Miles: 27 Steps: 53,369 Vertical gain: Strava knows! Liquid consumed: 154 oz Wildlife: Lizards, non-wild horses, cows, a flock of birds flying off together TDR from the reservoir in the morning, pronghorn Faith in Humanity: Prong horn are apparently prehistoric animals, out-surviving many other species. Why? They run away as fast as they can (which is up to 60mph) when anything gets even remotely close to them. Not very trusting or curious, but it certainly has helped them in the long run! Contrast that with a cow. They stare at you for a long time, but most of the time don't run. Sometimes when they do run it's in the same direction you're going, or then end up putting themselves in a worse position, closer sometimes. The result? Steak and hamburgers are some of the most popular American dishes! Not sure of the moral of the story, but be a little bit more pronghorn than cow... Pretty smooth sailing today. 15 miles to the first water source, bull spring, then the mission was to get as close to Rawlins as possible. I was hoping to get a little closer, but I hit 26.5 miles or so and I was just done. I wasn't unhappy nor injured, but done. I looked at my maps: if I continued on I'd have to walk at least another 5 miles to find somewhere to camp, and I evaluated and just decided to camp where I was. I did walk to a high point to see if I could get cell service, but nope there as well. It was windy earlier and I couldn't hear the highway from where I am now. Now it's 8:35, the sun is setting and the wind seems to be dying down, but I can definitely hear the highway more. Oh well! Did get a few drops of rain today, so that means each of the four days in the Great Divide Basin I've been rained on! I'm pretty sure that's extremely rare in this arid desert environment. It'll be 15 days since I've had a shower tomorrow! Sure I've done laundry once in the middle and have been cleaning off in streams, but I'm excited for a shower. And a full day off! Really going to try hard to get all my errands done tomorrow then take a full day off on Saturday, hope it works out! I wonder what Rawlins will be like. Realistically I'm picturing a somewhat impoverished desert highway town, but the trail goes right through it, and there's cheap hotels and restaurants and grocery stores! Everything a hiker needs! I'm excited! Going to try to wake up early tomorrow and head to the promised land! Wooo! One of my favorite parts about hiking is how much you appreciate things when you go without them. We take so much completely for granted in regular life: showers, wind and rain protection, near instant access to groceries, the internet, etc. when you hike for 5 days and don't shower for 2 weeks you get really excited and enjoy those little things so much more! Ok stopping rambling and starting sleeping!