8-6-06
Start: Redstone, CO
Destination: FT 1950, White River NF, CO
Elevation: 9800 ft.
Miles: 19.7
Weather: No rain! Partly Cloudy
It took me all morning to get back into the backpacking thing. I think I was mostly nervous about hiking in the Crocs. But as it turns out, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I fell twice and turned my ankle a few times, but no injuries. Mom fell once and tripped up a couple of times, but also no injuries. So they aren't the best to hike in, but it's better than nothing!
We did a lot of ups and downs today, and our terrain is changing. It's a lot drier where we are. Lots of sagebrush, brown grass, and droopy Aspen trees. I was happy that we didn't get any rain today, but hopefully it'll pour down right after we're ahead a bit. It could use it!
We hiked in and out of a few cow pastures today, and we were planning on camping around 6:00 pm. 5:45 rolled around and we came to a closed gate. We went through and relocked it. Then we heard cows. Lots of cows. Then we saw cows. Lots of cows. Then we saw cowpiles. Lots of cowpiles. And they were fresh. The cows were right on our foot trail, and they pretty much ran away as we hooted and clanked our sticks together. I felt bad because we were sort of chasing them out of our way. Then... you wanna know what really gets Patty and Robin moving along quickly? Have a HUGE BULL start to follow us! All the other cows were running away. Then this big, black bull starts on the trail behind us, towards us! We hauled butt. We ended up not camping at 6:00 with about 17 miles. Instead, we hiked until 7:00 with almost 20! So we can thank the cows for that mileage after a few days off in support-less shoes! Yeesh!
So we hiked hard hoping to come to the next locked fence. No luck. Finally at 7:00 we decided to cross the stream, set up camp and hope the cows stay away. And just now, a little after 8, I'm hearing them moo off in the distance, so the dumb things are headed our way again. I sure hope they don't bother us.
And I forgot to mention that we stepped in way too many fresh cowpiles. I had my eyes fixed on the herd of cows ahead, and kept stepping in them. Talk about stink! And not only that, remember we're in our Crocs - they have holes in them. YUK! So I first washed my shoes, feet and legs when we got to camp.
Praying for a cow-less night!
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