{"id":331,"date":"2016-05-30T05:39:24","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T05:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=331"},"modified":"2017-05-27T14:28:14","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T14:28:14","slug":"views","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/05\/30\/views\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday, May 30 Views!"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY:\u00a0 <\/strong>A lot of our CDT hike so far has been miles and miles of endless forest with no views.\u00a0 Not today!\u00a0 First we climbed out of Ghost Ranch, through dramatic “badlands”, where the trail became a rock scramble.\u00a0\u00a0 Later on, we climbed to over 9,000 feet elevation and it was epic, sweeping views that stretched for miles and included green grass, aspen trees and wildflowers.\u00a0 Following the “trail” there was not easy–it was just a faint track through the grass.\u00a0 We could also see the snowy mountains of Colorado ahead of us–oh boy!\u00a0 We are camped tonight in a meadow on the mountainside at about 9,500′ elevation.<\/p>\n

\"may-30-5\"DETAILS:\u00a0 <\/strong>We had our packs sitting by the door, ready to roll before breakfast–our last chance to eat lots of good food and talk to people.\u00a0 We had fun talking to Yeti and her husband (don’t remember his trail name, unfortunately).\u00a0 All the hikers are talking about one topic:\u00a0 SNOW.\u00a0 Many are planning to simply go home for a couple of weeks once they reach Chama.\u00a0 Others say they will flip up to Wyoming and come back to Colorado later.\u00a0 Yeti offered to help us do the “flip” if we want to, but we told her, “No, we’ll just keep walking north and do the best we can.”<\/p>\n

So we took our trek poles in hand, and headed out, following the “Box Canyon Trail” from Ghost Ranch. We passed the Art Center with its very dramatic cliff backdrop (wow) and then\u00a0headed into\u00a0“The Badlands”–a rugged world of colorful rocky canyons, cliffs and rock formations.\u00a0 At first the trail wound its way up a pretty canyon, repeatedly crossing a cute creek, but then it began a very serious climb where in several places it was a rock scramble so steep that I had to set down my trek poles and use my hands to help pull me up.\u00a0\u00a0 The views of Ghost Ranch down below were quite spectacular.<\/p>\n

Finally we reached the top of the mesa, and it was back to “regular” trail through the sagebrush, with anklebiter cacti everywhere. We saw more and more cows and even (ack!) a couple of bulls, which gave us a very unfriendly eye.\u00a0 We walked past them trying to look very humble and unthreatening.<\/p>\n

Once again, we were also having problems figuring out where the trail went, and having to stop and look at maps, landmarks, etc. to try and figure it out. Then we met a guy who had flipped up to Chama from Ghost Ranch, and was now hiking back, waiting for the snow to melt.\u00a0 He said he decided to put this “leisure” time to good use by doing some trail caretaking–picking up trash, building rock cairns, etc.\u00a0 Good for him!\u00a0 A short time after we met him, one of my trek poles suddenly collapsed, and Fixit had to repair it with a couple of bobby pins I had brought along.\u00a0 My poor trek poles are seriously looking bad.\u00a0 I probably should have gotten new ones before we started the CDT.<\/p>\n

Finally we were out of the sagebrush and back into green forest (VERY green–the aspens have leafed out!) with lots of wildflowers, especially dandelions.\u00a0 But this was a very open forest, with lots of EPIC views, including the snowy mountains to the north.\u00a0 Some of them have a lot of snow, others less, but we eyed them with some concern….that’s where we will be in a few days.\u00a0 Oh boy.\u00a0 The trail crossed miles of grassland (where it was just a faint track in the grass and hard to follow)\u00a0among rolling hills.\u00a0 Everything is turning green and looking beautiful.\u00a0 We are camped tonight in an open meadow at about 9,500 feet.h them<\/p>\n\n\t\t