SUMMARY:  This morning we had a hot breakfast feast provided by the Snowshoe Lodge. We 5 CDT hikers ate till we were stuffed! Then it was time to go to the Post Office, do extra food shopping (we are bringing 6 days of food instead of the original 4 1/2), and mailing our snowshoes home.

Now, back to the CDT trail—a 10 mile walk up an old mine road. Wow! It winds up a dramatic narrow canyon, with old mining buildings still there, and mines put to new uses—like an underground fire department, community center, and museum.

Finally we were out of the canyon, into the open mountains, and back to the CDT way up on the Divide. There is still plenty of snow, but so far no trouble finding the trail!

DETAILS:  We are so used to getting up early that both Fixit and I woke up at 5:00 am, and then just lay around (hungry!) waiting for what we’ve heard is THE BEST hot breakfast on the CDT, provided by the Snowshoe Lodge!  And as it turned out, those rumors were true!  There was hot oatmeal, a hot breakfast casserole, all kinds of fruit, bagels, muffins, yogurt, coffee, juice, etc.  Wow.  There were 5 of us CDT hikers–Fixit and I, the French couple, and Eric the Red.  We and Eric plan to head out today.  As soon as the post office was open, we got our box, and stopped off at the park to pay our respects at the veteran’s memorial, which was simple but very impressive.  We are grateful to all vets–no way would we have the freedom to hike this trail if it were not for them.

Back at the Snowshoe Lodge, I spread out all the contents of the box and decided to add another 2 days of food, just in case.  I am tired of having to bail off trail due to running out of food.  Meanwhile, Bill boxed up our snowshoes and ice axes to send home–though there is still snow ahead of us, we’ve heard it’s not anywhere near what we have been dealing with.  Then I went to buy more food, AND get a road map, in case we have to bail again.  (Hope NOT!)

With six days of generous food supplies, our packs felt heeeeeeavy!  But we need the calories!  I have almost run out of “fat padding” on me, and even Fixit is starting to look a little skinny.  With moments to spare, we had our packs loaded and got out of our room before the 11:00 am check out time.  What’s really nice about Snowshoe Lodge is that it’s totally a family operation, and the kids help with everything.  One of the boys (looked to be around 12 years old or so) was waiting to head in and start redoing our room.

Fixit and I headed out down Main Street, stopping at the PO to mail our snow gear home, then got HUGE burgers at a hotdog ‘n burger stand, polished them off, and waddled out of Creede, up the canyon into the historic mine district.  The canyon is very narrow, with dramatic, high redrock walls, and tucked into the crevices and side canyons were all kinds of old mining buildings.  Some are still being used, but not for mining–the Creede Community Center, the volunteer fire department, and the mining museum are all located UNDERGROUND in some of the old mines along the canyon road.

The road climbs very steeply at first (huff, puff!) but finally settles down to a more reasonable grade, until we left the canyon behind and were back into high mountain scenery–meadows, forests, creeks, etc.  as we followed Road 503 higher and higher.  Trees became more and more sparse, and things were looking increasingly alpine, but we still did spot some beaver dams in the creek below the road.  ( Hmmm, better be careful of our water!  We don’t want to get “beaver fever.”)

Eventually we passed a working mine, named “Equity Mine”, which fairly bristled with “No Trespassing” signs.  Colorado people sure have a thing about private property–many other places we had passed along the road were the same way.  A couple of guys passed us by, riding in a brown pickup truck.  They said they’re going to the trailhead to set up a “base camp” for climbing San Luis Peak (14,014 feet) tomorrow.  Sure enough, a little while later when we reached the CDT access trail, there they were, setting up a tent!  We said hi, and kept on going, back up to the Divide and the CDT, high on a bare ridgetop.

We were very glad to see that though there was snow around, it was still easy to find the trail, AND the ground was mostly dry, instead of marshy and muddy with snowmelt.  The trail was somewhat steep, but we took it slow, bracing ourselves against the very strong, cold wind.  Clouds were racing by overhead.  Because of the wind, we didn’t stop for supper until we’d reached the top of the climb and had started down the other side, where we found a protected spot.

Wow, what an awesome scene lay before us!  We were completely surrounded by multiple impressive snowy peaks and deep valleys.  We ate our supper and just drank it all in.  Then best of all–I spotted two DEER!   Yahoo!  That means the deer have decided that it’s time to return to the mountains!  That means things should start getting a lot better for us, too!

After supper, we followed the CDT way down into a valley.  Just before it started to climb out again, we spotted a good campsite and decided to stop 15 minutes early, since it looked like up ahead was very steep for a long way, with no camping potential.  There were also some snowfields, which means wet ground and snowmelt.  So we set up our tent (dealing with the wind, which was still pretty strong) and we’d barely gotten inside when the thunder began to rumble.  Whew!  Glad we didn’t try to keep going!   But we have great hopes for tomorrow of being able to actually FIND and FOLLOW the trail.