Lander, WY

The Winds

I’m in Lander, WY (headquarters of NOLS) right now after a week in the Wind River Range. We got quite a surprise hit with an August 30th snow up at 11,000 feet. We were still packing summer gear and suddenly it became near winter conditions. It made some of the cross country parts of the CDT a little trickier with a white-out and led to a cold night of sleeping on the snow, but sure was beautiful. Wyoming is amazing because it is so varied in terrain: we went over a snowy 11,000 foot pass in the morning and ended up in the toasty desert that afternoon. Incredible!

The next leg has 100-some miles or so through the Great Divide desert, but the good people at the Lander BLM office have shared maps with usletting us know where all the water is–and whether the local cattle have found it first. The desert will be a welcome break after our adventures in the snow and hopefully we won’t have to bear bag our food for the next couple of days.