Day 79 – 9/21 – Tipperary Corner to Jerome, ID – 24 miles
If yesterday was in the running for the most boring day of the trip, today is on the shortlist for the best. That has nothing to do with the first third or the last third, both of which were fairly mundane road walking through close-cropped wheat fields, with a surprising amount of traffic whipping past […]
Day 78 – 9/20 – Burley to Tipperary Corner, ID – 31 miles
Most days, I get at least one offer of a ride. Perhaps half the time, I get two. Usually, I offer a thumbs up and a quick explanation of what I’m doing. Occasionally, this results in a conversation, as the people making the offer are friendly, curious, and excited to learn more. For the most […]
Days 76 & 77 – 9/18 & 9/19 – American Falls to Burley, ID – 64 miles
At what point does admirable stick-to-it-iveness transform into excessive stubbornness? Where is the line between those two? Pilgrims on the Camino love to advise people to “listen to your body,” and to not push too hard. Better to stop a little early and avoid injury than go too far and suffer the consequences. And fair […]
Day 75 – 9/17 – Pocatello to American Falls, ID – 24 miles
I was smug as could be, merrily skipping along the frontage road as I made my way westward through the gray morning. Despite all the dire weather projections, I had enjoyed a dry start to the day, cruising through the first ten miles free of concern. Looking back, I could see Pocatello suffering through a […]
Days 72-74 – 9/13-9/15 – Montpelier to Pocatello, ID – 94 miles
The terrain through southern Idaho makes me think of a hand, its fingers outstretched northward, each digit a hilly ridge, the gap in between the byproduct of a small river’s patient work. Wheat and hay, recently cropped and shining brightly in the late-summer sun, fill the valley floor, interspersed with nervous cows and rambunctious horses, […]
Day 71 – 9/12 – Cokeville, WY to Montpelier, ID – 36 miles
I walked angry today. My planned route would have led me into the mountains to the west, climbing back up a few hundred feet and hopefully scoring a view of Bear Lake in the process. From there, I would have turned north, eventually dropping back into the valley with US-30 for the final push. It […]
Days 69 & 70 – 9/10-9/11 – Kemmerer to Cokeville, WY – 41 miles
After the forced march through the red desert, I owed myself a break. I couldn’t quite justify a full day off–that’ll come soon enough, in Pocatello–but a shorter, 15-mile walk to Fossil Butte National Monument offered a healthy reprieve, and the follow-up to Cokeville was also a little lighter. It’s amazing what a leisurely morning, […]
Days 66-68 – 9/7-9/9 – Atlantic City to Kemmerer, WY – 117 miles
If you want to hear the best argument in favor of Manifest Destiny, look not to the heavens. Look to the rocks. As Will Bagley explains in South Pass: Gateway to a Continent, between the full height of what would become the United States, from Marias Pass near the Canadian border and Guadalupe Pass closer […]
Day 65 – 9/5 – Sweetwater Station to Atlantic City, WY – 33 miles
The day off was well timed, because today brought me the most strenuous walk of the trip. Admittedly, there wasn’t that much of an ascent involved, but I haven’t done a lot of climbing over the last couple months. I think my calves are smaller now than they typically are. And besides, when the day’s […]
Days 62-64 – 9/2-9/4 – Casper/Mills to Sweetwater Station, WY – 108 miles
One of the harder stretches of the walk began inauspiciously, following the skin-crawlingly-named Poison Spider Road. A thick darkness ruled at this early hour, still well before 5am. About a mile in, a newer highway bisected my arachnid artery, forcing me to hurdle a pair of barbed-wire fences and wade through a dried-out drainage ditch, […]