Date: 2014-04-24
From: Lost Mountain Shelter

To: Bland
Miles today: 104.2
Weather: clear sky

Day 43: Thursday, 24 April 2014 Lost Mountain Shelter (494.9) to about Chestnut Knob Shelter (565.2)The Mum, here. Sorry it's not Buffalo directly, for all you "Buffalo Groupies!"I talked with Buffalo today. His battery was low (his cell phone battery!) and we cut out three times. He did say that he got the box at Troutdale (it had lots of chocolate, thinking he'd be there closer to Easter!). And he hiked up Mt Rogers, Virginia's High Point that is between Damascus and Troutdale. I figured he would. It looked like it was pretty close to the trail.I don't know exactly where he was when we talked but doing some mileage calculations, I'm figuring around Chestnut Knob Shelter. That's about 20 miles before Bland and he hadn't gotten to Bland as yet. He may not make it to the point at which we are planing to meet him in a week, but by car - anything's possible! (He might still have to walk 50 miles, but we can get him for that distance.)So, Marty and I are on our cross-country road trip. It's cetainly NOT ultra-light traveling: 2 coolers, 3 small packs with clothes, bedding and pillows, 2 dogs and their accutrements, you get the picture! But, I DID learn something from the trail - lunches for on-the-go. Buffalo and I had peanut butter and jelly or dried fruit wraps. I introduced Marty to that idea. It's a hit! We used to do bagels and cream cheese, but the wraps are yummier, I think.We left Olympia Tuesday late afternoon to get as far as Cascade Locks, OR., allowing us to go a bit further on our next day's drive, which was to Twin Falls, ID. We then made it to Rawlins, WY today (Thursday), and we'll get into Denver tomorrow for a wedding on Saturday!The ride today was rather breathtaking. Beautiful area between Twin Falls, ID and Evanston, Wyoming. The landscape started out rather flat, but mountains rose up in the distance. New snow was on mountains tops all around us. Within a half hour's drive, at one point, we went through about three different rock types! Gorgeous scenery! We skimmed the Great Salt Lake just north of Ogden, UT. It looked like a county or state park so we may try to stop there on the way back. Farm and ranch land lined the base of the mountains, giving an epic backdrop to the homes. I thought of Buffalo living there and traversing those mountains in his "free" time!Through Idaho and much of Utah that we travelled, the speed limit was 70-75mph. But we covered serious mileage "auto-hiking" in Wyoming at 80mph! Told Marty that at that speed, he cannot look around! He commented seeing a plaque at a friend's house a long time ago that read, "You can drive at 40; you AIM at 80!" In Wyoming, we also hit easterly wind gusts of 35-50 mph (tail wind, for us). I'd like to check our gas mileage for THAT stretch of the trip! Our little digital reader said about 31.8mph!We went across BOTH Continental Divides! Oh, you didn't KNOW there were two Continental Divides? Neither did I until I saw it on the map. The Continental Divide comes up from Colorado, into Wyoming, then splits just south of I-80 and crosses I-80 between Rock Springs (just east of a place called Table Rock, and west of Rawlins. There's an area of land that Marty called the "Hydrologic No-Mans Zone". This area does not drain east or west, OR north or south, for that matter! Water that falls in this area, stays in this area. Of course it seeps into the ground, or evaporates, but it doesn't "drain" by any major river/drainage system. I always expect to "see" something amazing for areas like this, maybe like a huge "bathtub" that has a plugged drain. I asked Marty (a hydrology engineer) that if this area gets a lot of snow and rain, will it "fill up"? Bless his heart that he didn't just laugh at me, but I sort of meant it facetiously! But on the other hand, that's how I'd picture this area if I hadn't seen it! The "two" Continental Divides do come back together further north, south of 287 and southeast of state route 28, giving it that "bathtub"-like quality! The area is called the Great Divide Basin. My question for Continental Divide Trail Thru-Hiking Purists: Which trail do you follow!?We got to Rawlins and easily found the Best Western Hotel. It's the brand new, huge, structure across the street from the Ghost Town! We weren't even sure the hotel was open since there were only about 5 cars around! I even mentioned to the folks at the front desk at the hotel that it was a little weird to see the vacant buildings across the street and not a whole lot of activity here at the hotel! They said that there's talk of a huge wind farm going in, but until that happens, the town doesn't want to do any upgrades. Good luck with the wind farm because this is a huge oil/natural gas area.We did go into town for dinner. The hotel people told us about a Thai restaurant,which we found. A nice little jewel in town! There was more to the town than we originally saw! Looked like an interesting little town but there were a lot of vacant buildings, unfortunately!On to Denver tomorrow, staying with my cousin and his wife, and going to a wedding on Saturday.Signing off!   ~ The Mum of.....