Hitting my Stride

Greetings from Pinedale WY! This last section has been an absolute dream. Stunning alpine meadows. Abundant Wildlife. Vistas that take your breath away.

Since leaving the vortex of Big Sky and Yellowstone I’ve managed to turn back on the gas, and the longer days seem to have pulled me out of the funk I was settling into. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a little funky.

I think it’s safe to say I’ve hit the nobo bubble, passing now 20ish hikers a day. They all give me the same strange look, I clearly look like a thru-hiker, but they haven’t seen sobos yet. Reports are mixed, but many of them seem to believe I’m the first.

I know of two other Sobos near me, BoB and The Caffinator. We’re all hiking separately, but playing leapfrog, passing the baton back and forth. In the one instance that the three of us were walking together across a seemingly endless field, BoB remarked that together we probably looked like the Three Hunters of Isengard from The Lord of The Rings. Moving fast across the plains. I had silently had the same thought about a mile before. Weird how many nerds there are on trail, or how relatable grand adventures seem to become.

I honestly don’t have much to share here, but it’s my first zero in close to 800 miles so I felt compelled to write something. Yellowstone was the tourist hell I imagined it to be, and I missed the epic eruption by just two days. Bummer.

The first stretch of the winds have been incredible, even with the consistent cold rain. It may be the most beautiful place I’ve ever hiked, and I’m excited to get back into them.

I have low expectations for the Great Basin, but big plans. I hope to really put some miles down fast through that stretch and get myself into Colorado as quick as possible. The nobos talk about how hard it is, but what do they know. They’re nobos.