Day 111, Fish Creek Park to above Sheridan Pass

The sky cleared partially overnight. That made the temperature drop a little colder than the last couple before. After three days of cloudy and occasionally stormy weather, I wasn't going to complain about the chilly air. It was good to see some blue sky when we began walking at around 6:30 a.m.

Our campsite was tucked among some trees on the edge of Fish Creek Park. To leave from there, we made a short climb up the side of a hill that defined the east side of the park.

Within minutes, the trail turned away from the hill and trees to enter the wide expanse of the park. This wasn't a park as you would think of a restricted and managed area like a local city park or a national park. This was a wide and open field, bounded by hills and filled with grasses and other non-woody plants. It was what people in western states call a large meadow.

Some maps include this area in Wind River Range. That may be technically correct, but this terrain is far different than the rest of the Winds. It's hard for me to think of it as a part of the Winds when I'm not seeing 12,000 and 13,000-foot granite peaks.

The sky didn't clear entirely. A layer of clouds remained. It was rippled in rows, reminding me of furrows of a plowed field.

The rain must have washed away most of the smoke from the forest fires burning northwest of here. The sky had only a slightly dirty haze this morning. It didn't stay that way for long.

Fish Creek Park was slightly reminiscent of the Great Basin. That is where we started our flip south and later where we flipped north. There were a couple of big differences between the two regions, however.

The vegetation here wasn't as sparse, with more grasses and fewer sagebrush.

Another difference was more important to us. Water wasn't in short supply here and it tasted better. Fish Creek and several of its tributaries flowed through the park. We didn't have to rely on a few, widely spaced cow ponds and murky springs for our drinking water like we did in the basin.

After the first 4.5 miles of the day, the trail joined a dirt road. This led us to a large lake called Lake of the Woods.

Some maps show the CDT going around the north side of the lake. The trail must have been relocated since then because our app put the route on the south side.

It was large enough to be called a lake, but calling the trees around it "woods" was a stretch. It was only partially ringed by scattered clumps of trees, and many of those were dead.

I thought this would be a popular recreation area. When I looked across the lake, however, I only saw one travel trailer. With so many prime fishing areas in Wyoming, this lake must be too remote to attract many people.

Leaving the lake, the trail headed to another grassy park. A marker showed where we were supposed to cross a fence to enter the park, but a dead tree was lying across the crushed fence.

We stopped there and used the fence as a clothesline to spread out and dry our gear.

After we climbed the fence and started walking again, we didn't get far before some teamwork was necessary to find the footpath. It faded away in the grass, leaving us wondering where we were supposed to go. There were no trail markers in this open range. We had to scan across the meadow and study its features to figure out where the trail went.

We were ready for more water when we arrived at Salt Creek, which cut across the center of the wide field. Cattle were grazing less than a quarter mile away, so we presumed the water would include a hint of cow flavoring. We were pleasantly surprised to discover it had no aftertaste.

I noticed one thing about the cattle here that seemed different than other grazing cows I've observed. These were bunched together in a tight pack. Cattle usually spread out when they graze, and I wondered if this was a self-defense maneuver to protect themselves and their calves from grizzly bears or gray wolves.

We haven't yet seen any signs of predatory animals, and I admit I'm making an uneducated assumption about the behavior of the cattle. Nevertheless, it's true that grizzlies and wolves have spread into this area. Wolves have increased their territory since being reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park in 1995.

Ranchers frequently complain about wolves and bears, saying the predators attack and kill their livestock in large numbers.

After reviewing some comments posted on the Guthook app, we decided to follow the Leeds Creek Alternate. The distance was about the same as the CDT's official route, but the alternate was reported to be a little more scenic. Some commenters mentioned being able to see the Teton Mountains from the trail because it went over a higher elevation.

We never saw the Tetons, however. Smoke was making the sky hazy again. Still, there were some beautiful parts of the route.

This route followed a 4WD road. That made the trail easy to walk, though it wasn't perfect. Several people driving UTVs passed me on the road. I had to turn away each time because of the dust their vehicles kicked up.

I'm sure the dust would have been much worse if there hadn't been a lot of rain the last couple of days.

The road ran parallel to a rounded ridge for more than a mile. When I looked in that direction, I saw better than a dozen pronghorn antelope galloping along its length. They were at least 150 yards away, but that was still closer than any I'd seen in the past.

Antelopes can run at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour, which means they can outrun bears and wolves. I was fortunate to see them this close and to take photos before they disappeared over the ridge.

They were running when I saw them, though I don't think they were fleeing a bear or wolf. They were probably startled by the UTVs.

The Leeds Creek Alternate was only 6.1 miles long. I met a thru-hiker named Peanut a couple of times in this section. The second time was when I stopped at Leeds Creek to collect some water. This was a short distance before the alternate reconnected with the official route.

When I rejoined the CDT, the trail followed Leeds Creek upstream for the first part of a climb of about 400 feet in 2.2 miles. Though the ascent was modest, I began to feel tired.

I met several SOBO thru-hikers near the end of the climb. Stopping to chat with them for several minutes gave me a chance to get back some energy.

As thru-hikers usually do when we meet thru-hikers coming from the other direction, we swapped trail information. They told me they followed the Super Butte/Big Sky Alternate to get here.

They praised the route and made special mention of an area called Spanish Peaks. I was glad to hear their endorsements of the alternate Top O' and I planned to take around the fires.

Hobo Toe caught up to me a short time later. We hiked together for a little while before he went ahead. I caught up to him later when he stopped on a ridge. He told me he found cell service there, so I stopped to check my messages.

The trail went through a small section of blowdowns. They were only a minor annoyance because the trees weren't large. The fallen trees were in a much larger area of a burnt forest, which stretched from where the alternate rejoined the CDT up to Buckskin Ridge.

The top of the ridge had a wide, treeless swath cut in the middle. This was probably a firebreak to prevent the fire from spreading to the other side of the ridge.

When I caught up to Hobo Toe again, he was sitting with Top O'. They stopped near a spring that was just off the trail. I didn't need to walk down there to get water, however, because Top O' collected enough for the two of us.

The time was 7:15 p.m., and we decided this was a good spot to cook dinner before stopping later to camp.

When we finished dinner and were ready to start looking for a campsite, Hobo Toe told Top O' and me he wanted to go at least six-tenths of a mile farther. This would give him 30 miles for the day. We agreed to go that far too.

The trail took us over another grassy ridge. The sky wasn't clear enough to see the Tetons, but I could see the Pinnacle Buttes, a short range of mountains near where we would be heading tomorrow.

The campsite we found turned out to be eight-tenths of a mile from the spring where we ate dinner. It was at an elevation of 9,480 feet and less than a mile from Sheridan Pass.

Tomorrow we will descend to the pass, then follow another alternate route that starts there. We're now just days away from the start of the Big Sky/Super Butte Alternate.