{"id":453,"date":"2016-06-09T05:03:41","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T05:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=453"},"modified":"2017-02-17T15:41:07","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T15:41:07","slug":"lots-more-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/06\/09\/lots-more-snow\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday, June 9 Lots More Snow"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY: <\/strong>The top priority for me this morning was get new trek poles (the old ones were really rickety) and find a new fanny pack, because the zippers were giving out on the old one. Then I had a quick look at the kayakers getting ready to launch into the rushing, muddy-brown San Juan River before Bill and I headed out to hitch a ride to Wolf Creek Pass.<\/p>\n

We ended up squished into a little car with Titan, another thruhiker, and soon we were back up on the CDT, and soon after that, into lots of snow\u2014almost 100% covering the trail. We mostly followed footprints, with frequent looks at maps.<\/p>\n

Part of the time we were climbing over rocks on a mountainside above the trail. Scary! Had a hard time finding a campsite\u2014finally got set up on a grassy “island” in a sea of snow and snowmelt.<\/p>\n

DETAILS:<\/strong>\u00a0 It sure was nice to “sleep in” till 6:30 this morning; we got up and headed straight for the First Inn’s coffee and cinnamon roll breakfast.\u00a0 Yum!\u00a0 But that was only the first round.\u00a0 We put on our jackets and walked out into a very cold and cloudy morning, down the street to the Junction restaurant, where we made like hobbits and had a second breakfast.\u00a0 We are trying very hard to stay ahead of the calorie deficit problem.\u00a0 Suffer!<\/p>\n

But then I had to get serious.\u00a0 My trek poles were dead.\u00a0 They had\u00a0travelled with me for the whole PCT, twice, and I should have replaced them before tackling the CDT.\u00a0 Fixit had been keeping them going, all patched together with wire bits and bobby pins, but it was obvious that they would not last much longer.\u00a0 I also needed a new fannypack–again, the old one had done two PCT trips, and the zipper was in bad shape and threatening to fail altogether.\u00a0 Not good.\u00a0 So after the second breakfast, we headed for a nearby sporting goods store, where I was able to get new trek poles.\u00a0 But no luck on the fannypack.\u00a0 None of them were suitable.\u00a0 The other sporting goods store was not due to open for awhile, so we went back to First Inn to load up our packs and get ready to go.\u00a0 I also had some more time to read the Bible, which was a good thing, because I was thinking some more about what we were headed into and was very uneasy.\u00a0 I read Psalm 46 again and also Psalm 89.\u00a0 Conclusion: God is faithful, He is mighty and most of all He loves me.\u00a0 I closed the Bible and told God, “OK, I do trust You.\u00a0 Here we go!”<\/p>\n

Fixit and I put on our packs and walked over to the second sporting goods store.\u00a0 Technically, it was supposed to be open at that point, but there was no sign of life.\u00a0 We decided to wait a bit.\u00a0 Fixit said he just wanted to sit and rest, so I left my pack with him and walked a little way down the street to watch the kayakers getting ready to put in at the San Juan River.\u00a0 They were busy blowing up their inflatable kayaks, right next to the rushing, deep, muddy brown water.\u00a0 I also met Titan, a CDT hiker on his way to hitch back up to the trail at Wolf Creek Pass.\u00a0 When I got back, the store was open and YES!\u00a0 They had a fannypack that was perfect–small and lightweight and just big enough to hold everything it needed to hold.\u00a0 And then I had a thought–how about replacing the umbrella I lost while I was postholing in the snow?\u00a0 But no luck with that, even though the very kind clerk phoned around to see if any other store had any umbrellas at all.\u00a0 Not only that, but she told us that the owner of the store is also a CDT trail angel who often gives hikers rides back up to Wolf Creek Pass, and she phoned the owner to see if the owner could give US a ride.\u00a0 The response was, “Can’t do it right now, but tell them to go to the highway intersection and try to hitch, and I will come along when I can–if they are still there I’ll give them a ride.”\u00a0 So the clerk told us exactly where to go near the intersection to have the best chance of getting a ride up to the Pass.<\/p>\n

