Welcome to Wyoming!

Day 75

Date: 15.07.2022

CDT Mile: Mile 1'519.7

Miles hiked: 26.3 miles / 42 km

Elevation: 4'984 feet ascent (1'520 m Aufstieg) / 4'560 feet descent (Abstieg 1'391 m)

Camping at: Grand Encampment Campground

The last couple of hours in Colorado were - wet! It thunderstormed including lightening during the night, then stopped and just started to rain again as we got up! Looking outside my lent, all is grey. It looks like it's gonna rain on us all day! As we have a big day ahead of us, we had to get up. And luckily by the time I left my tent, the rain stopped. Vista and Ducky hiked out before me, that's the first time on trail they started ahead of me. I left after 6am, a late start for me. But I know I will be faster and catch up and we want to be at the boarder together. I hike out together with Channy, a real fast hiker. And only a couple of miles in, we catch up with the girls. It was around 6 miles to the boarder and we made it there before 9 am, pretty good start to hike 6 miles in around 1.5 hours. The trail was mostly an ATV trail, with steep but short ups and downs, like a roller coaster. Finally reaching the boarder, I was full of emotions. I didn't expect that at all. But Colorado was kicking all of our buds and even if it was beautiful, we are all happy to leave this state behind us! This also marks that half way point of the CDT. We break and celebrate our achievement before we hike into Wyoming. And checking the map, we see that the first section of Wyoming is not that different from Colorado. Still a lot of very steep ups and downs. However, that should not last long, as we shall soon hike the Great Divide Basin, a very dry, hot and flat section.

On our way to our lunch spot, we run into 'the family'. I have seen some posts of them on social media. It is a family hiking the CDT with their 5 kids, the youngest one just turned one year old a couple of days ago! We chatted for a while before we moved on. It go really hot and humid out, my skin was covered in moist and sweat. After lunch we had some more steep claims to master and it also started to rain and thunder. Not different than Colorado at all yet. But the landscape changed lately. Away from rocky mountains into lower elevation (still between 2'600 and 3'300 meters high) and foresty mountains. Due to the snowmelt and the rain, the trail often was very muddy or just a little stream. No way to keep your shoes dry. Channy and I were booking it though. I felt like a machine today! No chance for the girls or the other two hiker guys to keep up with us. It felt great! And we were super lucky. Just a mile off the Battle Pass, from where we hitch into town, we run into another hiker, having parked his car there. Battle Pass is a hard hitch, as there are not many cars driving by. We got into town by 6pm, hiked more than 26 miles and climbed over 5'000 feet, I am ready for the desert and hiking big miles I think!

Reaching the campground in Encampment I run into Bex, and Swisschris. I thought SwissChris is far ahead, as I did a double zero in Grand Lakes and a Zero in Steamboat. But he has hips issues and had to slow down in miles, plus is taking a zero day here. Also, I run into Ashay and Sheron, both I have met last time in Salida! Bex informs me that Boss apparently has left trail! What? I don't understand the world anymore! We just met in Steamboat three days ago, had a great dinner together and planned to met up in Encampment today and hike out together tomorrow again. What on earth is going on?! Boss didn't text or called me, he just left and is flying home on Sunday already. I am quite disappointed by this. We have hiked together since the early San Juan's, at least he could have informed me about his decision. Many hikers have quit trail lately, but I never thought Boss would be one of them!

Anyway, Bex, Swisschris, channy and I go out for dinner and a drink to celebrate our half way of the CDT! Let's set what the other half of the CDT will bring us!

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