{"id":333,"date":"2016-05-31T05:41:26","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T05:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=333"},"modified":"2017-05-28T21:38:35","modified_gmt":"2017-05-28T21:38:35","slug":"um-where-are-we","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/05\/31\/um-where-are-we\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday, May 31 Um…where are we?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"may-31-2\"SUMMARY: <\/strong> Well, we spent about 8 hours today either very lost or else not knowing where we were.\u00a0 Everything was beautiful and we were enjoying the spring greenery, till we ended up losing the trail, and after that–argh!–we were dealing with trying to find a route through snowy forest and marshy meadows.\u00a0 Finally we found a road that occasionally had CDT “stickers” on posts, and just started following it, not knowing where we were till 6:30 pm.\u00a0 We are sore from the obstacle course we’ve been doing, but grateful that at last we do sort of know where we are.\u00a0 Did lots of praying today!<\/p>\n

DETAILS:\u00a0 <\/strong>I’d heard that “for the first couple of days north of Ghost Ranch, it can sometimes be hard to follow the trail.”\u00a0 Yeah, no kidding!\u00a0 Yesterday was a bit tricky, but today we spent most of the day pretty much lost and wondering where the trail went, complicated by snow and snowmelt marshes.<\/p>\n

At first we were having a great time, enjoying the bright spring greenery, but just before 10:00 am,\u00a0 we came to a junction where my Bear map said “Turn right here” but\u00a0the Ley\u00a0map said, “Or, you can go on a bit farther before you turn right, and it’s an easier way to go.”\u00a0 We hemmed & hawed a bit over what to do and decided to consult Guthook, which said to go the Ley way, so that’s what\u00a0 we did. (Not a good idea, in retrospect!)<\/p>\n

We found the Ley right turn, and it was “Oh look, nice trail!\u00a0 This is great!” until suddenly the trail completely disappeared, with no sign at all of where to go.\u00a0 So we beat about a bit in the woods (Fixit went one way, I went the other, but we stayed within shouting distance) and finally we located a sort of trail.\u00a0 From what we could decipher on the Ley map,\u00a0we were now\u00a0on a proposed route for the CDT,\u00a0that wasn’t\u00a0built yet.\u00a0 OK, we figured on just doing the best we could, but it was frustrating!\u00a0 And to add to the fun, the weather was being totally bipolar.\u00a0 If you looked in one direction, it was bright blue sky with white puffy clouds.\u00a0 If you looked the other way, it was menacing black clouds, rumbling with thunder.<\/p>\n

Well, we persevered on the “future route of the CDT” as best we could, despite the fact that it turned into an obstacle course of fallen trees, including a whole hillside where ALL the trees had been CUT down and were lying all over the “trail.”\u00a0 We climbed and scrambled through the mess, and suddenly, to our amazement, we arrived at a paved road by a lake, with a picnic area and a post with a CDT sticker on it!!!\u00a0\u00a0All the trees in the picnic area had been cut down, and were lying around.\u00a0 It was very weird.\u00a0 None of our maps showed a lake or road or any of what we were looking at, so we had no idea where we were.\u00a0 But hey, a CDT post and sticker–that must be the way??\u00a0 So we followed the “CDT” and it led us a merry chase\u00a0over hill and dale, through a snowy forest, and finally into a long meadow.\u00a0 A faint trace of trail was still available, so we followed it (dealing with mud & swamp &\u00a0mess along the way) until all indication of “trail” of any kind completely disappeared.<\/p>\n

Time to check Guthook again…it pointed us into the forest, and we did find a sort of trail, but the only footprints on it were cows.\u00a0 We had not seen any other human footprints all day.\u00a0 At this point, we were pretty much in despair, and only hoping to find something that could at least get us to some sort of civilization.\u00a0 We were doing a lot of praying!\u00a0 But finally we got to the edge of the snowy forest and found a meadow with hooray!\u00a0 A road!\u00a0 We had no idea where we were or where the road went, but we prayed and gave it our best guess and started to follow the road.\u00a0 A little way along, yahoo!\u00a0 A CDT sticker!!\u00a0 We kept going, and yay!\u00a0 Another sticker!\u00a0 We looked at our maps but still could not figure out at all where we were.\u00a0 Then\u00a0in the distance we heard a welcome sound–the roar of 4-wheelers!\u00a0 Pretty soon there they were–six of them.\u00a0 We flagged them down and got out our maps and asked them if they could tell us where we were.\u00a0 No luck.\u00a0 Turned out they never use maps–they know all the roads–and could not give us any advice at all.<\/p>\n

Oh well….we kept going and finally, at 6:30 pm, we reached a\u00a0place that was unique enough\u00a0for me to\u00a0find it on the map!\u00a0\u00a0At last we knew (or hoped we knew!) where we were.\u00a0 A half hour later we found a nice campsite and collapsed.\u00a0 Man are we tired and scratched up and sore!\u00a0 But the sunset was unbelievably beautiful, and 3 military jets flew over really low (very exciting!).\u00a0\u00a0We hope and pray that tomorrow will be better!<\/p>\n\n\t\t