SUMMARY:  Today was “follow and ford the creeks day”! Right off the bat, we forded Sawtooth Creek, then followed a trail that took us to a ford of Goose Creek (scary!!!). Then we followed Goose Creek for miles, down its pretty canyon, to a ford of Fisher Creek.

That would have been a serious whitewater ford, but there was a note on the ground telling of a nice big log to cross on, just downstream. Hooray! We made the crossing safely. A bit later, we switched to a trail that followed Roaring Fork Creek, and now, at close of day, we are following yet another creek, Deep Creek, down its steep, narrow canyon. It was very tough to find a place to camp!

DETAILS:  Our first “to do” agenda item today was “FIND the Sawtooth Trail!”  We are so tired of bushwhacking; man do we want to be back on a TRAIL!  So we started off by a ford of Sawtooth Creek, which was right by our campsite, bushwhacked a bit more, and then hooray!  The trail!  But it was hard to follow.  Often it disappeared in soggy meadows, and it was full of blowdowns to climb over.  Finally we lost it altogether.  Looking at our maps, we concluded that it must have turned and gone up the mountain to our left, so we began a bushwhacking climb through the sadly burned forest.

Finally we reached the top, where we’d hoped to locate the trail, but no luck.  Fixit wanted to stop and eat breakfast, but I was very worried about the upcoming ford of Goose Creek.  Based on what I’d seen of the creeks here so far, I anticipated a very nasty crossing, and I was anxious to get to it as early in the morning as possible.  I was also really frustrated about not finding the trail–surely it was right nearby.  I was so worried about this that the idea of sitting down and eating was just impossible.  So I told Fixit, “Why don’t you sit and eat, while I go look for trail–I will stay close by.”  And I was VERY careful about that!   I did not want to lose sight of him again!

I did not find any trail, but I was still convinced it was not far away.  Turned out I was right–after Fixit had a snack, we headed DOWN the other side of the mountain, and about halfway down, hooray!  The trail again!  A nice trail, too!  We followed it till it reached the ford of Goose Creek, which looked scary but do-able.  The creek bed was not wide, but the current was awfully strong.  So Fixit went across first and reached the other side OK.  But then he came back!  “I don’t think you can handle this by yourself” he said.  So what we did was he got BEHIND me as a sort of support, and I made it OK.  Wow, was I glad I had NEW trek poles!  My poor old rickety ones would never have made it in that whitewater.   On the other side, we found a pleasant “sunpatch” and sat down for breakfast at last.  I could eat in peace, knowing that the Goose Creek crossing was done!

Then it was many miles of following Goose Creek along its canyon, which was lined with a number of spectacular rock formations.  We crossed lots of side tributaries, big and small and there was so much snowmelt runoff that the trail was mostly muddy or marshy.  I eyed every creek crossing, thinking, “Oh boy, we are in for it when we get to Fisher Creek!”  And finally, there we were–standing at the edge of a roaring torrent with one skinny log lying across at the location of the trail.  BUT–lying under a rock near the edge of the creek was a NOTE.  It said, “CDT hikers–there is a bigger log to cross on, downstream.”  It didn’t say how far downstream, but I thought “I don’t care how far it is–I do NOT want to ford Fisher Creek!”

Well, actually it wasn’t very far–only about 100 yards–to a decent-sized fallen tree that made a great bridge.  Fixit walked across and I crawled, but we made it.  Whew!  No more creek crossings for awhile after this!  Finally we reached the Roaring Fork trail and turned left, up a killer steep hill climb through a very green forest.  The wildflowers there were gorgeous, but oh, the climb!  By the time we reached the trailhead at the top, Fixit was so exhausted that he had to just lie down for awhile.  As usual, I went roaming around trying to confirm where we should go next.

The “next” was a 4 mile roadwalk to our last trail, the Deep Creek Trail.  The roadwalk was actually quite interesting.  We went through an area with a big sign that explained how the place was hit with a violent windstorm in 1997, which took down all the trees–BUT they were able to get in quickly, salvage the lumber and fix things up to minimize the danger of future forest fire.  Hooray–finally somebody with some sense who didn’t just say “Oh, we need to let nature take its course–leave the trees to lie there.”

We also had a great view of the snowy mountains up on the Divide, and we thought of our fellow thruhikers who opted to STAY on the CDT “high route”, and prayed that they would all be safe.  We know we’re not the only ones doing the Creede route–we are seeing recent footprints of hikers who must be just ahead of us.  When we reached the Deep Creek trail, it began in very pretty high mountain meadows, then plunged down into a steep, narrow canyon, following the creek. The mosquitoes were out in force, and they chewed me up pretty good till I finally put on my rain jacket as a defense.  As 7:00 pm drew near, we were worried about “Where will we ever find a place to camp?”  Everything was overgrown and very steep.  But finally we found a patch of ground with only a slight slope, and just barely big enough for us to fit our tent.  No cowboy camping with the mosquitoes!  But we are thinking, “Creede tomorrow!”, the creek is tumbling and singing nearby, and it feels so good to lie down!