SUMMARY:  Dave and Elaine treated us to breakfast and drove us all the way up to Monarch Crest—they have been such an encouragement at a time when we really needed it. Hikers were arriving at Monarch Crest even during the brief time we were there. We roadwalked over 8 miles down to Hwy 50 to pick up the Colorado Trail—had to ‘make like paint on the wall’ several times in places where the road shoulder was narrow and there were log trucks going by.

What a relief to reach the CT! We hiked enough to get away from the road, then had lunch. After that, we enjoyed our new and different trail. It is quite steep in places, but obviously cared for. Also, there were a lot more people—so great to see fellow hikers!

DETAILS:   We didn’t have to get up till 6:30!  Sure was good to sleep in.  And we still had plenty of time to load up our packs, go outside and talk to other CDT hikers who are staying at the motel.  They are all headed for the Pancake Palace, but we waited for Dave and Elaine, then we went to the Palace, too.  It is a great place for hungry thru-hikers!  Besides the food, we were so blessed by Dave and Elaine’s prayers and encouragement.  We had a hard time persuading them, though, that we wanted them to take us all the way back up to Monarch Crest instead of just to the Colorado Trail.  “But you’ll have to walk all those miles back down from the Crest, along the highway!” said Elaine.  We told her that our policy is to do our best to leave an unbroken trail of our own footprints from Mexico to Canada, regardless of what route we may take, so that meant going back to Monarch Crest and THEN walking down to the CT.

It was a beautiful morning, and when Dave and Elaine dropped us off in the parking lot, there were CDT hikers hanging out.  Doubleshot was there, getting ready to leave (on the CDT, snow and all), while Slapshot was waiting for his friend Kenobi.  We told Slapshot that he and Kenobi should definitely try the chili at the Monarch Crest store.  There was also another hiker I’d never met before.

Then we headed on the 8-mile (I think it was about that much) walk back down Highway 50.  In some places the shoulder of the road was so narrow that when cars and (yikes!) log trucks went by, we had to “make like paint on a wall”.  But finally, there was the CT trail post, and we gladly left the highway behind.  The map I got at the sports store had emblems to indicate the difficulty of each CT section, and this one was marked as a “Black Diamond” level climb.  No kidding.  It headed right on UP!

But it was lunchtime, so as soon as we could find a comfortable spot under a shady tree, we stopped to eat.  While we were doing that, along came some other backpackers, who were doing the CT with their dogs.  They were headed in the opposite direction from us.  After lunch, we continued the climb.  Huff, puff.  At one point we stopped for a short rest, and looked up even higher, up at where the CDT was–in really high mountains with plenty of snow.  So glad we are NOT up there, dealing with that!  And big dark thunderclouds were piling up as well–another good reason to be down lower instead of up above timberline.

So far, the CT is not an easy trail–it is STEEP!–but at least we are not dealing with rough, icy snow and wondering “Where did the trail go?”  Also, we are meeting a lot of other hikers, both backpackers and dayhikers.  After hiking basically alone for so long, it is nice to see other people on the trail.  And though we are in forest, there are still some views.  We passed the trail for climbing Mt. Shavano, a 14’er, and even though the CT was rather steep, we appreciated the amount of work that had been put into it–there were causeways through the wet meadows and little bridges over the creeks.  So our feet are actually staying dry!

Tonight we are camped at the junction of the CT and Trail 255.  It’s cloudy, and thunder is rumbling nearby.  And it’s not bitter cold, as it was up high on the CDT–it is actually fairly pleasant.  It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings.

SUMMARY:   We are both so tired out from battling the snow on the CDT ever since Chama, that we decided to take a zero in Salida. That also meant we got to go to church—perfect timing because the church youth group had just returned from a mission trip to Thailand, and were ‘reporting back’. It was wonderful.

