[at-l] Resting in Rawlins

[Jim and/or Ginny Owen]

We're here for a couple of days, waiting for everything to open up again 
Monday morning.  Seems Rawlins still closes down for the weekend.  Given 
that it's in the mid-nineties today, that isn't a problem - though the Jade 
Motel isn't exactly the Ritz and we still haven't found anyplace to get 
breakfast beside the gas station.  Still the computer gaming center rents 
out internet computers too, so at least we have some access since the 
library isn't open on the weekend.

The last eight days have been good ones.  The Mt. Zirkel Wilderness is 
beautiful, especially right now with the flowers in full bloom.  I was 
surprised to still see so much snow on and near the trail.  Makes for nice 
wildflower displays and very hungry mosquitos.  We had planned a longer 
route through the Wilderness - Jim Wolf's guidebook challenge of walking the 
Divide north of Mt. Zirkel really appealed - but thunderstorms prevented 
that option.  Second choice was to hike Trail Creek Trail north - turns out 
that that one isn't marked/cairned any longer - and while you can't get 
really lost following the creek north, bushwhacking from meadow to meadow 
didn't really appeal, plus what happens when we run out of creek?  Rather 
than bushwhack the ten miles to the border, we very reluctantly followed the 
ATV trail that is the offiicial CDT.  We did enjoy the day and a half that 
we spent in the Wilderness area except for the several miles of burned 
forest near Seedhouse.  We followed the old route past Gold Lake, so had 
several extra miles along the Divide - gorgeous!  We got very used to 
following cairns across meadows - and fixing them too.

Wyoming greeted us with rain.  The Divide walking in the Medicine Bow is 
beautiful, but we probably didn't appreciate Bridger Peak as much as we 
would have without the thunderstorms that surrounded us.  They've built 
brand new trail up past the peak, so we had no choice about being high that 
afternoon, we just didn't linger.  The next several miles along the road 
were interesting as we were pelted by three separate storms.  The next day 
we had the mother of all thunderstorms, but it didn't hit until after we had 
gone to bed, so we were well off the ridge for that one.  Some of the 
lightning bolts were blinding, and we were very happy to be protected from 
the downpour.

Then we dropped into the desert and the rain went away.  There is a real 
beauty to the first few miles in the Great Basin, especially before you get 
on the BLM roads.  We saw an incredible amount of wildlife - 84 antelope the 
first afternoon, plus eagles, hawks, magpies, snakes, a horny toad and a big 
blue lizard.  The next day we saw 92 antelope, 6 mule deer and three elk.  
We had fun.

For southbound hikers, the water situation in the desert section before 
entering the Medicine Bow is feasible, but not great.  We got water at Hartt 
Creek, though had to search for a place deep enough to actually get the 
water (besides the beaver ponds down below).  Jim Creek wasn't usable.  
Truckdriver Creek had a puddle.  The other nearby creeks were dry.  N. Fork 
of Savery Creek was an oasis - bath and water for the night, all in one.  
The piped spring on the official route, mile 10 or so of Section 2 on the 
BLM road, was really good, better than expected from the guidebook 
description. Muddy Creek lived up to it's name, especially once we got north 
of the Wildlife Refuge.  Cows make the water unusable except right at the 
beginning.  Watch out for the big black bull guarding the bridge, he really 
doesn't like hikers, especially after chasing us, and his herd, for almost a 
mile.  The spring two miles south of Bridger Pass had a trickle of water 
coming from the pipe that was usable, but tasted pretty bad.  I don't know 
whether its the algae or the alkali, but Kool-Aid is a good idea to make it 
drinkable.  Still, we drank it for the next 26 miles and didn't get sick, so 
it's usable.  There is water in most of the stock pond reservoirs, but I 
wouldn't drink it unless I was really desperate.  Five Mile Spring was dry.  
We saw a stock tank near Bridger Pass that might have been solar powered - 
it had a white thing on top, but it was too far to see anything but the fact 
that it had cows nearby.

We haven't seen a good water report from any NOBO's lately and the BLM site 
hasn't been updated.  June was very dry; July less so - so what can we 
expect in the next 130 miles?  Especially, what about the spring 11 miles 
north of town?  Where is the solar well north of Bull Spring these days? 
How's the piped spring near Crooks Creek?  Last time, most of the listed 
water sources had water - how is it this year?  Since the southbounders will 
be reaching the desert soon, I'm sure we're not alone in wanting some 
current information.  I'm hoping we'll meet some of the early southbounders 
sometime in the next couple of weeks.  We've been told by several people 
lately that it's fairly obvious that we're thruhikers - must be the smell?  
So if you see two dirty hikers, heading across the desert - stop and say hi. 
  We haven't seen another long distance hiker in a long time, we'd enjoy the 
chance to exchange stories.

Walk softly,

Ginny and JIm






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