It was sad to leave our hotel room in Rawlins, I’m not gonna lie. While I love camping, you really can’t beat a real bed, shower, toilet, etc.
Ed dropped me off at the trail’s intersection with Hwy. 287, then drove to Oil Road to Mines and began hiking in to meet me.
The first part of the trail was a joke. There was NO indication where to leave the short gravel road onto a cattle field, so I bushwhacked, per the FarOut app. I thought I was following both the FarOut and Gaia apps – they both indicated I was on the trail – but suddenly I wasn’t.
I could see Ed far below, hiking in toward me, but I was way up high, definitely off the trail. I was able to hike down toward him and pick up the trail, but this was ridiculous. There wasn’t a single marker in these first few miles, and the apps didn’t work. Argh!
Heading Up the Jeep Road
The apps said that from the Oil Road to Mines we could drive several miles on a Jeep road. Great, because we rented a Jeep! With almost no cell service or wifi here, we wanted to stick together as much as possible.
The Jeep road started out very smoothly, but then devolved into lots of rocks, ravines and 
steep hills. We’re not that experienced with Jeeps, so at some point Ed declined to drive further.
At that point we did an out-and-back on the trail, eventually setting up camp in a dry ravine.
We had some rain during the day, and I got rather wet, but then quickly dried out.
Snowshoe
Today’s Miles: 17.5 (28.2 km)
CDT Miles to Date: 1,214 (1,953.7 km)
CDT Miles to Go: 1,886(3,035.2 km)