We also watched the kayakers on the Arkansas River that runs right through town—they are having a big kayaking shindig. But we had a big decision to make—do we return to battle snow on the CDT tomorrow, or take the lower elevation Colorado Trail? After much discussion of ‘stubborn’ vs ‘sensible’ options, we finally went with the Colorado Trail. We will see what happens!

DETAILS:   Even though we are now behind schedule, we decided to take a zero day in Salida.  We thought the Rockies would be like the Sierras on the PCT–wrong!  Battling the snow and steep trail and high altitude has just worn us out.  Being 68 and 76 years old, we can’t bounce back like we used to.  We need this zero!

Staying in Salida also meant we could go to church, hooray!  So after breakfast, we walked over to the nearest church, 1st Baptist of Salida, and arrived 15 minutes early.  Good thing we did–when we got there, we found a note on the door that said, “Only one service today, 10:00, at the high school.”  Hmmm, now what?  Just then, up drove a little pickup truck, and out jumped what turned out to be the youth pastor.  He gave us a ride to the high school–and that meant we had a whole hour to wait.  Fixit opted for walking back to the motel (not far) and trying to get something on the internet, and I opted for just sitting comfortably in a sunpatch at the high school to read the Bible.

Finally it was 10:00, and we found out why they were only having one service–their youth group had just returned from two weeks in Thailand, and were doing a presentation.  Rather than have them do everything twice, the church opted for one service.  But there were too many people to all fit in the regular church building, so they went to the high school.  Turned out that the kids went over to help a group that takes in children (especially girls) who are in danger of being trafficked.  They helped put up a new building, taught English, played soccer, and also travelled to a desperately poor village up in the mountains where some of the children come from, so they could see first hand how awful the situation was and understand why families wanted something better for their children.

Best of all, the Salida teenagers got to see God’s perfect timing at work in several situations, and they each grew spiritually by leaps and bounds.  I was so impressed by the stories they told and it was a great experience.  So glad we could be there to hear all they had to say!

After that, we walked downtown to a sporting goods store, where Fixit hoped to find new tips for his trek poles.  No luck–they only carried Black Diamond, and his poles are Lekis.  But he did get some new socks, and I got a map that shows the Colorado Trail and CDT from Monarch Crest to Twin Lakes.  Then we went and hung out by the Arkansas River for awhile to watch the kayakers.  The whole downtown is crammed with people for the kayaking shindig.

Back at the motel, Fixit and I looked hard at the map I’d bought and discussed our options for tomorrow.  One side of us (the stubborn side) says, “We are CDT hikers!  Back to the CDT!  The snow is melting more every day!  And the CT doesn’t look any easier than the CDT, except for no snow.”  The other (sensible) side is, “Be real.  We are old.  We are DONE with battling snow. We can’t do another 70 miles of it.  We want to make it to Canada, not beat ourselves up in Colorado.  The CT and CDT are parallel.  Let’s do the CT.”

In the end we decided for the CT.  The two trails come back together again at Twin Lakes, which is our next destination.  We’ll get back on the CDT at that point.

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.

SUMMARY:  We still did a lot of rollercoaster on the Divide today, but the trend was for up rather than down. The first big ‘up’ was almost unreal. It was so long, so steep, and so rocky. “Nobody in their right mind would ever want to tackle this,” I said. Yup—thruhiking is a really different mindset from normal.

After that, we had a lot of “climb over piles of snow as the trail goes through the forest.” We did meet 4 mountain bikers who were blasting their way through the snowpiles. Impressive! We reached Marshall Pass—views spectacular– of green meadows, snowy mountains, etc. Then came another very long climb, again dealing with getting over piles of snow, and we are camped at 11,800 feet, tucked into a little grove of trees for protection from wind. The trail ahead is completely snow covered.

DETAILS:  We were camped last night in a high altitude forest, and as it turned out, I didn’t guess quite rightly WHERE we were camped.  I thought we were 2 miles farther along than we actually were.  I miss having the “data book” that we had on the PCT: with that, we could pretty much “nail it” about where we stopped and how many miles we had done.  On the CDT, I have no idea, and I’m mostly guessing where we are.

