Lucy Ondo

I staged my car at South Pass City with permission and hired Mike (307) 321-2276 of Rawlins to pick me up in South Pass and take me to the trail. Mike works as a local taxi and also rescues CDT hikers from the basin.

First water after leaving the section along the highway. I didn’t require water here as I was still using the smart water I carried in. However, I stopped to try my new Knoc water gathering bladder. The Knoc worked well and I decided to stop for breakfast in the tall sage brush below the water source.

A curious pronghorn joined me for breakfast. The pronghorn are beautiful animals with grace, speed and agility. I mistook them for antelope but are actually not related to antelope.

It was nice to be out of the wind as my first night required putting up my tent in 60 mph winds.

The second day ended up being dreadfully cold. I hiked with my puffy on as well as my waterproof jacket along with gloves and still remained cold all day. Out of the wind it was warm. On the trail in full wind with nothing to stop the wind from the North my thermometer registered 35 degrees. I stopped early, before 4pm, when I came to a ravine with protection from the wind. Once I was inside the tent in was hot. Odd combination.

The third day it was windy but no longer cold. I was able to hike until dusk and had my first views of the wild horses of the basin. The horses primarily run in herds, some small herds and others with almost a 100 horses. It is an amazing site and thrilling to watch the horses gallop across the range with such freedom.

These two were by the water where I camped the third night and were the only horses who came close to me. Most all horses kept at a distance.

In the morning with I prepared to filter water, I discovered my filter had frozen while hiking on the second day. And yes, I sleep with my filter in my sleeping bag. And yes, I shake the water out after filtering. But I know when a filter freezes as I experience this coming off White Pass on the PCT when I got caught in a hail storm.

I now had about 8 ozs of water remaining to last until I reached the only water cache on this section, a new cache placed just after Bison road which was about 40+ miles ahead.

Unfortunately for me, the weather now entered a hot spell. I tried hiking early, stopping mid day for the temp to cool but the cool off didn’t start until after 7:30pm forcing me to hike in the heat with very limited water.

For some reason I was also unable to eat food. It just tasted too dry to digest.

By the time I reached Bison road I was having hallucinations. I was looking for the water cache when a truck drove by and the driver stopped to ask what I was doing out in the desert. I asked if he had water and he gave me two bottles of water and a 7up. He probably saved my life as this allowed me to hike on and about 1/4 mile down the trail was the water cache showing on the GPS with a “gate” icon. Best of all the cache had a small roof and sign which afforded a shade. I arrived at 9:00am in the morning and stayed in the shade until 3:00pm resting and drinking water.

While I was there the couple came to resupply the water. They kindly offered to give me a ride to Lander. As tempting as the offer was, I needed to finish the section. Also, while I was enjoying the shade, a Swiss couple thru hiking the CDT stopped for water. When they left, they offered to filter 2 small bottles of water and leave them on the trail for me about half way to South Pass.

I left the cache with 6 liters of water. As you can imagine that is way too much water weight. It was a struggle, however, it allowed me to be able to enjoy the rest of the trail.

Luckily the water (the amount I carried and the 2 left for me) lasted until South Pass City. I drank the very last drops hiking in. It was good to see my car and to drive into Lander for food, drinks and a new Sawyer water filter.