Homecoming

Early in the morning of our last full day in Wyoming, we finally walked back into a small, but dense patch of forest. Birds flitted around the branches above us, flowers still lingered below, and the trail was soft and lightly spongy under our sore feet. We paused to breathe in the damp air of that deep, shady, green place.

All morning, we wove up and down gently rolling hills, mostly still covered in scraggly sagebrush, but every so often plunging into pines, spruces, or airy aspen stands. As we climbed slowly higher, the air behind us grew thick and smoky, but this time, we were walking away from it. For the first time in weeks, another hiker caught up to us and walked with us for half a day or so. Du Jour had been just behind us since the Tetons, he told us. He'd been caught up in the chaos of the Dollar Lake Fire too and had also gotten wind, rain, and hail in the Wind Rivers. The miles sped by as we chatted about anything and everything, happy to have a friend to walk with for a while.

Midday, we crossed a highway where Du Jour left us to head into Saratoga for the night. We carried on into the Huston Park Wilderness where — while we sat eating a late lunch by a clear, rushing creek — two other hikers passed by. A crowd! We rejoiced in the quiet, cow-free beauty of the wilderness, camping in a stand of tall trees on the edge of a huge open meadow that was starting to look just a bit like Colorado.

The next morning, we finally climbed back up into the alpine for the first time in a week. The steep, rocky trail was punishing after so many flat miles, but we both were overwhelmed with joy to be back in the mountains again. It turns out, we do still love to hike!

That afternoon, we hit our 1500 mile marker, where we drew the number in the dirt, and held a little celebration (pretty much a high five and some extra gummy bears). We made it halfway from Canada to Mexico!! (You might be thinking: "They only JUST made it HALF of the way?!" We were thinking: "We're going to do that AGAIN?!").

Shortly after our halfway point, we met up with Frito and walked with him for while as we approached our second big milestone of the day: the Colorado border! Two license plates and little rock signs designated the state line on the trail. We sat for a moment to eat lunch and celebrate returning home.

Our home state is a rugged one and the CDT doesn't shy away from high elevation or to the exposed, rocky terrain. After some trail rutted from dirt bike tires and a stretch of ATV track crowded with bow hunters, we reached the Wilderness and the base of our first massive climb from 8,000ft to 11,800ft over the course of around 10 miles. The trail was beautiful, switch backing up a rocky ridge with peekaboo views out to 13k foot peaks and rich, green valleys where the willows were beginning to turn their autumn ochre. Up, up, up we went; it felt so good to have a goal, to stay focused on moving upward, knowing we needed to get up and over before nightfall.

We met a deer hunter, packing out the last of his gear. It was his third trip up the drainage after packing out all of the meat, which would feed him and his family for months to come. We have learned a lot about hunters out here, chatting with the folks we meet, exchanging questions about our very different sports. We see the hunters at all hours, in places few other hikers ever reach. Seeing the destruction wreaked by cattle across the northern states, there's a certain appeal to their quest. After all, there's unlikely to be a more sustainable meat than deer you've hunted on foot and processed in your own garage (like our friend with the deer was planning to do).

Then we made it to the final push. Some clouds threatened behind us, but as we crested the top of Lost Ranger Peak, the sky was clear and the views were jaw-dropping. All around gorgeous alpine lakes and forests studded stark rocky peaks, but our eyes were focused on the eastern horizon where, way off in the distance, we got our first glimpse of Longs Peak from the CDT. Longs Peak is a 14,255ft peak in Rocky Mountain National Park that we've both climbed multiple times. More than that though, it represents our home terrain, a peak we've seen from the east side hundreds of times. We're really here!!