The stars are beautiful in Wyoming.

They are amazing. The moon was only a crescent, and it went down soon after the sun. It may be the prettiest night sky I've ever seen. I got to stare at the stars for hours and hours. This is mainly because my friend Chicory and I got lost on what was supposed to be an hour and a half walk. Looking back now at google maps, when it got too dark for us to continue on the unknown trail, we were 500 feet from the stream crossing that would have got us back to the car in 30 minuts. Her husband Cliff, who is a total badass and a search and rescue expert, finally found us at about 3AM, and led us out of the wilderness.

We treated this hike way too casually. I mean, come on, it's 4.5 miles. Also, the guidebook said it was a good trail for "timid" hikers. But it turns out that the area is criss-crossed with trails that all look exactly the same. We didn't have a compass or a good map, we didn't have a headlamp or any light other than Chicory's cellphone. We didn't have a first aid kit, and we only had one fleece jacket each. And we didn't really pay attention to where we were going, we were just chatting and walking around. At the start of the hike, Chicory was a little apprehensive because we got a ridiculously late start - around 6pm. But I told her with overbearing confidence that we would be fine on a little 4.5 mile loop, and I would lead her out and back. Wow did I fail to live up to the expectations I set.

Once it got dark, we knew we weren't going to get out on our own that night. So we called Cliff, Chicory's husband, and told him that we were going to wait until morning and hike out then. He is way too tough to let us freeze to death, though, and drove out to find us and lead us to safety. He somehow did this by texting us on the cellphone, and honking his car horn at us for hours, while we were supposed to text back to him what direction and how far away he seemed. This is a difficult thing to deduce, but somehow he made it work. We stayed warm by doing a million jumping jacks and running in place. It probably got down to the low 30's that night. Right before 3AM Cliff came chugging down a hill with two giant flashlights and a backpack full of warm clothes. There was a decent sized creek between us still, but he found a beaver dam that we could walk over, and we followed him the hell out of there.

Welcome to Wyoming. The stars are beautiful.