We made it to Lander!

Day 84

Date: 24.07.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 1'719.6

Miles hiked: 15 miles / 24 km

Elevation: 1'621 feet ascent (494.4 m Aufstieg) / 1'030 feet descent (Abstieg 314.1 m)

Camping at: Motel in Lander

We decided not to set an alarm clock this morning, as we got to camp fairly late last night and it is not that far anymore to town. I woke up for the second time at 6am, but I feel like a truck rolled over me. I had a bad night sleep, as my tent was not pitched on a super flat ground, so I slipped off my mattress all night. I took my time getting up, and we made it back on trail around 8am, including filtering enough water for this 15 miles stretch to South Pass City, a hot tripple coffee to get me going with an ibuprofen and taking care of my blisters (number has grown again since yesterday). It's cloudy which is nice and the best weather for hiking in the Basin. But I am slow starting, my feet are hurting a lot again. It's probably mental, cause I know that I only have to hike these 15 miles to town. All 5 miles I take a short break to take off my shoes and relax shortly, some mostly pain free time. It's actually a very nice, mellow hike and we see many pronghorn antelopes on this stretch. It's so flat here, that if there is a tiny little dip in the landscape, it looks like a huge downhill and back uphill from 0.5 miles away. Then you get closer and it is hardly a 3 feet dip! We can see the Wind River range coming so close, we can nearly touch them. And finally, finally we made it to South Pass City at lunch, together with Hadash and Sheron from Israel and 'Info' from the US. But it turns out that South Pass City is really small and the only road is a dirt road too. Not many cars here. Just when we had enough of waiting and decided to hike 2 more miles to the highway we get lucky and a car drives us to Lander. They actually don't have to go to Lander and are just taking us there, that's amazing again! I am so happy I don't have to put my shoes back on and hike 2 more miles! In Lander they dropped us off at the McDonald's and of course I couldn't resist! Also, they have good wifi in all McDonalds😁 which helps to book a hotel room. As my blisters are quite bad, I have decided to take a zero day here tomorrow and will try to keep my feet iced and elevated as much as possible, next to doing all the town errands (resupply, getting new big shoes, bear spray, hang kit, post office, etc.). The shower is wonderful and as I am too lazy to walk to the laundromat in town, I just hand wash all my clothes (which propably takes longer that going to the laundromat, but I have to walk less!) and enjoy an afternoon nap. Late in the evening Channy and I wen out for Thai food, but it turned out it is even worse than McDonald's. So we stopped by the Supermarket and got a huge jug of chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce😋 Good night!

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