{"id":477,"date":"2016-06-20T00:21:50","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T00:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=477"},"modified":"2017-03-25T14:35:35","modified_gmt":"2017-03-25T14:35:35","slug":"a-different-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/06\/20\/a-different-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday, June 20 A Different Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY:\u00a0 <\/strong>Dave and Elaine treated us to breakfast and drove us all the way up to Monarch Crest\u2014they 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\u2014had to ‘make like paint on the wall’ several times in places where the road shoulder was narrow and there were log trucks going by.<\/p>\n

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\u2014so great to see fellow hikers!<\/p>\n

DETAILS:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 We didn’t have to get up till 6:30!\u00a0 Sure was good to sleep in.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They are all headed for the Pancake Palace, but we waited for Dave and Elaine, then we went to the Palace, too.\u00a0 It is a great place for hungry thru-hikers!\u00a0 Besides the food, we were so blessed by Dave and Elaine’s prayers and encouragement.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 “But you’ll have to walk all those miles back down from the Crest, along the highway!” said Elaine.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

It was a beautiful morning, and when Dave and Elaine dropped us off in the parking lot, there were CDT hikers hanging out.\u00a0 Doubleshot was there, getting ready to leave (on the CDT, snow and all), while Slapshot was waiting for his friend Kenobi.\u00a0 We told Slapshot that he and Kenobi should definitely try the chili at the Monarch Crest store.\u00a0 There was also another hiker I’d never met before.<\/p>\n

Then we headed on the 8-mile (I think it was about that much) walk back down Highway 50.\u00a0 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”.\u00a0 But finally, there was the CT trail post, and we gladly left the highway behind.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 No kidding.\u00a0 It headed right on UP!<\/p>\n

But it was lunchtime, so as soon as we could find a comfortable spot under a shady tree, we stopped to eat.\u00a0 While we were doing that, along came some other backpackers, who were doing the CT with their dogs.\u00a0 They were headed in the opposite direction from us.\u00a0 After lunch, we continued the climb.\u00a0 Huff, puff.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 So glad we are NOT up there, dealing with that!\u00a0 And big dark thunderclouds were piling up as well–another good reason to be down lower instead of up above timberline.<\/p>\n

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?”\u00a0 Also, we are meeting a lot of other hikers, both backpackers and dayhikers.\u00a0 After hiking basically alone for so long, it is nice to see other people on the trail.\u00a0 And though we are in forest, there are still some views.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 So our feet are actually staying dry!<\/p>\n

Tonight we are camped at the junction of the CT and Trail 255.\u00a0 It’s cloudy, and thunder is rumbling nearby.\u00a0 And it’s not bitter cold, as it was up high on the CDT–it is actually fairly pleasant.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY:\u00a0 Dave and Elaine treated us to breakfast and drove us all the way up to Monarch Crest\u2014they 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 […]<\/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-477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colorado"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477","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=477"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":831,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions\/831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}