Day 22 – 9/15/19

31 miles/ 453.1 total

On paper, today probably should’ve been the easiest day so far. But the ODT always has something to slow you down. It got windy last night and my tent was set up 180deg in the wrong direction for it, so it flapped the wind blew in my face all night. And my sleeping bag is too warm to hide in, so I sweated a lot too.

Though tired, the morning was easy walking to the Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge headquarters with its 24/7 flush toilet access. Sadly I couldn’t quite make it there and had to dig a hole anyway.

Onto the hot springs! It started to get windy as I 10×10’d into the hot springs (10 miles by 10am). There were probably a dozen other parties camping by the hot springs, but thankfully not many soaking. I stayed about half an hour, but it felt much shorter, and I could’ve fallen asleep in the pool. But this is thru hiking, so miles over smiles dammit!

After the hot springs the road got more primitive and the wind really picked up. I had wanted to tag Warner Peak, just off the ODT, but there was not a good concise route coming from the north, and I just didn’t have the energy to do 6+miles of steep cross country in this wind. I also justified to myself that it would be nice to come back with Dan to the hot springs and do the climb as a day hike.

On the climb I also looked back and noticed a small plums of smoke to the north, back towards where I’d camped last night. As the day went on, I could see the smoke cloud blow up in size. Glad I’m heading away and upwind from it.

After cresting the pass, the jeep road followed Guano creek through a bunch of aspen and juniper. Not the most appealing name, but the water tasted fine. There was even a nice stand of ponderosas (I think) with a no camping sign.

Then I turned on to a closed road and it went to shit. I might as well have been walking cross country for several miles. If some a-holes hadn’t recently driven this closed route, smashing down the meadow vegetation, there’d have been nothing to follow at all for miles. Regardless, there was no nice surface to walk on, just lumpy uneven ground, all with the damn wind slapping lots of large insects into my face.

The road actually turned into a road again once I left the Refuge boundary, and I should’ve been happy to cruise along til dark. But I was tired, and once I hit 30 miles for the day, motivation quickly dwindled. I found myself in a fairly windless spot and called it a day at 6:30.

Tomorrow is town day!