Day 81 – 7/12/13 – 30.1 mi (1404.2)

About 5 miles in this morning we came out of the hills and began our road walk. The Ley maps showed the road we came out on went all the way to our next town, Rawlins, as a straight shot. The official CDT meanders around dirt and gravel roads to get the the same place, but takes 57 miles to get there instead of 37. Personally, I don’t see the point of walking an extra 20 miles when it’s all just roads through the same landscape. If it was actual trail, or went by something special, I would take the trail.

Rockin and Silly Chili agreed with me, but LoveNote felt the official trail calling her. Stryder flipped a coin, seriously. He ended up on the alternate road, which is probably best. He got new shoes back in Steamboat and has been having terrible foot pain and blister problems since. The fewer miles he has to walk to Rawlins, where he can hopefully get new shoes, the better. We said goodbye to LoveNote and all got on our ways.

The drawbacks of the alternate roadwalk were that it was supposedly mostly paved, and the only drinkable water (much of the water that is here is highly alkaline and saline) mentioned was about 5 miles from where we started. So, we loaded up to capacity with water and planned to cut back to the official trail, where water was noted, about 20 miles later.

It was a mostly cloudy with a good breeze, so the heat wasn’t nearly as bad as it could’ve been. We even got briefly rained on during a passing thunderstorm. The road ended up being just packed gravel, not paved, the entire length we walked today. I’m assuming closer to town it turns to asphalt, but we lucked out for now.

Of course, when we got back to the “trail”, an unsigned cross country route, the water source indicated on the maps was dry as a bone. Thankfully, we all still had enough water to be able to dry camp. Based on how worthless this “trail” and water sources are, tomorrow we plan to just go back to the main road and hustle into town before the heat of the day.