SUMMARY:  We were climbing all morning, from 9,200 up to 12,800 ft! At first, the trail was very muddy and rutted from motorcycles, but after we crossed Hwy 125 at Willow Pass, it was more like regular trail, up and down (mostly up!) into alpine regions.

The wind was fierce and bitter cold, plus there were some snowfields to negotiate. We made it to the little Lookout House on the very top of Parkview Mountain. There we made a serious wrong turn, and followed the wrong trail markers down the wrong ridge, all the way back to forest. Then the trail disappeared, and we finally realized “Oh no! Wrong ridge!”

We had to climb all the way back to the top (groan) and this time did not miss the turn, found CDT signs and began to follow them, but with 2 1/2 hours wasted. Finally made it down off the mountain, across Troublesome Pass, and we’re camped on Poison Ridge.

DETAILS:  I don’t think that either Fixit or I got much rest last night.  Like I said, there was no truly flat ground, and the best we could find left us trying all night not to slide down to the foot of the tent and trying not to roll onto each other.  But we cheered ourselves as we packed up, with talk of the “big views” up on Parkview Mountain, which lies not far ahead.

But first we had to get to Willow Pass and Hwy 125.  The trail was very muddy and torn up/rutted by motorcycles, and was such a mess that most of the time we had to walk NEXT to it rather than on it.  Up and up we climbed, then along a very rough knife-edge ridge with awesome rock formations.  Unfortunately, there were also a lot of blowdowns to negotiate, but we finally made it down to Hwy 125.  There we hesitated momentarily.  Since we’ve lost so much time hunting for trail and losing the trail, we had discussed that maybe we should bail out at 125 and roadwalk to Steamboat Springs.  As usual, we are way low on food as a result of so much lost time.  But Fixit was determined to “go for it”, and there was the lure of getting to the top of Parkview Mountain.  Despite that lure, I was still uneasy and as we crossed the highway and headed up the trail, I was praying, “Lord, help!  All I can do is commit this hike to You; please, please guide us.”

We climbed steadily up till we cleared the forest and were in alpine country, snow and all.  Sometimes snowfields blocked the way and we had to figure out how to get around them.  The wind was fierce, and bitter cold, and there were very dark clouds on both sides of us, dumping rain and rumbling with thunder.  But where we were, it was just wind.  I grew concerned when I looked at the maps.  Things were just not quite lining up the way it seemed like they should.  But I figured, “Whatever, we’ll just keep going,” so we kept heading for the top, and at lunchtime, we found (hooray!!) a small HOLE in the mountainside that we could climb down into and hunker out of the wind to eat.  It was a very welcome respite!

But it was time to go on, so with rain starting to blow in, and the wind still fiercely cold, we found and followed a thin trail as it switchbacked up to the top, where there was a very cute “lookout house”, complete with a very fat marmot who scurried away when we approached.  We looked inside–it certainly would be possible to camp there, if needed, but it was way too early.

And that is where we made a very serious mistake.  Standing by the little house, we saw well-used trail with posts heading down the mountain, straight ahead, from where we were.  Thinking that those posts were there to mark the CDT, we happily followed them.  But if we had looked at our COMPASS, we would have realized that we were going the wrong way.  From the top of Parkview Mountain, there are 3 main ridges running down, and without knowing it, we were on the wrong ridge.

Down, down, down we went, all the way back to treeline.  And there the posts disappeared.  No problem, we thought.  From what we could see on the map, the trail should switchback down from this point, to get past a very steep place.  Well, there certainly was a steep place, but no sign of a trail.  We hunted and searched everywhere (being very careful to stay within view of each other!!) and could find absolutely nothing.  And a look at farther landmarks finally led us to conclude that we must have come down the wrong ridge.  I have no idea what all those nice posts were about.

So with deep discouragement, we turned and climbed all the way back up to the top.  At close to 13,000 feet, this was definitely not fun.  But finally we were back at the lookout house.  Fixit sat down and said, “We have GOT to get this right.”  He began trying to work with Guthook.  I stood looking at the ridges and the landmarks and the maps and trying to figure it out, too.  Based on what I was seeing, I decided which ridge was the RIGHT way down.  And looking very carefully, I could see it had POSTS on it!  Yee-hah!  The CDT!  But Fixit was still not convinced.  He did not move, and continued to sit and try to make sense out of Guthook.

What neither of us realized at the time was that had we simply taken out our COMPASS and looked at it, we would have instantly known which ridge was the right one.  But I was bullheadedly convinced that I was right, that this second ridge was the CDT.  I did take a quick look at the compass and was puzzled as to why it didn’t say the same as the map was showing me.  But the compass had been acting quirky lately and I thought, “Bother the compass!  It’s acting up again!” and ignored it.  NOT GOOD!  So I stubbornly and foolishly said, “I am SURE this is the CDT!  Look at those posts down there!” and headed out.  Fixit is way faster at hiking than I am, and I figured he would easily catch up, especially because on a rough, rocky downhill like this one was, I am slow.   And as I went down, and saw a CDT emblem on the first post, I was thrilled!  Fixit was not one bit thrilled, though.  He was furious.  He did catch up with me and let me know in no uncertain terms that I was being horribly rude and inconsiderate.  And he was right.

But there were the CDT posts!  And they clearly led the way down the mountain, switchbacking down, just as it looked on the map.  So despite the fact that Fixit was still very justifiably furious, we figured we were back on track.  After a lot of switchbacks and finding a way around a very large snowfield, we were back in the trees and back with the mosquitoes–lots of them!  We kept following the CDT trail, emblems and all.  But what we did not know was that somehow this morning, when I had noticed that our route and the map were not quite jiving together, that’s right, they WEREN’T.  Whatever route it was that got us to the top, it was NOT the CDT.  And now, without realizing it, we were on the CDT all right, but it was the trail we should have been on this morning.  We were actually headed BACK to Hwy 125.  But because we kept seeing CDT emblems, we thought we were fine.

Again, a look at the compass would have told us we were WAY wrong.  We came to what we thought was Troublesome Pass, and finally camped for the night on what we thought was Poison Ridge.  It was nice and flat.  The thunder was rumbling and rain starting to splat as we set up our tent and completely collapsed.  We were exhausted.  And very sad.  Now we were way, way behind, and contemplating running out of food.  And I was very much ashamed of being so rude to Fixit.  My prayer for tonight was along the lines of “Lord, I am SO sorry…I have so messed up today.”