CDT: Bail Out to Pinedale

This section from Jackson was supposed to connect us back to the CDT via the Gros Ventre Wilderness, ending up in the long anticipated Wind River Range. Instead, we bail out to Pinedale as a storm is soaking us through.

We took five days of food for this section to Pinedale. Our backpacks are already so heavy from that (hiker hunger really kicked in), that we can’t imagine adding four more days to make it all the way to Lander without having to get off trail in between. Especially as it’s an additional 20 miles of hiking to get in and out of Pinedale. My phone’s battery has been awful since the repaired screen and I don’t think I can make it for nine days, despite having two 10,000 mAh Powerbanks. So, Pinedale it is. But soon after, we would change our plans once more. Still ending up in Pinedale, but cutting it short.

Jackson, Wyoming

CDT Day 57 — Easy Day Out of Jackson

We’re taking the bus back to Jackson, where we walk around. Jackson is a cool little town, but crowded with tourists. We’re running errands, trying to find new shoes unsuccessfully as my current ones are quite blown out.

We have a pretty good burger, pack out a sandwich and finally get out of town around 4 pm. We take the bus towards the western end of Jackson and walk from here towards the Cache Creek trailhead. A truck stops and asks if we want a ride, and we take it. It’s only a mile up the road. We’re sitting on the tailgate of the truck, our feet are dangling over. It’s a little scary, but he drives nice and slow.

Hitching on a tailgate of a truck

I was thinking of buying gloves as we sent ours away weeks ago and the mornings are pretty chilly now, but they’re all pretty expensive in town. When we get to the trailhead, a pair of lost gloves is sitting right there, looking like biking gloves. The trail provides!! 

We hike along the dense vegetation of Cache Creek. It’s difficult to find flat campsites here. After 5 miles, we turn on the Granite Creek Trail that leads us uphill, where we finally find a flat-ish spot in between the high grass. Not the greatest campsite, but we would rather not end up hiking in the dark in case nothing better shows up. We enjoy a beautiful sunset and our packed out sandwiches, that are pretty good. 

Enjoying a packed out sandwich

CDT Day 58 — Change of Plans: A Wet Hitch into Pinedale

It’s quite rainy today, dark clouds are hovering above our heads. We start the day with a decent climb, some cool mountains towering around us, and the sun comes out. When we reach the top it gets cold pretty fast, and it rains for a bit here and there while we’re making our way through an overgrown trail, the bushes making our legs and feet wet. While having our lunch break we see some blue skies shimmering through that makes us hopeful. 

The day starts out nicely

We meet a few pack strings on our way after lunch, most of them chill except one. The horses are quite skittish, and although we make sure we stand where the horsemen want us, the horses get scared and start chaos by running next to each other on the narrow trail with a drop on one side. But the rider gets the horses back under control fast after they pass us. Ryan says, “You got me nervous for a second there” and the horsemen replies, laughing, “I was nervous too!”. 

Pack Strings on the way to Granite Creek Hot Springs

1.5 hours later, it starts raining cats and dogs and while we’re seeking shelter under a tree, thunder starts cracking loudly. We only have 2 miles to the hot springs left, we almost made it. Now we’re sitting under the tree, waiting it out. It’s getting cold fast, but at least we stay dry and there are delicious raspberries growing all around us. We’re taking a little nap under your tree until the rain stops.

Another way to stay warm while hiding from the rain 

Then, we hike the last 2 miles to the hot springs. The dusty, sandy trail turned into a mudslide.

At the Granite Hot Springs, we decide to hitch out to the highway, and then to Pinedale. The hiking since Jackson becomes kind of pointless with that decision. But I didn’t know that there was another road from Pinedale we can try hitching to, to end up exactly where we want to be to do the Knapsack Col Alternate in the Winds. I thought there would be only that road to the Elkhart Trailhead that most hikers take to get to Pinedale, that would join the CDT right after this alternate that we got recommended first thing by Easydoesit in East Glacier. 

Granite Creek Hot Springs

That way we can save three days of hiking through a not very spectacular landscape. As we’re not very keen on the cross-country high route here with the unstable weather, it would be mainly road walking back to the CDT. We don’t care much about connecting footsteps and mileage wise, we’ve already covered the distance we would have hiked on the CDT by going through the Grand Tetons. We are okay with that.

Sounds like a good idea. But as soon as we start hitching on the dirt road, it starts raining again. We put our rain jackets on, thinking the rain wouldn’t last very long. Oh boy, were we wrong. We didn’t know that this storm was just warming up. A truck stops for us, offering us a ride in the back. We gladly take it, but it means no shelter from the rain. It’s the longest 10-mile hitch of mile life. The rain doesn’t stop, only gets stronger, and the rough dirt road is not built for speed. So, we get soaked. 

Getting soaked in the back of a truck

We get dropped off by the highway where we stand like drowned rats to get a hitch to Pinedale, still standing in the rain that doesn’t want to stop. But no one stops for us. Doesn’t anybody have a heart? Well, I wouldn’t be too keen to pick up very wet hikers either, I guess. But after a while, Steve stops, he actually lives right here, on the hillside. Yet, he offers to take us all the way to Pinedale which is a 50-minute drive. We tell him that we would be happy if he could just drop us off at a gas station where we would try to find another hitch and get out of the rain. But he insists that he has nowhere to be and that he’s happy to drive us. Alright. He asks us to walk up to his house while he’s making some room in his truck. What an awesome guy. 

He takes us all the way to Pinedale while Ryan is talking to him the whole time. It’s still raining like crazy. It’s gotten so cold, it doesn’t feel like August at all anymore. From the heat to the cold rain in no time, hello Wyoming. Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out lodging for tonight, as we would rather not camp in the rain. We definitely need a place to dry our gear.

When we arrive in Pinedale we try the Jackalope Motor Lodge that has a bunk room for CDT hikers and score the last two bunk beds for tonight. Perfect. A lot of other hikers are here, seeking shelter from the storm, and we know some of them from passing on the trail. 

We take a nice hot shower and get into dry clothes — except the still wet shoes, town shoes really don’t sound so ridiculous anymore. Then, we walk over to the Chinese restaurant which certainly has a lot of bang for your buck. We can still eat from this tomorrow. Pinedale is a great town, beloved by CDT hikers, and we can see why. I like it much better than Jackson. It has more affordable accommodation and restaurants, and it seems very hiker-friendly.

The weather is going to stay quite unstable for the next few days, so we don’t know what to do yet. The Wind River Range is supposed to be the most stunning section of the CDT. As it’s in a high altitude, it’s pretty exposed, and we definitely don’t want to get into a thunderstorm up there. And of course, we want all the views. Future problems, for today we just hit the pillows.