Today I must have seen 15 horny toads of all sizes ranging all the way to the size of my palm.  I’ve always liked these fierce little ant-eating lizards.  If you let them they will stay in your hand.

I did 23 miles today.  It was hot (almost 90) and the trail had quite a few ups and downs.  Today there was a section several miles long where there were actual trees, so it was possible to escape the sun at least for a while. Insects have been minimal, just a few flies and they aren’t the biting type.

Around noon I was tired and needed water. The trail descended to Haypress Creek where there were a couple of really foul cow ponds. I decided to keep going in the hopes of getting water from the upstream spring. The was a barbed wire fence to keep the cows out of the spring area, so I hopped the fence and finally found a vertical culvert pipe sunk in the ground with a lid. Opening the lid revealed water about 4 feet down this narrow pipe. I couldn’t reach it, so I crawled head first into this narrow pipe. With my arms fully extended I could just reach the water and managed to fill half my bottle up. I had visions of getting stuck in there and with great effort and a little bit of panic managed to extract myself.

At this point I just couldn’t bring myself to continue hiking. I looked around and saw a rare large tree above the marsh. I hiked up there and after kicking all the cow poop away had a small spot just big enough for my tent which I set up. I slept a little and ate and drank. Eventually I noticed another SOBO hiker a quarter mile away on the trail. He was moving slow but steady along the trail. He walked past my marsh and kept going up the hill without ever looking my way. I just sat there staring at where he had been, feeling guilty for wasting time here. I packed up my tent and made my way back to the trail, and did exactly what he did – I slowly followed the trail up the hill. As usual I felt much better mentally after making some progress. The trail emerged on the top of the hill and a refreshing breeze was blowing. I was happy again and made good progress after this. It’s crazy how fast my emotional state can change from despair to happiness out here.

I’m camped tonight near Crooks Creek at a place named Bull Springs.  Jandals and Dixie raved about it, but I’m calling BS.  The spring was a mud puddle, and Jandal’s shade trees are surrounded by a muddy marsh. Maybe earlier in the year it was nicer or I never found the right spot. It was getting dark so I ended up finding a flat spot near the gravel road where the west fork of Crooks Creek crosses. This creek was small and full of floaties, but the water was moving and tasted good.

I saw one Sobo guy today from a distance.  That’s it.  I still have 57 miles to Rawlins so I’m thinking two 25 mile days and then the remainder for the morning of the 31st.