Day 57 (ODT 25)

Day 57 (ODT 25): 26 miles

Early in the afternoon, I was a little far off the route and came across some surprise water. Most of it was nasty and polluted by the cows nearby but there were some small puddles of clear water which I collected. I chugged a couple liters while there and refilled, happy and confident that I would now make it to Rome with no water problems.

Except for the water falling from the sky. It rained again today. It wasn’t long, but I cannot escape the rain. It’s rained/snowed over 1/3rd of my days on this trail which is kinda crazy.

In the evening, it looked like it was about to rain again so I ended a little early and set up my tent. When I got inside and laid down, I heard a few drops starting to fall and felt like a genius. My perceived intellect lasted only a few seconds when it stopped falling and no more came out of the sky.

From inside my tent, I saw the sky turning shades. I opened my tent and looked outside to see an actual sunset. This was one of very few visible sunsets on the trail, and my first in a while.

I’ll be getting into Rome early tomorrow morning, still with quite a bit of food. Since I took the alternate around the rim of the canyon for a while, I moved faster than I planned on this stretch. Still, carrying so much extra food feels foolish.

This Owyhee Canyon area really is special. I only got occasional peeks at the river because walking near the rim was slower than farther away from it, but when I did see the river, it was always beautiful.

Song of the day: ooh La La-faces