We saw antelope, wild horses, and horny toads throughout our travels; oh, and the ever elusive truck driving hunter. The wind NEVER stops blowing in Wyoming. The air was so dry, and the water sources were always 20-25 miles apart. The walking was the hardest we had encountered yet. We thought the snow was bad up North, but the sand of the desert makes for super slow hiking. Needless to say we still bumped our mileage from around 20/day to 25/day. We were so happy to get to South Pass City and pick up our resupply box! We, for the first time, were literally out of food by the time we got there. The hardest part was knowing that we still had five days to Rawlins. Which meant five more days without a shower.

Old Faithful, WY to Togwotee Pass

We hiked in 11 miles to Heart Lake with Dan and Sarah on a very warm day. We camped by a creek and had an amazing evening roasting hot dogs and marshmallows by campfire. In the morning we parted ways and Brian and I headed South. The terrain changes were subtle, but before we knew it we were back on the Divide at 10000 feet with stunning vistas of the Teton Mountain Range. We could also see ahead of us the spectacular mountains we would climb to in the coming weeks. At Togwotee Pass we met my mom and brother. We drove to Jackson and hung out, along with doing our other in-town "chores". We even got to play a round of golf! Now it's back to the trail where we head into one of the most remote sections, the Wind River Range. It will be our longest stretch between towns, nine days.

Macks Inn, ID to Old Faithful, WY

From Macks Inn we hiked out on the road, in the rain. We were fortunate enough to get a ride from a wonderful woman named Karen. She took us back to her cabin to wait out the rain. We had great conversation and were later joined by her husband, Dan. She then took us to the trailhead, after the rain had passed, and we headed towards Wyoming. The next day we made it to Yellowstone National Park. We didn't have mountain views, but the amazing geysers and hot springs were plenty to keep us interested. We walked to Old Faithful Village and were lucky enough to perfectly time the eruption of Old Faithful Geyser. The next morning we watched Lonestar Geyser erupt in the early morning fog. We then met our friends from Big Sky, MT, Dan and Sarah, to join us for a short jaunt in our next section, to Heart Lake.

Lima, MT to Macks Inn, ID

Unfortunately, our time in Lima with Brian's dad was too short. But, the visit with family was well needed and incredibly appreciated. From Lima we headed off into the Centennial Mountains. We were on heightened alert for bears because we had heard stories/read of the healthy population in this region. Much to our relief we managed to make it through without any sightings. The terrain was more gentle, as far as elevation changes go, but we had many horrible miles of bushwacking. We had warmer weather for this section, which of course corresponded with a lack of water sources. It is interesting to mention that we were traveling through the US Government's Sheep Experiment Station. Who knew we even had a sheep experiment site? The most important success of this section was that we finished hiking the state of Montana (finally!!), and only had two days left in Idaho. We made it to the Sawtelle Mountain Resort and waited out the weather for a day, it was well needed rest.