September 12th, 2009

 

14 Miles

Two weeks from today and I will be in the valley!

Today I had to follow the dirt trail by myself for about 3 miles but ran into a problem when the trail entered the private property of a mine and so I had to go cross country through the sage and brush and then ran into a 25 foot gulley that was a real pain to figure out on how to get into and then back out of by myself.  Thirty minutes later and I was going cross country again.  All in all, it took me about an extra two hours to circumvent this mine before I could get back on the trail.

Now you have to visualize where I am walking, absolutely in the middle of nowhere WY and was walking a dirt road next to the trail and this car pulls up next to me

and one of the two women in the car asks me if I am that guy who is walking across America and pulling this cart for his sister or something, and I responded, for my grandmother.  She says ya, your that guy I saw on television.  Long story short, somehow she had seen me on television and was just thrilled to be able to meet me and get a photo with me.  Come to find out that these two women are part of a team that goes out into these mining sump ponds and rescues wild birds, takes them back to Rock Springs, cleans them up and sends them back on their migratory way and they had some beautiful birds.  One was an Egret, I think, and it’s eyes were red and so I got a photo with this great bird.  Isn’t it interesting the people that I meet out in the middle of nowhere WY… great ladies though.