The morning began with more rollercoastering on the Divide, but suddenly there came a moment when we popped out of the forest onto a large high prairie where we could see for miles!  Big, gray, pointy, snowy mountains lay right in front of us; it looked like we had only a few more “lumps ‘n humps” Divide to do before we reached them.  As we hiked along, we passed a couple of old, collapsed cabins–evidence that people once tried to live here at least part time.

Then it was back into the forest, and goodbye to views.  At first the trail was level, but then we came to an unbelievably steep and rocky uphill.  I stood at the bottom of it shaking my head.  “This is CRAZY!”  But there was even trail engineering–nicely built rock steps and other features–that headed literally straight up the hill.  “Do these Colorado trail people even know what a switchback is?” I said to Fixit.  Back on the PCT, we used to complain occasionally that the “PCT” should be renamed the “PSMT” for “Pacific Side of the Mountain Trail” because it contoured around mountains rather than going up n’ over.  Wish the CDT would go on the SIDES of the mountains more!  (We heard later from hikers who’ve done the AT that the AT also goes straight up and straight down, with no switchbacking or contouring.  Crazy.)

But we didn’t dither for long, and tackled the climb.  Whew.  It was tough.  But at the top–well worth it!  We were out onto grassy hilltops with awesome views again.  Wow!

Alas, that didn’t last long, either.  The trail headed back into forest, but this time it was forest-with-snow.  Groan.  We had no trouble spotting the trail, but were constantly having to climb over big piles of snow, including the fun of postholing.  Poor Fixit–he HATES postholing, and it kept happening to him.  Eventually the forest was thinner and there was a bit less snow on the trail, when to our amazement, we met a group of mountain bikers–the first we have seen!  Their approach to piles of snow on the trail was to blast on through!

Finally we reached Marshall Pass, where we stopped to get water, and admired a 1900’s era cabin that was available to hikers.  I would love to have camped there, but it was way too early to stop, and we were thinking “Monarch Pass!  Food!”  So we kept on going, into the second big climb of the day.  The route was a road at first (still often blocked with piles of snow), then it was back to trail.  Up, up, up it went.  Our tails were dragging.  The relentless uphill at 11,000-plus feet elevation, plus piles of snow and postholing, made for slow going.  We knew it was only 4 1/2 miles from Marshall Pass to another hiker cabin, but 7:00 came and we knew we would never make it to the cabin.  We couldn’t stop, though, since there was nothing but hillside and no flat places.  Finally at 7:15, we reached the top of the climb.  We were pretty much above treeline now, at 11,800 feet, and snow covered almost everything.  It took a bit of searching to find a small flat snowfree place tucked among a hardy grove of small trees.  We needed the protection–the wind is blowing again and it’s really cold.  But we are nicely sheltered now, and it is so good to be horizontal!  And it’s a very cheering prospect tomorrow–Monarch Pass, our next resupply!

SUMMARY:  Brr! We needed all our layers this morning—it was 15 degrees. But it was another clear, sunny day except for forest fire smoke in the morning. It cleared up finally, to our great relief! We spent the day today literally walking on top of the Divide, and the trail did not contour like the PCT does—it made like  rollercoaster—first way up, then way down, over and over again.

Views were few—we were mostly in forest—but what views we had were spectacular, with snowy mountains on the horizon, and deep green valleys way down below.

The trail itself was unbelievably rocky, and we had to step over a lot of little trees that had fallen across the trail from the weight of winter snow. Found a flat place to camp, but it’s very rocky, too.

