CDT Day 74 — September 7
Zero day in Rawlins, WY
Econolodge all day
Miles hiked: 0
Total miles: still 1297
Just your boring, run of the mill zero day in Rawlins. This was not part of the plan, but I felt pretty crappy for most of the day and really didn’t want to do any hiking. I feel like a bum for losing half a day by being careless, but extra rest isn’t a bad thing. That’s the silver lining I’m taking away.
I woke up with a headache. Suspicious that I was dehydrated, I drank a bunch of water. I had slept alright, but the room was hot hot hot with four hikers breathing and farting, so I was feeling dry. My condition deteriorated further at breakfast, adding light nausea to my symptoms. I promise that I wasn’t hungover. I don’t mix alcohol with the trail after some one beer hangovers on the PCT. My body just can’t handle booze anymore so I steer clear. This was hydration mismanagement, straight up. A silly thing with water literally available in every room. Oh well.
SpiceRack fed me Gatorade and I hung out in our room. She made it to the post office again to ship home some stuff including my bear gear, spray, bell, and Ursack. A couple pounds off my back. All those miles in grizzly country, and we didn’t see one. That’s just fine by me.
By 1pm, I still didn’t feel up to hiking and made the call to reception to book another night. The Basin might be behind us now, but southern Wyoming still has plenty of desert and long dry stretches. Starting out dehydrated seemed like a bad idea to me.
The others all came over to eat pizza and hang out until it cooled off outside. By 5pm, they were gone to start the long roadwalk out of town, leaving Spice and me to ourselves, surrounded by a tremendous amount of garbage and empty pizza boxes. We ordered some pizza of our own and watched a movie.
By the end, I was feeling nearly recovered and ready to go. However, with a room booked for the night, that wasn’t going to happen. An early night to get adequate rest before and early start tomorrow to try and beat the heat and not let our friends get too far ahead. Restless and ready to go. Time to get outside again.
Hike For Days 