Continental Divide Trail 2013: June 2013

Old shoes with 600 miles on them vs. new shoes

Gray's Peak- highest point on the CDT!

Trail along the ridge

Well, it's been a lovely week in Colorado, now that there's less snow to plow/swim/slosh through. Unfortunately, that window of time before the bugs come out began closing as we left Frisco- good thing I picked up my bug net and Deet! Hiking along, we've been able to do larger mileage mostly, though the elevation has begun changing from going up and staying up to up and down and up again. We hit our lowest elevation-wise points on the trail in Colorado going into Grand Lake. At a measly 8,000 something feet in elevation, I felt like I was drinking the air it was so thick!

Everyone making dinner on the fire

We will soon be moving onto a new state- Wyoming- and leaving the high elevation for a while as well, dropping down into the desert before heading back up into the Wind River Range. My brain has begun to feel fried coming into towns sometimes, and that's how I know I've been in the woods for not long enough!
Goodbye CoolRadBro, Hello WingNoming!


Sometimes the trail looks like this...

Storm clouds rolling in at Devil's Thumb Pass

Pos, Gnar, and I before heading into Steamboat.


Bob, Speedbump, and Kim floating down the Yampa River in Steamboat

Gnar and Max Chill having a Meat Stick Joust

Signage!

Wow, it has been a whirlwind these past couple days! I've been visiting with friends and family, as well as saying goodbye- some forever and some just for now. It seems as though my thoughts are going at a mile a minute at the moment, so my apologies if this post gets a bit confusing. I'll try to go in order.

Pod calls these "snow hurdles". They suck.

Max Chill out front walking the ridge into Monarch Pass.

So we left Lake City, and I was hiking with Gnar, Pod, and Max Chill. The snow was beginning to melt faster, so as we were going through it, our feet were cold because of the post-holing/slushy snow and the rest of our exposed skin was getting sunburnt. It was neat to have been through this area before, so I saw how different it looked with snow vs. with all the rain we got in the Colorado Trail last year. So I haven't taken nearly as many photos, but it's been enjoyable nontheless.

We did have some scary moments, though not nearly as many as the last section. Most of them involved being in a big field at 11,000ft when a thunder storm would decide to roll in- never fun.
We made it to Salida in time to have a night in the hostel right before a group of roller derby girls. Thankfully, there is a trail angel there who hosts up to 3 hikers in her apartment. AND she drove us back to the trail- Thanks Liv!

Don't go this way! ...unless you're on the CDT...

Since Salida, we've been moving at quite a faster pace than before- instead of only covering 15 miles because of the snow, we're now up to 20-23 miles per day. This has been tiring some days, going up and down and up passes. It's also felt a bit more rewarding. We're no longer not wanting to look at our maps to see how many miles we did, (because we'd be disappointed at so few) we're looking and being pleasantly surprised at the mileage. I've got to honest though, I can't wait to get to Wyoming and burn up some big mile days in the desert!

When we got to Frisco, Gnar, Pod and I found out our friend Max Chill was planning on getting off trail. It was sad to see him go, and I also know he needs to do what's best for him. We also found out via another hiker that the infamous gentleman who drove us to the Crazy Cooke Monument at the Mexico/United States border has passed away. Sam Hughes- you were a lovely/humorous man and will be gratefully remembered by many.