Days 60 & 61 – 8/31-9/1 – Douglas to Casper/Mills, WY – 62 miles
I’ve been thinking about home a lot over the last couple days. To some degree, that’s probably inevitable. I’ve been gone for a long time now. With the new school year in motion, that’s also reinforcing the finality of my departure, and the profound change in my life that only started unfolding over the summer. […]
Day 59 – 8/30 – Glendo to Douglas, WY – 27.5 miles
A Concise History of the Jackalope We’ll never know for sure where it all began. One account holds that the first man to spot the jackalope was Roy Ball in 1829. That’s all we know about both Roy and the jackalope. The town of Douglas, meanwhile, claims that John Colter, the first man known to explore […]
Day 58 – 8/29 – Guernsey to Glendo, WY – 29 miles
It’s a funny thing. I’ve been so focused on the possibility of dying in the days following Casper that I didn’t realize I might just die sooner. The day started off innocently enough, with the promise of only minor trespassing. I mean that theoretically, of course. I’m not one of those fools who breaks the […]
Days 56 & 57 – 8/27-8/28 – Torrington to Guernsey, WY – 41 miles
States often take a little while to introduce themselves. Coming into Colorado from Kansas, for a while, was a stark disappointment, as it still took many miles to shift from flat plains to Rocky Mountains. Wyoming, however, announced its presence with authority. Sagebrush has suddenly become a fixture. Craggy hill tops are now dotted with […]
Day 55 – 8/26 – Gering, NE to Torrington, WY – 37 miles
After the pseudo-metropolis of Gering/Scottsbluff, the world thins out. I’m bidding farewell to Nebraska this morning, deviated from my long-time companion, the Platte River, for most of this final stretch. Bustling Scottsbluff gives way to the pleasant town of Mitchell, which yields to modest Morrill, which in turn relinquishes the floor to the tiny bordertown […]
Day 54 – 8/24 – Bridgeport to Gering, NE – 34 miles
Somehow, over the course of Nebraska, I’ve climbed from 1089 feet in elevation to 3921 feet, all while walking on consistently flat ground! A similar experience in Kansas should have prepared me for this phenomenon, and yet I’ve been blindsided once again. 3000 feet of elevation gain, with barely a hint of it along the […]
Days 51-53 – 8/21-8/23 – Spring Creek Campground to Bridgeport, NE – 77 miles
Multiple days have passed since a momentous development in this walk, and yet I’ve paid no reference to it in this written account. I have left the American Discovery Trail, after nearly 4000 miles of walking spread across five years. Will I ever return to it? It’s difficult to say. On one hand, while walking […]
Day 50 – 8/20 – Paxton to Spring Creek Campground, NE – 34 miles
Happy days are sometimes the hardest to write about. After too much time spent on the Lincoln Highway in recent days, it was a delight to spend the morning on the Keystone supply canal. Perhaps 20 feet wide and flanked by a dirt access road, the close proximity to water brought a steady, gentle breeze, […]
Day 49 – 8/19 – North Platte to Paxton, NE – 33 miles
After a lengthy departure from North Platte, looping around the largest rail yard in the world and the Golden Spike Tower, this was another walk spent too much on the Lincoln Highway, though that wasn’t without some positives. The route passed through three towns–Hershey, Sutherland, and Paxton (my destination) and all three still possess independent, […]
Days 47 & 48 – 8/17-8/18 – Cozad to North Platte, NE – 48.5 miles
For all the attention that Route 66 receives as the great American highway, perhaps more should be directed towards the Lincoln Highway, a transcontinental route (connecting Times Square, NYC with Lincoln Park, San Francisco) that preceded the 66 by more than a decade. In this stretch of Nebraska, the Lincoln Highway has supplanted the Oregon […]