SUMMARY:  We spent the early part of the morning hunting for trail in the snow around San Luis Peak. The snow was often hard and icy, but fortunately not steep. The altitude (close to 13,000 feet) did make it a bit hard. But once we got through all that, we were at the head of Cochetopa Creek, and in the Cochetopa Hills—big, serious, rounded hills, 10,000 feet or so high, with a lot of creeks and beaver dams.

The grass is green, but the poor forest (like so many in Colorado) is dead, killed by the pine beetle. At the end of the day, around 6:30pm, we reached what was supposed to be a log bridge crossing of Cochetopa Creek, to find the bridge underwater. We tried to cross upstream—no luck. So we will try again in the early morning.

DETAILS:  Brrrr, it was cold last night!  Given the altitude, that’s not a surprise.  The damp socks I left out to dry were frozen solid, and my shoes were semi-frozen (had to pound on them a bit so they’d soften up enough to put on).  But according to the journals I’d read, and info I got from other hikers, once we make it past San Luis Peak, it’s way easier after that.  Since San Luis Peak was in sight, and not too far away, that was a big encouragement!

And it was good to have the encouragement.  The trail went back into hide ‘n seek mode, ducking under icy hard snowfields.  Fortunately, those snowfields were pretty flat, otherwise trying to cross them would have been a dangerous occupation.  And we were so glad that each time, (after some scrutiny)  we were able to spot some trail up ahead and have an idea of where to go.  But poor Fixit was getting really paranoid about postholing.  We reached one snowfield and I started across, but when I reached the other side and looked back, I saw to my surprise, that Fixit had stopped, and was taking almost everything out of his pack!  I shouted over, “What are you doing?”  He shouted back, “My pack is too heavy. I’ll have to divide it up and make two trips.”  My immediate thought was “Oh no, if he does this at every snow crossing, we’ll be here all day!”  So I went back across the snow, picked up half his stuff and said, “It’s OK, I’ll carry it for you,” and went back across carrying my own pack plus half his stuff.  Then Fixit got across without postholing, and we pushed on.  Both of us are having a hard time with the altitude–we are at over 13,000 feet, and every uphill left us just wasted.

Because we were travelling so slowly, a couple of much younger CDT hikers caught up with us–first “Knotts” (who looks like a pirate, and was cheerfully swashbuckling his way across every snowfield, swinging his ice axe!) and then Eric the Red.  Eric commented that he was “about DONE!!” with the snow, but he was moving right along.  On the final approach to San Luis Peak, we had to cross a big “bowl” of snow, but we made it, and puffed our way up to the shoulder of our first “14-er”.  The Ley map says very cheerfully that “of course” we’d want to climb it, since we were now so close to the top, and it’s not technical.  We settled for standing on the ridge and looking at the top.  I spotted a couple of guys coming DOWN from there and reckoned it might be the two guys with the truck that we saw yesterday.  Yes, it was!  They were wearing mountaineer-type outfits, not thru-hiker outfits, and carrying ice axes (which they didn’t need).  They said they passed our tent early this morning on their way up.  Wow, they must have been REALLY early–we got up at 5:20 am!

The two guys headed back to the trailhead, and we headed down the ridge, into the end of the Cochetopa Creek valley.  Everything was still covered with snow, and complicated by acres of BUSHES.  If we could find the trail, it would take us through the bushes all right, but we were not sure where the trail was.  Finally we spotted it up ahead, and patiently squiggled through the snowy bushes to reach it.  A look ahead showed no more snow!  Yahoo!  But I guess I cheered too soon–yes, the trail was now snow-free, but it was basically either a long skinny mudhole, OR a rocky creek, both of which made for slow going.  As we slipped and slithered along, growling about the crummy trail, I did try at the same time to be thankful that we HAD a trail to follow!  Finally, well down into the valley, the trail dried out and became a very nice path through pretty meadows and forest.  We ended up eating lunch with Eric the Red, who was treating himself to a “just out of town” awesome feast of a braunschweiger & cheese sandwich.

Later in the afternoon, we reached a trailhead, and found a whole group of “4-wheeler people” and trail magic!  Water!  Cookies!  They were very cheerful and friendly, and I enjoyed meeting their very ancient doggie, Maxi, who had his own soft, comfortable “car seat”.  Maxi is almost blind and can only hobble around, apparently, but he still really enjoys heading out into the mountains!  Eric the Red was there, too, and we all enjoyed the hospitality of these Colorado folks.

After that, we had a very enjoyable and very scenic hike along Cochetopa Creek, which was really more of a roaring river due to snowmelt.  At 6:30 pm, we reached the point where the CDT crosses over to the other side of the creek, supposedly on a log bridge.  Well, we could see the end of the bridge, but the middle of it looked rather collapsed, and was well underwater.  Fixit attempted to cross, but backed off, saying that the current was too strong, and we’d better wait till morning.  Just then, walking downstream toward us, along came a very wet Eric the Red.  He said he’d tried to cross upstream, but the river knocked him down and he couldn’t make it.  So we all decided to stop and camp early, then make another attempt tomorrow morning.

We climbed back up away from the riverbed, and set up our tents…then of course we had to go LOOK at each other’s tents and gear, before calling it a day.  I am writing this while listening to the roar of the river down below, and praying that we make it across OK tomorrow!