Discover Top Posts Tagged with #the basin

the basin

#the basin #littleton new hampshire #new hampshire #new england autumn #new england #forrest #mountians #white mountains

The Great Basin

Directly after the high peaks of the Wind River Range, there is a lower elevation desert called the Basin. 3 miles into the Basin is a historical site called South Pass City. This was an old mining town that also hosted a local representative who helped to write the women’s suffrage amendment in Wyoming, making them the first state to allow women to vote. He had worked on the article with a woman in South Pass, Esther Hobart Morris, who later became the first female justice of the peace in the United States. It was interesting to walk through the old town and see the preserved buildings and photographs. There was also a noteworthy taxidermy of two bobcats fighting that was kept in the old saloon. After leaving South Pass City, we walked out into the barren landscape, and were delighted by the rising super moon on the horizon. In the Basin, we woke up before sunrise and hiked by moonlight until we got to see the sunrise. This allowed us to log long miles in the flat terrain. Other highlights of the Basin included the spring pipes for cow troughs from which we would collect water. Cold and clear, even in this desert! The cows were pretty cute too. Some of them were friendlier than others, and would approach the water trough while we were filling our bottles. We also saw wild ponies, pronghorns, and tiny horny toads. We were lucky to get strong wind while we were in the Basin, which kept us cool during the hot, sunny days with no trees around. At night, we would try to shelter from the wind by camping on the other side of the hill. We were able to sleep with just the bug netting of the tent, and not the rain fly, which allowed for beautiful views of the full moon. Our longest day was 34 miles. Midway through the Basin we stayed in an oil town and frequent highway stop called Rollins. The hotel rooms there were only $55 and quite clean, so we decided to take a “0“ there. That meant we took a full 24 hours off trail. We ate at the surprisingly good Thai restaurant in town, hit up the local watering hole, and watched the Harry Potter marathon on TV. Owen and I had the crazy idea to buy scooters from the local Walmart, because there was a 35 mile road walk alt to finish the Basin. So as an anniversary present to each other, we bought cheap scooters from Walmart. It was terrible trying to scooter uphill, so we would put our pack straps over the handlebar and push our packs up the hill. Then, when we got to a flat or downhill, we would put our packs back on and ride the scooters! One of the days that we were out on the road, we got caught in a very cold wind and rain storm. We were pushing our scooters uphill into the weather, and it was terrible! A man stopped to ask if we wanted a ride, and unfortunately we had to decline. But he did give us some clif bars. We also met a GDT biker named Jesse who was delighted by our scooter method. He was about 80 years old and spry as all hell! He took our picture, and told us that he is redefining brilliance as “taking advantage of the obvious”. On our scooters, we had leapfrogged with our friend No Chill, who was just walking. But, when we got to the trail again, we all walked together. It was amazing to be back in the woods and on a trail! While we were in that section, Owen and I had our celebratory anniversary dinner; we had packed out tortellinis, tomato paste, and a box of Merlot. It was special and fun. We walked out of the woods and got a ride down from the pass into the tiny town of Encampment. It took a long time to get a hitch, but eventually a guy pulled into the parking lot and obliged. He had a wood covered trailer hitched to his diesel truck, and we rode in the trailer cage. It was an interesting ride that smelled distinctly of diesel fumes.

There wasn’t a lot going on in Encampment. There was a tiny hiker box run out of ammo can attached to somebody’s fence. We also hit up an antique store, went to the visitor center, and went to a restaurant. That is where we got our cheapest non-fast food burger on trail. Everyone in Encampment was extremely nice! Three or four people offered to give us rides without us asking. We coordinated with one trail angel named Janice to give us a ride after we had resupplied. The options for buying groceries in Encampment were pretty dismal. We ended up buying all of our food for the next few days from a convenience store. We also rushed to the post office in order to forward some packages to the next town. Then Janice dropped us off back at the pass, and we were off!

#cdt #wyoming #The basin