Longstride

Today was a busy day of chores in Pinedale, Wyoming.

Welcome to Pinedale — All the Civilization You Need!

• I slept in until about 8:30. It was some much-needed extra rest.
• My first stop of the day was the Heart & Soul Café for breakfast. I got pancakes; they were meh.
• I went to The Great Outdoor Shop to try and pick up some new gear. I got a replacement bite valve for my Camelbak, since the old one was slowly leaking. (This was an annoyance in the Basin when water was limited.) I got a can of bear spray, a fuel canister, and sunblock. I was unable to get new trekking pole tips (they were sold out), or new boots (they didn’t have the size I wanted).
• I called Gregory Packs to inquire about a warranty replacement for my pack. After sending them pictures of the broken load lifters, they were very happy to send me a replacement, which I’m arranging to have sent to the Brooks Lake Lodge, about 85 miles up the trail. (I’ll also send a resupply box there.)
• Receiving a message from Stumblebee, I returned to the Heart & Soul Café; Fuck-It and Pecorino had gone to the dollar store in town, which was liquidating its contents, and had gotten me balloons and a fragrant body spray for my birthday.
• The rest of the group had decided to split an Air B&B in town; I followed them back there to hang out for a short while. I talked with Trainwreck, who was able to give me some information on the Super Butte Alternate (aka Big Sky Cutoff), which I’m almost certainly taking; otherwise, at this point, I’ll never reach Canada before bad weather sets in in Glacier. In the spirit of the CDT, this alternate has dozens of possible routes.
• Back at the Jackalope, while I was working out the logistics of Super Butte, a couple showed up to drop off some stuff for the hiker box. They were hiking the Appalachian Trail, and got off trail temporarily due to injury. I arranged with them a possible ride back to the trail tomorrow morning.
• While investigating the many possible routes of Super Butte, I found a possible 13-mile alternate route back to the CDT from the Elkhart trailhead that would mean I wouldn’t have to rehike the ten miles back up the Pole Creek and Seneca Lake trail, and put me about ten miles ahead on the CDT, but at the cost of completely skipping Knapsack Col. Knapsack Col was described to me yesterday as if “Desolation [Wilderness] and SEKI [Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Forests; bothj on the Pacific Crest Trail] had a love child” — in other words, absolutely beautiful.
• I chatted with Spice Rack, a SOBO, about the Super Butte. He and his hiking partner had done a more adventurous variant that I’m not likely to take, but I still got some useful info.
• As a result, I suspect I’m going to follow the CDT to West Yellowstone, MT, and then cut up to Butte, MT via the Super Butte, rather than starting the alternate at its earliest departure point at Two Ocean Pass, north of Dubois.
• I went to Wind River Brewing Company for dinner.
• Remembering that I still had laundry to do, I returned to the Jackalope and threw my dirty clothes into the washer.
• After my clothes finished and I pinned them up on the clothes line, I went to the Riley’s to do my resupply. I got enough food for Pinedale to Brooks Lake, and then Brooks Lake to Old Faithful Village in Yellowstone (both stretches roughly about 90 miles). Now late, I’ll repack my food and send the box tomorrow morning.