{"id":520,"date":"2016-07-10T04:16:56","date_gmt":"2016-07-10T04:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=520"},"modified":"2017-04-28T14:39:48","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T14:39:48","slug":"wow-some-nice-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/07\/10\/wow-some-nice-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday, July 10 Wow, Some Nice Trail!"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY:\u00a0 <\/strong>A very strong wind came up during the night, and it dried all our damp stuff, but whew, we had to be careful during packup, not to let anything get blown away! And for the first 3 hours or so, hiking was hard. The wind was very cold and really pushing us around as we hiked across the high tundra from cairn to cairn.<\/p>\n

Finally we got down off the Divide and the trail became a trail<\/span>, and mostly very nice. We were finally able to actually hike, and even hike fast, through intensely green meadows, across creeks, and through forests. We met many dayhikers, often accompanied by dogs, except for one family with 2 goats<\/span>!<\/p>\n

In the afternoon, we were on really nice trail where we could just sail along. The weather continues to be gorgeous, for which we are very grateful.<\/p>\n

DETAILS:<\/strong>\u00a0 Fixit and I were both really wasted last night not just from killer uphills and rough going, but from the constant strain of looking for cairns and hoping we got it right about where the trail was.\u00a0 It also dripped and rained a bit, which meant our stuff was damp.\u00a0 BUT–last night, quite a wind came up and dried everything very well–what a blessing!\u00a0 It was still blowing cold and fierce when we got up, and we had to be super-careful not to let anything get blown away as we packed up.\u00a0 It was so cold that I put on ALL my layers–polyester longsleeve top, down jacket AND raingear.<\/p>\n

Bracing ourselves against the wind, we set out once again to continue following cairns across the high tundra, trying to avoid the melting snowfields, which this early in the morning were icy and slippery.\u00a0 Of course snowMELT also meant that there were large swampy\/marshy areas.\u00a0 At first we tried to pick our way across these, but that was such slow going that we finally gave up and said, “Oh well!” and sloshed straight through them.\u00a0 No more dry socks!\u00a0\u00a0 This continued for a couple of hours, and was pretty discouraging.<\/p>\n

But finally we got to the point where we could keep a sharp eye out for one of J.Ley’s alternate routes-the Wyoming Trail, followed by the Three Island Lake Trail.\u00a0 What a thrill when we reached it–a TRAIL, a real trail, confirmed by rock cairns.\u00a0 At first it was still up high on the Divide, then it dropped down (unfortunately, on very rough treadway) to the Three Lakes Trail.\u00a0 My hopes of making 24 miles today began to fade as I crept cautiously along.\u00a0 (I am awful at steep downhills on rough stuff).<\/p>\n

But once we were down, things got a lot better!\u00a0 There was a good stretch of clear, even trail, where at last we could really hike, and even go fast!\u00a0 We reached Three Island Lake, and it was gorgeous–deep, deep blue, complete with dramatic mountain backdrop, lovely forest, and intensely green meadows nearby.\u00a0 The wind was still blowing, so there were no mosquitoes!\u00a0 The outlet creek was really pretty, too.\u00a0 In places it dropped off, roaring cheerfully, into deep, narrow gorges, with the trail tracking along just above.\u00a0 Very awesome, but we did have to be careful–a false step and we would have been down in the gorge with the creek!<\/p>\n

At that point, we began to meet dayhikers.\u00a0 Several were hiking with their dogs, but one family was out with their GOATS!\u00a0 The goats were on leash (just like a dog) and appeared to be having a great time.\u00a0 I was really glad to see folks out hiking together!<\/p>\n

The trail became increasingly overgrown with thimbleberry bushes full of flowers (no berries yet).\u00a0 It was good trail, but very narrow, and with all those dayhikers going by, we decided we wouldn’t stop for lunch till we reached the road.\u00a0 When we got there, I set up and started cooking, and Fixit just lay down in the shade.\u00a0 He was really tired.\u00a0 I had fun watching 3 young guys who were getting ready to go out backpacking.\u00a0 They weren’t very organized, and it took them forever to get their gear sorted out and load their packs, but they finally got going.<\/p>\n

After lunch, Fixit and I headed into a warm, but breezy afternoon, on mostly very nice trail.\u00a0 We were able once again to hike fast, which is something we really enjoyed.\u00a0 We passed through beautiful meadows, green aspen groves…but also a lot of burned forest.\u00a0 So sad!\u00a0 But what was weird–we have never experienced this before–when the wind blew through the burned forest, it made a spooky, sort of whining, howling sound, like “haunted house sound effects.”\u00a0 We did end up with one brief roadwalk, because the trail bridge over the Elk River had been washed out, and signs directed us to walk over to the road bridge instead.<\/p>\n

So tonight we are camped by a trail junction, in a pretty, unburned section of forest, with crowds of mosquitoes hanging around.\u00a0 We did end up making good miles today, and tomorrow–WYOMING!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUMMARY:\u00a0 A very strong wind came up during the night, and it dried all our damp stuff, but whew, we had to be careful during packup, not to let anything get blown away! And for the first 3 hours or so, hiking was hard. The wind was very cold and really pushing us around as […]<\/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-520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colorado"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520","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=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":892,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions\/892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}