DETAILS:  I think this may have been our coldest morning yet on the CDT–15 degrees, according to Fixit’s little thermometer.  Instead of condensation inside our tent, we had ICE, and our shoes were again semi-frozen.  Poor Fixit has a really hard time on cold mornings–he says it’s like a race against time, because when his hands get too cold, they don’t work very well.  So once he gets out of his warm sleeping bag, he works as fast as possible to get packed up, before his fingers are too cold and stiff.  This morning was so cold that he lost the “race” and his hands became virtually useless.  I had to finish his packup for him, and even fasten his hip belt and sternum strap, because he couldn’t do it.  You might say, “‘Why not wear gloves?”  The problem is, the gloves make it impossible to do the “fine work” involved in packup.

We were both glad to get moving along the trail!  And we were especially glad, because to the south of us, the sky is a haze of forest fire smoke, and we could smell it, too.  We were sorry to see the smoke, but grateful that it was BEHIND us and not in front of us!  So between the smoke behind us and the cold around us, we hiked as fast as we could through a very pretty, very green valley, till we reached the highway, where a short walk along the shoulder of the road took us to another dirt road that followed a little creek up a canyon, back up into the hills.

At last we reached the point where the CDT turned off the road and became a trail again, hooray–but whoa!  What a trail!  It headed straight up to the Divide, and from that point on, for the whole rest of the day, it made like a rollercoaster–waaaaay up, then waaaaaay down, over and over again.  And we’re not talking nice easy rollercoaster.  The ups and downs were very steep, and very rocky.  To add to the fun, there were a lot of little trees that had collapsed over the trail from the weight of winter snow.

At the top of the “ups”, we were at around 12,800 feet, which made the climbs really tough for us older folks, and really slowed us down.  But at least, even at 12,800 feet, the snow was minimal and gave us no problems.  By lunchtime, though, we were almost out of water, and I was getting worried.  But by early afternoon, we reached a creek, where we made a serious “water stop”–not only did we drink a lot (we were so thirsty) but we took on full loads of water that we hope will last us well into tomorrow.  Ouch, our packs were heavy, but it was worth it to have no more water worries for awhile.

We continued on the rollercoaster of the Divide–the disappointment was that there were hardly any views.  Basically we were walking through the trees on a horrendously steep and rocky trail.  At the top of a couple of the “ups” we did get a glimpse through the trees of snowy mountains on the horizon, and deep green valleys far below.  Nice!  But it seems that the mosquitoes have hatched out here, because whenever we stopped for a break, there were so many of them that I had to put on my raingear, and I got a number of bites while I was hiking.

But I am very grateful to the Lord for His help to me on negotiating this rocky, steep trail!  Though I haven’t been able to move at full speed, I have been able to move right along, and I have not done any faceplants!

At 7:00 we were “up top” on a very rocky ridge.  Finding a flat place was not too hard, but finding a flat place that was not full of rocks….hmmmmm!  The wind was blowing, too, and we were glad to finally find a spot in the lee of some trees, where the ground was relatively rock-free.  Sort of.  It was still kind of lumpy.  But we are so tired that I think a few lumps under us will not make any difference!  As best I can figure it, we have a couple more days of this before we reach Monarch Pass.

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!

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!

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.

SUMMARY: We really had “town moto” this morning and hurried as fast as we could along the Deep Creek trail. But there were the usual suspects all along the way—lots of fallen trees, muddy trail, and tributaries to ford. But the canyon has wonderful cliffs, rock formations, and wildflowers.

Finally we got to Creede, which has even more spectacular cliffs! And we made it to church, with a youth group taco lunch after.  (Hmm—they were lucky we were the only thruhikers there). Before dinner, met a French couple who are also CDT hikers!

DETAILS:  We were very motivated to hit the trail this morning!  Creede ahead!  Food!  Maybe even church, if we could get there in time!  And the trail looks like it will be all downhill!

Well, the trail had other ideas.  All of the “usual suspects” had to take turns making for some tough going.  There were BLOWDOWNS of all sorts, ranging from 1) Step over  to 2) Crawl under  to 3) Walk around to 4) Swing under (actually, #4 is sort of fun–you grab the log and SWING underneath and pop up on the other side).  There were tributaries of Deep Creek to ford, which was probably good, because the trail was so muddy, every ford gave us a chance to rinse off our shoes!  Our hiking pattern went something like: Hike as fast as possible, come to an obstacle, figure out how to get around/through it, then back to fast as possible again for a short distance, to the next obstacle.

