Steamboat Springs, CO

Lizard friend on the roadwalk out of Rawlins

I’m in Steamboat Springs, CO! From Lander, we walked through the 120 mile long Great Divide Basin desert with maybe 6 good watersources all the way through. Wildhorses wandered through the sagebrush unfettered by the ever present wind. The trail travels close to some oil rigs and mineral exploration, giving the hiker a taste for how some land is chosen to be used in Wyoming. With the persistent wind, it is susprising there aren’t any windmills out there. We walked right into Rawlins, WY, where I randomly ran into a friend from school (he saw people with backpacks walking along the road, noticed the road crossed the Continental Divide, and had to turn around just to see if it was me). Coming out of Encampment, WY, we had several inches of snow making route finding a bit trickier. The snow melted off and it became a nice enough day that we ran into some hunters shooting grouse right across the trail. Must be time to pick up some orange clothing! We hit the Colorado border that night and entered the Mt. Zirkel Wilderness. It’s very pretty here but so many ups and downs. People in Steamboat Springs know a lot about the CDT as compared to in WY, so people have been quite friendly to us. Onwards through CO before the big snows hit…