SUMMARY:  The first thing we tackled this morning was the game called ‘find the trail’. It had disappeared into a large snowfield with no tracks to follow. But a walk around the edge led to the cry of “Trail! Yay!” After that we had snow in the forest and finally, for awhile, clear, easy hiking on a nice level trail with awesome views.

Then we came to a snow cornice 10′ high, almost straight up, and chopped steps up the side with a rock. On another big, high, steep snowfield, we met 2 guys on mountain bikes. Finally we were only 2 miles from Monarch Crest, and the snow still said “No, I won’t let you go”. It was really bad. By the time we reached the pass, we were wiped out, and hitched a ride to Salida.

DETAILS:  We sure had a nice camp last night, on cushioned, pineneedly ground, well protected from the wind.  We could hear the wind all night long, but the only effect it had on us was to shake loose more pine needles, which sounded like a light rain falling on our tent.

The morning was clear and very cold.  All the snow was rock hard, and all the snowmelt was ice.  The first thing we had to do was find the trail–it had disappeared into the snow.  But we looked ahead and saw that there was an end to the snowfield, so we walked AROUND it (not on it–too hard and slippery).  And hooray–there was the trail again!

From that point on, the route was a mix of very nice, clear, level trail (with gorgeous views!!) and snow-in-forest and snowbanks and a snow cornice. The cornice was a good ten feet high, and almost straight up, but not quite.  We found rocks nearby and used them to chop footholds so that we could climb over it.  Whew.  I was glad when I finally pulled myself over that top edge.  Awhile later we came to a large, steep snowfield lying across the trail on a steep mountainside.  We were standing and looking at it, deciding what the best approach would be to this obstacle, when to our amazement, two BIKE riders appeared, coming toward us over the top of the snow, pushing their bikes.  It turned out that the guys were doing a survey to see if the CDT was ready yet for mountain biking season, and their conclusion was “NOT ready!”  But they themselves were determined to push on through.

The snow is definitely beginning to show all the characteristics of OLD snow–suncups, melt lines, dirt, and in the forest, lots of pine needles and twigs.  But….sigh…it is still there.  After meeting the bikers, and getting around that steep sidehill snow, though, we found the trail clear and well-maintained for several miles.  Wow, we could actually stretch our legs and just HIKE–no snow, no rocks, no steep climbs, just awesome views and great trail.  We felt like we were flying.  I thought, “At this rate, it won’t be long till we get to the Pass!”

Alas, the good times did not last.  The trail was starting to go downhill, but back into forest and back into endless piles of snow we had to climb over.  Here’s how it works: 1) At the “leading edge” of the snow pile, you WILL posthole.  But you are determined and keep going.  2) Finally you get to the firmer snow, and can walk on top of it.  3) Then you reach the other edge (which usually is steep, with a 3-4 foot drop to the ground), and you WILL posthole again.  You just hope you don’t have a nasty fall when this happens.  Visualize yourself doing that over and over and over again, and that’s what it was like for us.

On the bright side, though, there were very plain footprints to follow as we went through the snowy forest.  Without those footprints, we would have had no idea where the trail was.  We were very glad for the other hikers who went through here before we did!

As we got closer to Monarch Crest and the road, the trail did “clear off” for a bit, and we thought, “Yay, we are done with the snow!”  But the snow had other ideas.  “No, no, I won’t let you go!” seemed to be what it was saying. Again we found ourselves slipping, sliding and postholing over very rough, lumpy, icy snow.  I looked at the map and said, “This won’t last–we’re almost to the FWD road!”  But I was so wrong.  Even the road was more of the same.  We were so tired and beat up from battling the snow, that when at 11:15 we finally came to some bare ground in the sun, we just stopped and collapsed for a bit.  Because we were so close to the road now and there were communication towers on the hilltop just ahead of us, we gave our cellphone a try, and it worked!  We got a good, clear signal, and were able to reach a couple who live near Salida whom we’ve been wanting to meet.  We’ve never seen them before, but they are “friends of friends” and are involved in Christian ministries, similar to us.  We were able to make plans to meet them down in Salida.

Originally, our plan was for just a “pit stop” at Monarch Crest–pick up our resupply box, eat something and keep going.  But we are so exhausted that we need to just stop for a bit.

So we shouldered our packs again and faced the last of the snow.  We met a group of families with kids, and the kids were having a blast snowballing each other.  Glad they are having fun!  And then, to our great delight–trail magic!  Somebody left a cooler of goodies for CDT hikers!  Even though it wasn’t that far to our resupply, we HAD to stop and enjoy a cold drink at least, before going on to finish the walk into the Monarch Crest store.

The Store was great!  They are super hiker-friendly, and even have a special area of the store set aside for hikers, where you can leave your pack, sort out your resupply, etc.  And EAT.  We were so hungry!  We had big bowls of chili (awesomely good chili!), sandwiches and ice cream. So good!   But the staff at the store also warned us that we might have a hard time finding a place to stay in Salida–apparently this is the weekend of a huge kayaking event on the Arkansas River.  All we could do was say, “Lord, you know where we are–help us find someplace to stay tonight”, before heading out into the parking lot to find a ride.  That took awhile–everybody either had no room for us or they were going the other way.  But finally I found a very kind Swiss tourist guy who was out on a road trip through Arizona and Colorado.  Fortunately, I had mailed myself the “Yogi town guide” page for Salida, so we knew where to go.  The Swiss guy dropped us off at the Circle K Motel (recommended as being hiker-friendly) and whew, they had ONE room left.  We quickly went into “town chores”–showers, laundry, food sorting, etc.  It was actually HOT in Salida and we had to turn on the air conditioning in our room.  What a change from brrrrrr! up in the mountains!

For dinner that night, we finally got to meet Dave and Elaine McNab.  Dave and Fixit both go into jails and prisons, to talk to the prisoners about how to really know Jesus and how He can change their life.  We have seen HUGE and miraculous changes in men who do have that encounter.  Fixit likes to ask, “Christ died for your sins and offers you forgiveness,  and He rose from the dead and offers to come into your life and change the attitude of your heart to become the kind of person God wants to live with forever.  Does that sound like a good offer?  Is that something you want?”

We had a wonderful dinner (I got to eat some elk!) and a wonderful time talking about all we had seen God do in changing the lives of even the “baddest of the bad”.

Then it was back to the Circle K on a very hot night.   We are so tired.  We had planned to head back to the trail tomorrow, but finally decided that since it was going to be Sunday, we could not pass up an opportunity to go to church and to rest.  So tomorrow we will take a zero.