Longstride

Since yesterday was not even slightly relaxing, I decided I needed another day off.

Welcome to Pinedale — All the Civilization You Need!

• Already inclined last night to be lazy today, I slept in this morning.
• Then I found that it was raining, and some of my clothes were still out on the clothes line “drying”. That put the kibosh on leaving anytime in the early morning. I went back to sleep.
• On my way to breakfast, I stopped by the Bridger-Teton National Forest Ranger Station in Pinedale, conveniently located near the Jackalope, to ask about the trail I was considering taking back to the CDT. I learned that a portion of the trail was an absolute mess — dangerous even — being very steep with fallen trees and rocks. It was damaged in the same windstorm two years ago that had caused the fallen trees on the Pole Creek Trail. This meant I had to go back up via the Pole Creek and Seneca Lake Trails.
• Given the nature of the top of Knapsack Col (a four-mile-long boulder field), I decided I am probably not going to take that alternate. With the load lifters on my pack not working properly, it is a bit unbalanced and has a tendency to move around more than it should, which is bad in an area where I’d really need to keep my balance.
• I repacked my food, and sent it off in a box to Brooks Lake Lodge.
• I was surprised to find Stumblebee and the rest of the group still in town; they were leaving Dave’s Last Stand, a burger and ice cream shack with only outdoor seating, as I went there for dinner.
• I returned to Jackalope when it started to rain. Lightning flashed in the distance.

Tomorrow: I’ll return to the trail “early”, hopefully, and continue heading north.