A long-distance hiker with the trail name “Cottonmouth” accused of harassing and assaulting other hikers has been released from a Wyoming jail after spending 86 days there for breaching the peace.
Nicholas “Cottonmouth” Sampson, 36, was originally scheduled to go to trial in Rawlins Circuit Court on Thursday, on two counts of breaching the peace.
He was accused of harassing multiple hikers along the Continental Divide Trail in July as part of an ongoing pattern that also included an arrest in Sublette County the summer prior after a bear spray standoff with a hiking couple.
On Oct. 17, Sampson pleaded “no contest” to one of the two breach of peace counts from this July. The Carbon County Attorney’s office dropped the other charge in line with a plea agreement between the state and defense.
Under the agreement, Sampson was released from jail after serving 86 days while his prosecution was ongoing.
His court fees were waived, the court file indicates.
A phone number for Sampson was not listed. His mother, Karen Sampson, declined Monday to comment to Cowboy State Daily.
For The Hikers
She said in an earlier July interview that her son has mental health problems, and she wishes the system could do more for him.
When reports of Nicholas Sampson’s trail outbursts reach her back home in New Hampshire, they signal his urgent need for help, she said.
“Yeah, and I apologize for the hikers, and we’re trying — and I get it,” said Karen. “They’re just out there to hike and have a good time, and this is a monkey wrench in their day.”
Family friend Brian Henderson said at the time that watching Sampson struggle brings a sense of futility, since there are shortfalls in the mental help the state can impose, and times Sampson can only reach help if he seeks it.
“(It’s) like watching someone drown — and they can’t do anything,” said Henderson. “There are people around who want to help a person (but) the impossibility and frustration of it is heartbreaking.”
Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich put it another way, saying, “The state can lead any person to (help). Yet if that person’s not willing or capable of participating, there’s no real way for them to be helped. We can’t just keep them in an institution and force-feed them meds for the rest of their lives.”
Yet, Melinkovich worried aloud, if Nicholas does not seek help and stick with it, he could run into an even worse tragedy by driving another hiker to react to his attacks with defensive force.
The July Incident
This year’s charges stemmed from a reported July 24 disturbance on the Bridger Pass Road in south-central Carbon County, which encompasses a portion of the trail.
Deputies arriving on scene found "Cottonmouth,” who threw a water bottle at a worker who was on the Bridger Pass Road, the sheriff wrote.
Sampson was arrested and charged.
In 2024, Sublette County
Last year’s charges stemmed from a July 19, 2024, report of a hiker, who reported to the Sublette County Sheriff’s Office that a transient traveling on foot approached him, yelled curse words at him, threatened him, and shoved him to the ground, according to an affidavit filed days later in Pinedale Circuit Court.
“Sampson had been involved in multiple other calls within Sublette County involving threatening and physically assaulting hikers,” the document notes.
One of those reports surfaced three days after the alleged shove on July 22, 2024.
A couple of court documents describe that as out of staters in their 60s were hiking in the Big Sandy area, they met a man screaming “get the f*** away,” says the case affidavit.
The stranger ran up and hit the husband so hard from behind he fell to the ground and suffered minor injuries, reportedly.
The wife drew a can of bear spray, but the stranger went to his tent and retrieved his own bear spray, says the document.
The affidavit says the couple retreated from the stranger and found a place to camp for the night, but neither slept.
All three hikers identified Sampson as the stranger from photos of Sampson deputies showed them, court documents say.
Sampson was incarcerated until March 2025 in that case, a stint that also featured mental health evaluations and concerns.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
