SUMMARY:  Clear and cold this morning as Fixit, myself, and Eric the Red prepared to face crossing roaring Cochetopa Creek. It was very tough. Fixit and I failed in our first attempt, then tried again in another place, and we made it across, so Eric went that way, too.

The air was so cold that as we hiked away from the creek, our wet pants froze, and we ended up with ‘ice pants’! Finally we reached some sun and began to thaw out. The rest of the day was fine hiking through different kinds of forest and across a vast prairie. No picture could do it justice—what a scene!

We did meet a rancher who was out checking his gates, getting ready to bring the cows in tomorrow. He said ‘Hikers are all great about closing gates! But those 4-wheeler people never remember.’ Yay, hikers!

But most amazing was the sky—not a cloud in sight, all day. That is a first! And we loved it—no dark grey rumbling dripping clouds—just sun! We are camped tonight still in the Cochetopa Hills by a tiny creek.

DETAILS:  I did not sleep very well last night, thinking about the nasty river crossing waiting for us first thing in the morning.  Usually “river roar” is a soothing sound to fall asleep to, but not this time!

At 5:20 am, we started packing up.  Oh fun, frozen socks and semi-frozen shoes, and frost all over everything.  Brrrr, it was cold!  We carefully wrapped all our valuables in plastic and stowed them high up in our packs, preparatory to making the descent down to the river.  Noticing no signs of life in Eric the Red’s tent, we yelled over, “Hey, Eric!  Time to get up!”  Then we headed down the trail.

At the river bank, we spent some time scouting for where might be a good place to cross, and since the current was so strong, we opted for the method where I stow my trek poles and get behind Fixit while we sidestep across.  We ventured out into the river.  It was baaaaad, very scary.  We were less than half way when Fixit yelled, “Go back!  Can’t do this!”  So back we went, and climbed out again.  Fixit walked up and down looking some more, and finally picked another place.  We prayed for help to make the crossing OK, and this time, we made it…barely, but we made it.  I was mega-glad to reach the other side, even though it was full of mud and bushes and mess.  Looking back, I spotted Eric the Red, so we pointed out to him which way we went, and he made it too.  He only has one trek pole–wow, that is brave, crossing a river like this!

But we all were wet to well above the knee, and my feet had no feeling in them at all.  We were shivering in the bitter cold.  The only solution was: HIKE!  Hike fast!  Fixit and I and Eric the Red went as fast as we could along the trail, which followed the Cochetopa Creek down the valley.  Unfortunately, there was no sun, because the high mountains around us blocked it.  But at 7 am, we finally broke out into sunshine, and wow did it feel good!  We stopped to eat some breakfast, and that’s when we discovered that our wet pants had actually FROZEN–they were ice!  But the sun soon took care of that.

The morning from then on was warm and sunny, so we got completely thawed out and enjoyed the hike as the trail climbed up through a pretty aspen forest, then came out into a vast sort of high prairie land with ranches and cows.  The views were epic–a vastness of sky and prairie, surrounded by mountains, some with snow on them.  I tried to take some pictures, but no way could a mere photo convey what we were looking at.  Finally we were back in forest again, and had to stop for water at a very iffy source–time for the Aqua Mira!  It’s been working great for us; we have not been sick at all.  And it only takes a few minutes to “cook” the Aqua Mira solution and add it to our water bottles, then hike on, being careful not to drink any of it for at least 30 minutes.  It’s way quicker than filtering.  At noon, it was so warm that we actually looked for SHADE to sit in while I cooked some lunch.

This afternoon, we were following a dirt road (part of the CDT route) when we met an old rancher in his pickup truck.  He asked about some gates in the trail section we’d just come through, whether or not they were closed.  We remembered the gates, and assured him that we were very careful to close them as soon as we’d gone through–he was very pleased.  “Hikers are good about shutting gates!” he said.  “But those darn 4-wheelers never remember!”  He told us that tomorrow he’ll be bringing his herd of cows up to graze, since the snow has melted and the pastures are ready.  But he wanted to be sure about the gates!

The news about cows coming up into the mountains again was good news to us!  (Yet another indicator that the snow should be less and less of a problem from now on.)  And the amazing thing was that the SKY today was clear and sunny for the whole day–not a cloud in sight!  And that means lots of sun to MELT the snow!  Hooray!

For the rest of the day, the “trail” was mostly on closed old road, and it made quite a climb before dropping down into a valley with a little creek.  The forest here is green and healthy–no dead beetlekill trees.  We ended up camping by the little creek, and Fixit took a “bath” in the freezing snowmelt water.  He is braver than I am!  I settled for just wiping myself off.  We are both so grubby and sweaty, but we don’t care–the snow is melting!