We were so deep down in the canyon that there was no nice warm sunpatch to sit in for breakfast, until 8:00 am.  Wow, were we hungry by then!  But this is a very pretty canyon, with dramatic rocky cliffs and wildflowers everywhere.  While we were eating breakfast, two ladies came by with 3 dogs, which came over to sniff at us.  Our reaction was, “Great!  We must be near the trailhead!” And we were–soon we reached the end of the canyon, where it opened out into a wide valley, complete with an airport, a VERY spiffy upscale RV park and a lot of new homes.

Along our side of the valley was the Rio Grande River, roaring a muddy brown torrent of snowmelt….with a bridge!  Whew!  We headed for town along the road, marvelling at the spectacular cliffs and canyons that form the backdrop for the valley.  What a setting!  We headed straight for the Snowshoe Lodge, got a room and had JUST enough time to take a quick shower and change into our “town” shirts before heading to the Creede Baptist Church, a thriving, happy group of fellow Christians.  The Sunday School was just wrapping up, but we had time to snag coffee and a scone before the church service, which was great.  The pastor was just starting a series of messages on the apostle Peter and how God changed his life–and can change ours.

And it turned out we picked the perfect Sunday to come to Creede–the church youth group was having a fundraiser after the service: AYCE tacos!  Oh yeah!  Fixit and I had a great time eating tacos and talking to the folks in the church.  Good thing we were the only thruhikers, though–I’m not sure the youth would have had enough “taco stuff” to feed a lot of hungry hikers!

Back at the Snowshoe Lodge, we did as many town chores as we could before just plain collapsing for awhile till around 5:30.  We were getting ready to head out and look for some dinner, when I happened to speak to the people in the room next to ours.  They are an older couple from France, and they are also hiking the CDT!  Like us, they took the shortcut down to Creede (they also found it to be tough going).   They said they had made it from Chama to Pagosa Springs on the trail, by taking SEVEN days of food and they also had a good GPS, and even then, they barely made it.  They showed us their GPS setup, which was basically a phone app that was WAY better than the Guthook we have been trying to use.  They arrived yesterday, but too late for the post office (only open from 10:-11:30 on Saturdays).  So now they (like us) will pick up their box tomorrow, then wait for a friend who is behind them on the trail.  We ended up having dinner with them and had a great time.

At the end of the day, we looked around Creede a little bit, and I have to say this is one awesome town.  Apparently there are not a lot of people here in winter, but in summer, literally thousands show up.  There is a local live theater company and a lot of interesting businesses.  We went back to the Lodge and crashed.  Back to the trail tomorrow!

SUMMARY:  Today was “follow and ford the creeks day”! Right off the bat, we forded Sawtooth Creek, then followed a trail that took us to a ford of Goose Creek (scary!!!). Then we followed Goose Creek for miles, down its pretty canyon, to a ford of Fisher Creek.

That would have been a serious whitewater ford, but there was a note on the ground telling of a nice big log to cross on, just downstream. Hooray! We made the crossing safely. A bit later, we switched to a trail that followed Roaring Fork Creek, and now, at close of day, we are following yet another creek, Deep Creek, down its steep, narrow canyon. It was very tough to find a place to camp!

DETAILS:  Our first “to do” agenda item today was “FIND the Sawtooth Trail!”  We are so tired of bushwhacking; man do we want to be back on a TRAIL!  So we started off by a ford of Sawtooth Creek, which was right by our campsite, bushwhacked a bit more, and then hooray!  The trail!  But it was hard to follow.  Often it disappeared in soggy meadows, and it was full of blowdowns to climb over.  Finally we lost it altogether.  Looking at our maps, we concluded that it must have turned and gone up the mountain to our left, so we began a bushwhacking climb through the sadly burned forest.

