{"id":324,"date":"2016-05-27T23:09:05","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T23:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=324"},"modified":"2017-05-25T14:43:33","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T14:43:33","slug":"moosh-goosh-crunch-up-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/05\/27\/moosh-goosh-crunch-up-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday, May 27 Moosh, Goosh, Crunch Up & Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"may-27-7\"SUMMARY:\u00a0 <\/strong>It snowed last night–just a dusting, but it was really pretty along the trail this morning–even the old snowdrifts looked pristine and white.\u00a0 But every meadow we crossed had turned into a swamp of freezing cold snowmelt water.\u00a0 Moosh, goosh.\u00a0 Not fun.\u00a0 Then in the forest, it was crunch, crunch, whooompf as we walked on snow and sometimes postholed.\u00a0 A very long (most of the day) downhill through changing forest suddenly ended with a killer climb up a colorful sandstone mountain.\u00a0 Huff & puff!\u00a0 But we made the top, ate some food and now we are cowboy camped despite some clouds that look a bit iffy.\u00a0 We are tired.\u00a0 But what a varied day!<\/p>\n

DETAILS:\u00a0 <\/strong>It sprinkled and splattered rain on us for\u00a0a little while last night, and then the rain turned to snow. Fixit is an old guy, which means he has to get up a lot at night, and he said when the snow hit the ground, it mostly just melted, but the snow on our\u00a0tent didn’t, so every time he got\u00a0up, he also knocked the snow off the tent.<\/p>\n

It was 30 degrees this morning when we were packing up, and there was a very pretty\u00a0dusting of snow along the trail\u2014even the old snowdrifts looked pristine and white. But a bitter cold wind was blowing, and the trail was mostly either downhill or level, so it was a bit hard to stay warm.\u00a0 The trail tread itself grew muddier and muddier.\u00a0 In some places, we had to\u00a0make fairly extensive detours to avoid the mud.<\/p>\n

Finally we came to a wide green meadow.\u00a0 “Look, how pretty!” I said.\u00a0 We could see where to go–there was a post–but when we started across, we made the discovery that the pretty meadow with its green grass was in reality a snowmelt swamp.\u00a0 We had no choice but to slog across in the\u00a0ice-cold water and mud and grass.\u00a0 Moosh, goosh!\u00a0 By the time we reached the other side, our feet were freezing.\u00a0 Then the\u00a0trail headed into the forest, where there was a lot of old snow, so\u00a0it was crunch, crunch,\u00a0 then whoompf, we’d posthole.\u00a0 Fun!\u00a0 But on the bright side, it was pretty obvious where to go, because there were plenty of footprints in the snow.<\/p>\n

The same thing happened at every meadow we came to.\u00a0 Meadow = freezing swamp.<\/p>\n

Eventually the snow was less, and that’s when the CDT did one of its tricks where the trail LOOKS like you should go straight, but in reality, you are supposed to make a sharp turnoff.\u00a0 We kept on going straight, but fortunately, only a short time later, I became uneasy.\u00a0 I had been trying really hard to keep track of where we were on the map, and I asked Fixit to stop so I could check.\u00a0 Sure enough, we weren’t going the right way. “We’re going south and following a creek,” I said.\u00a0 “Not good.\u00a0 We should be going east, and NO creek.”\u00a0 So we turned around and went back very carefully, till we found the turnoff.<\/p>\n

For much of the rest of the day, the trail mostly headed downhill, and through a lot of forest (some of it beetlekilled, sadly) \u00a0and aspen groves.\u00a0 In the late afternoon, we found ourselves at the foot of a colorful sandstone mountain, and the CDT headed right up it!\u00a0\u00a0Great, a killer climb at the end of the day!\u00a0 Oh well, we tackled it anyway and made it to the top (though we felt pretty fried).\u00a0 Across the top and down the other side we went, into a green valley with a corral.\u00a0 And that’s where we stopped and camped.\u00a0 There were some nasty-looking clouds overhead, but we were so tired that we just cowboy camped and hoped for the best.\u00a0\u00a0 This has been one varied day!<\/p>\n\n\t\t