SUMMARY: Well, we did a lot of mountain climbing today—some by trail and some by mistake. We misread our maps this morning and thought a nearby mountain was Mt. Hope. The trail goes right up and over Mt. Hope, but we were down in forest and snow and didn’t realize we were looking at the wrong mountain.

So we bushwhacked and climbed up to the top and looked everywhere for the trail. Finally I caught sight of a couple of lakes below, found us on the map and said, “Oh no—this isn’t Mt. Hope!”  By then we had been at it for almost 5 hours because the mountains here are basically like big rockpiles with large snowfields. Very slow going.

During those 5 hours, Bill & I lost track of each other for about an hour. That was seriously scary! But finally we found the right Mt. Hope, climbed it, walked the Divide, and discovered that the side trail that was supposed to take us down to Creede, our next resupply, was impassable due to snow.

So, we went back to bushwhacking, a long, long way. We are camped by a creek tonight—probably won’t reach Creede until late tomorrow.

DETAILS:  Well, we sure got in a lot of climbing today–some by mistake and some by trail!  We woke up to a very cold morning, but whew, our shoes were not frozen.  We thought we knew where we were, and we thought that a mountain nearby was Mt. Hope, where the trail was.  But we were SO wrong!  In reality, Mt. Hope was still quite a ways away, on the other side of a big ridge and several lakes.  Yesterday the trail wandered around so much and was so often under snow, that we’d actually lost track of it and now instead of being just below it (we thought), we were far away from it.

Thinking that “the trail is right up there”, we started bushwhacking up the mountain.  The problem is that the mountains here seem to be basically big rock piles and the rocks are big enough to make the going very slow. I am slow on rocks, anyway, and Fixit was having a hard time because last night he did not sleep much.  He said he was having trouble breathing while lying down and had to prop himself up with his pack.

Finally we got to the top and there was no trail.  We looked and looked (for a total of FIVE HOURS) trying to find it.  During that time we made a serious mistake.  We decided to split up, but stay within shouting distance of each other as we searched for trail.  Not smart!  Not only did we not find the trail, but we even lost each other.  For over an hour, I did not know where Fixit was and he could not find me.  We were in very rough country with snow and forests and rocky mountainsides.  Turns out we were both shouting for each other, but did not hear each other at all.  I climbed up to the top of a ridge and looked around for some sign of Fixit, and that’s when I spotted a couple of lakes down below.  I found them on my map, and now I knew where I was, and I also knew we were WAY off track.  I stood there shouting and yelling for Fixit, with no response.  I did a lot of praying, too, and finally  I decided to come down off the ridge slowly, yelling a lot.  It seemed like forever till finally, down below, I spotted Fixit climbing up towards me.  To say we were glad to see each other would be an understatement!  We vowed never ever again would we split up to look for trail unless we could SEE each other!  I told Fixit that we were NOT on Mt. Hope, but I now knew where it was.

So we ended up doing some scary snow traverses and a bunch of rockwalking to get back on track with where we were supposed to be and FINALLY came the last big climb up to about 12,800 feet and back to the trail.  Whew, were we tired!  But hooray, there actually wasn’t much snow on the trail, and the views were totally magnificent.  We both wore  our down jackets AND rain jackets, trying to stay warm in the bitter cold wind sweeping across the ridges.  But it was so glorious just seeing where we were and the epic-style scenery.  We are right up on top of the Divide, and it’s mountain peaks, snow, rocks, and brown grass as far as the eye can see.  The snow is melting fast, and almost all the bare ground is very wet.  Best of all, we have trail to follow, and we can even see the side trails when they come in.

But a thunderstorm was moving in, and we were way up high and very exposed.  Ack, not good!  Our policy in these situations is to say, “OK, Lord, You know where we are…please send the lightning off somewhere else, like onto some rock where there is nobody around.”  At one point, because Fixit was having a hard time (he was so tired from lack of sleep), I ended up getting ahead of him on the trail.  When I realized this, I stopped to wait, and as soon as I spotted him, I held up one of my trek poles and waved.  And then a seriously scary thing happened–I felt a strong buzzing sensation in the trek pole I was holding up and I figured it was turning into an antenna that might attract the next lightning strike.  Yikes!   I  quickly dropped the pole to the ground and ran away from it.  No lightning came, and Fixit caught up, so I went back, picked up the pole, and proceeded on.  But I was scared.

The trail took us around a big sweeping bend, and finally we spotted the Sawtooth Trail up ahead, which is where the shortcut to Creede begins.  It was totally under snow, and on a very steep mountainside.  We looked at it and said, “Forget the trail–we’ll just walk down from over here, where we are.”  That was the beginning of a long bushwhack down, first on steep snow (but not as steep as the official trail), and then through woods, with lots of climbing over logs and obstacles.  It was hard. There was no sign of anyone having come this way, but looking at the maps we figured we were still OK and reasonably near the trail.

At 7 pm we came to a flat spot that was actually DRY ground, near a creek, and we just plain crashed.  We were so tired.  I was concerned about our food situation–would we have enough to make it to Creede, at this rate?  And it looks like we will maybe spend the night in Creede, because of it being Sunday and the post office not open.  Our original plan was to just do a pit stop.  But we are very grateful to the Lord for helping us during the 5 hour “where is the trail” and the even worse, “Where is Fixit?  Where is 3rd Monty?” episode.  That was scarier even than the potential lightning strike up on the Divide.  All I could do was thank Him and then go to sleep.  Tiiiiiiiiired!