Finally we reached the top, where we’d hoped to locate the trail, but no luck.  Fixit wanted to stop and eat breakfast, but I was very worried about the upcoming ford of Goose Creek.  Based on what I’d seen of the creeks here so far, I anticipated a very nasty crossing, and I was anxious to get to it as early in the morning as possible.  I was also really frustrated about not finding the trail–surely it was right nearby.  I was so worried about this that the idea of sitting down and eating was just impossible.  So I told Fixit, “Why don’t you sit and eat, while I go look for trail–I will stay close by.”  And I was VERY careful about that!   I did not want to lose sight of him again!

I did not find any trail, but I was still convinced it was not far away.  Turned out I was right–after Fixit had a snack, we headed DOWN the other side of the mountain, and about halfway down, hooray!  The trail again!  A nice trail, too!  We followed it till it reached the ford of Goose Creek, which looked scary but do-able.  The creek bed was not wide, but the current was awfully strong.  So Fixit went across first and reached the other side OK.  But then he came back!  “I don’t think you can handle this by yourself” he said.  So what we did was he got BEHIND me as a sort of support, and I made it OK.  Wow, was I glad I had NEW trek poles!  My poor old rickety ones would never have made it in that whitewater.   On the other side, we found a pleasant “sunpatch” and sat down for breakfast at last.  I could eat in peace, knowing that the Goose Creek crossing was done!

Then it was many miles of following Goose Creek along its canyon, which was lined with a number of spectacular rock formations.  We crossed lots of side tributaries, big and small and there was so much snowmelt runoff that the trail was mostly muddy or marshy.  I eyed every creek crossing, thinking, “Oh boy, we are in for it when we get to Fisher Creek!”  And finally, there we were–standing at the edge of a roaring torrent with one skinny log lying across at the location of the trail.  BUT–lying under a rock near the edge of the creek was a NOTE.  It said, “CDT hikers–there is a bigger log to cross on, downstream.”  It didn’t say how far downstream, but I thought “I don’t care how far it is–I do NOT want to ford Fisher Creek!”

Well, actually it wasn’t very far–only about 100 yards–to a decent-sized fallen tree that made a great bridge.  Fixit walked across and I crawled, but we made it.  Whew!  No more creek crossings for awhile after this!  Finally we reached the Roaring Fork trail and turned left, up a killer steep hill climb through a very green forest.  The wildflowers there were gorgeous, but oh, the climb!  By the time we reached the trailhead at the top, Fixit was so exhausted that he had to just lie down for awhile.  As usual, I went roaming around trying to confirm where we should go next.

The “next” was a 4 mile roadwalk to our last trail, the Deep Creek Trail.  The roadwalk was actually quite interesting.  We went through an area with a big sign that explained how the place was hit with a violent windstorm in 1997, which took down all the trees–BUT they were able to get in quickly, salvage the lumber and fix things up to minimize the danger of future forest fire.  Hooray–finally somebody with some sense who didn’t just say “Oh, we need to let nature take its course–leave the trees to lie there.”

We also had a great view of the snowy mountains up on the Divide, and we thought of our fellow thruhikers who opted to STAY on the CDT “high route”, and prayed that they would all be safe.  We know we’re not the only ones doing the Creede route–we are seeing recent footprints of hikers who must be just ahead of us.  When we reached the Deep Creek trail, it began in very pretty high mountain meadows, then plunged down into a steep, narrow canyon, following the creek. The mosquitoes were out in force, and they chewed me up pretty good till I finally put on my rain jacket as a defense.  As 7:00 pm drew near, we were worried about “Where will we ever find a place to camp?”  Everything was overgrown and very steep.  But finally we found a patch of ground with only a slight slope, and just barely big enough for us to fit our tent.  No cowboy camping with the mosquitoes!  But we are thinking, “Creede tomorrow!”, the creek is tumbling and singing nearby, and it feels so good to lie down!