So we followed her instructions, \u00a0went to the Hwy. 160\/Hwy. 84 junction and crossed over to the 160 side.\u00a0 Two CDT hikers\u00a0( Titan and his friend Squirrel)\u00a0were already there, and said “Nobody is stopping for us.”\u00a0 Well, they were two big thruhiker guys (especially Titan, who very much deserves his name) so I volunteered to be the one to stick my thumb out and try to get us a ride, since I am a girl and look a bit less fearsome.\u00a0 Car after car sped by, some waving apologetically, until along came a girl who is a friend of Titan’s.\u00a0 She pulled over, and to our total amazement, Titan and Squirrel insisted that Fixit and I should be the first to ride up to the Pass.\u00a0 “But you were here first,” we said.\u00a0 “That wouldn’t be fair!”\u00a0 Titan said, “But you guys are old and we wouldn’t feel right about hogging a ride and leaving you here.”\u00a0 He and Squirrel insisted, so Fixit and I took our packs and started squeezing into the girl’s little car.\u00a0 Just then, another car came along and stopped.\u00a0 He had room to take one person.\u00a0 So in the end, Titan, Fixit and I made like sardines and squeezed into Titan’s friend’s car.\u00a0 It turned out that she works up at the\u00a0Wolf Creek\u00a0Pass ski area, and has hiked the whole PCT and part of the CDT, so she was very happy to help us all out.<\/p>\n

The ride up to the Pass was beautiful–at first it was forest and meadows, then the road began a dramatic, twisting climb up to the top, where once again, there was plenty of snow,\u00a0and happy kids and families having fun by the parking lot, with snowmen, snowball fights, etc.\u00a0All the thruhikers “saddled up” and headed for the CDT.\u00a0 There were 6 young guys plus Fixit and I.\u00a0\u00a0 The six zipped right up the trail and were soon out of sight, while Fixit and I did our best, and actually caught up with one of the young guys, Uberdude.\u00a0 He was having a hard time with a bad cough (due to the altitude–all of us are having cough problems to one degree or another).<\/p>\n

At first the trail was actually a TRAIL and a lot of fun to walk on, but soon it was back into 100% snow.\u00a0 Knowing that there were now 5 people recently ahead of us, we simply followed footprints, but kept a weather eye on the maps.\u00a0 Occasionally there would be a brief break in the snow, and we’d actually spot a bit of trail tread.\u00a0 (I cheered loudly each time!\u00a0 I hate being lost!)\u00a0 The other good thing was that the snow was fine for walking on even without snowshoes, and we were making good progress, though of course not as fast as walking on trail tread.<\/p>\n

But then oh no–the fast young guys must have had a disagreement about which way to go, because their footprints split up and headed out in several different directions.\u00a0 We stopped and looked hard at the maps, then chose which footprints to follow.\u00a0 Turned out we made the RIGHT choice, whew!\u00a0 The route was basically circling around the head of a large river valley, and again, we did have occasional glimpses of trail tread.\u00a0 Overhead, the clouds were gathering, getting darker and darker till they were almost a blue-black, rumbling with thunder and occasionally spitting a bit of rain.\u00a0 At noon we stopped to eat dinner, sitting on a little “island” in the middle of the snow, wearing full raingear because it was so cold and windy and wet.<\/p>\n

After dinner, Fixit decided, “I’ve had it with walking on the snow.\u00a0 Let’s go up a bit to where it’s more bare mountainside, and walk on the rocks instead.”\u00a0 Well, I totally suck at walking on rocks.\u00a0 But Fixit hates walking on afternoon snow where postholing becomes a pain.\u00a0 So all I could do was pray and ask God for help, and do my best to creep along on the rocks.\u00a0 When 7 pm arrived (time to camp), the only place we could see that might be camp-able was down in the valley below, which meant a long downhill through the snow.\u00a0 But we made it, and found a small sort-of-flat island of only slightly damp grass in the midst of a sea of marsh, mud and snowmelt.\u00a0 We know that the actual trail is somewhere nearby, buried in the snow.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As best I can figure, despite a very late start and difficult conditions, we still made 10 miles, and we have a very snug camp here on the “island.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY: The top priority for me this morning was get new trek poles (the old ones were really rickety) and find a new fanny pack, because the zippers were giving out on the old one. Then I had a quick look at the kayakers getting ready to launch into the rushing, muddy-brown San Juan River […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colorado"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":792,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions\/792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}