Bonding on the divide

Reflecting on the years of hiking the Continental Divide Trail with her father, Robin Gloss summed up by saying, "Obviously I don't know what would have happened if we hadn't done this, so I can't really say, but it's been fun and I feel like I am closer to you and I don't always get sick of you after hiking with you for a couple of days."

It all started shortly after the family moved back to Wyoming in 2001, when Robin was just one-year-old. In 2001, for Christmas, Dave Gloss and his wife Paula Guenther (they are now divorced) each gave the other "Wyoming's Continental Divide Trail" a book on hiking the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDNST) through Wyoming.

Robin was very young, but Dave and Paula are avid outdoorspeople and they wanted their daughter to experience the natural world that Wyoming has to offer.

Now based out of Saratoga, both Dave and Paula work for the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests, they decided to start hiking the CDNST starting at the Colorado border. This tradition has continued for Dave and Robin over the last 13 years and they have plans to finish the CDNST in Wyoming around the time Robin graduates from high school.

Robin hiked at least part of the trail every year since 2001 when she walked about one quarter mile between times when Dave carried her in a backpack. Since she has been too big to carry, about age 4, Robin has hiked or biked every inch of the trail herself.

To date, Dave and Robin have hiked or biked about 292 miles of the 516 miles of CDNST in Wyoming and have made it as far north as the Wind River Range.

Adversity

The yearly trips on the continental divide have not all been fun and games. Robin and her father took portions of four summers to cross the Red Desert and the Great Divide Basin together.

The area is known for heat, wind, deep sand and no water.

These hard times produced Robin's first vivid memories of traveling on the trail.

"When we were biking north of Rawlins up through all of this BLM land, we were biking through this horrid, loose sand, and it was so hot, and I remember standing in the shade of a telephone pole and eating pizza Pringles," Robin said. This was when she was 7 or 8 years old.

"That telephone pole was a low-point." Robin added.

Encounters

Dave and Robin met some notable people along the way. Some were die-hard hikers, and others were living or working near the trail.

Dave recounts one story from the Great Divide Basin where he felt a little unsafe:

Dave Gloss - We were out in the middle of the Great Divide Basin in sagebrush, desolate. Robin and I were there and one of her friends. We look off in the horizon and there's this horse and rider that are coming. They get closer and closer, and by the time they are a quarter mile away they are at a full gallop.

Robin Gloss - And he starts freaking out because between the two of us Kennison (Speiring) and I weigh probably 150 pounds at that point.

DG - Yeah, and we're kind of out in the middle of nowhere. I feel real safe there, except when there's other people around, and I start to worry. And so here's this person charging at us, I'm here with two little kids, and you are out in the middle of nowhere, no communication or connection with anybody else. And this guy charges up to us on his horse, you know, comes to a stop and he's a gentleman who is a range rider for a sheep company.

It was one of those protective parent things where I wondered if I was doing the right thing taking a couple of girls out in the middle of nowhere.

Dave said the range rider started showing off to the girls about how he would shoot up the continental divide signs with his .45, showing them how he would sling himself under the neck of his horse to shoot. Dave felt uncomfortable, but the guy just turned out to be an eccentric who wanted somebody to talk to.

Respect

From the beginning Dave said the idea was for the family to have experiences in the outdoors that were fun for everybody.

"I guess that was part of our approach ... do stuff with kids ... do the things you like to do, like outdoor activities, but do them in a way with your kids that's fun and at a level they can do," Dave said

All the while, both Dave and Robin had to learn to grow together on the trail.

"One of the things I have learned it to be flexible and have it be fun. That's always been an overriding objective ... one of the things I have learned as a parent is that my hiking goals take second place to having fun and having it be something we can do," Dave said.

"Originally I started out and I'd say 'oh we're going to go hike 10 miles,' and then I'd realize that if you are trying to do that with a 7-year-old kid that's not going to happen, and so I have to reset my objectives and say, 'no' the objective is to go check this out and have a great time," he added.

Two years ago in the Wind River Dave had an experience where his trust in and respect for Robin grew.

Dave Gloss - One of the things that I continue to learn from Robin is just to respect her more and more as an adult and as a person thinking for herself, and so ...

Robin Gloss - I know this story too.

DG - So we're hiking in the Wind Rivers, and ah ...

RG - Our maps are pretty pitiful.

DG - ... and we are three or four days into our trip and Robin all of the sudden, she stops and she said ...

RG - I'm like we are not in the right place.

DG - Yeah she said 'we're not in the right place,' and we've been hiking all day and I said 'yeah, whatever,'

RG - He turns on autopilot.

DG - Well, I didn't believe her, I just thought everything was fine and she's like 'no we're not.' So, part of my philosophy has been to let her, you know, sort of ...

RG - Prove myself wrong.

DG - ... somewhat let her do her own stuff. So, I'm like 'well I'm just going to sit here and relax and she can prove herself wrong,' and then we'll keep going. So I sit down and take a break for awhile and she is walking up, looking around at different places and she keeps coming back and saying, 'Dad, we're in the wrong spot.' I'm like, 'what do you want to do?' She said 'well, we need to go back.' I'm like well, that's fine. We'll walk back a half-mile and she'll say 'maybe we're in the right spot.' And so we start walking back and actually encountered these other people ...

RG - I will never forget this.

DG - Two other adults, so there's myself and these two other adults ... and all the adults 'you know we're the adults, and we know what's right here.'

RG - And I'm like, no, na-ah.

DG - But she is very adamant still, 'we need to be looking at this.' But, they actually had a GPS and located where we were and then I figured out that Robin was right and we need to go back and go this other way.

But these guys, still, they pulled me aside and they're like 'you can't listen to her,' because of this perception that I'm the adult, I'm right.

It was a neat experience for me because I try not to say, 'hey, I'm the adult, I'm right.' But it was a way to remind me of that. Robin is a person too and she is a very intelligent person with a lot of wonderful traits, and it was a way to respect her as a person and not as a kid.

Dave and Robin parted ways with the two hikers who were still in disbelief that Robin was right.

Reflections

Looking back at their time on CDNST Dave said, "It's been fun to try and make each of the pieces work, the landscape has changed, Robin has changed age-wise, I've changed, you know I'm getting older. It's just to say 'how do we get from point A to point B under the conditions we are at.'"

"We've achieved so much and it's not that much more. It's fun and we've met some really cool people doing it, and some really wierd people, but it's exploring and adventuring and it's cool," Robind said.

The next segment the duo plans to hike includes a 50-mile trek near Pinedale to the Green River lakes in the Wind River mountains.