Day 33 – Friday 8/14/2020 – 1820.2 – clear, sunny, hot. I woke on the hut’s lawn at 4:45 am. I packed up and left at 5:35 am. It was quite dark out at that time. I needed my headlamp to get back on trail. I had two major climbs. One at the start of the day and the other at the very end. I do them quite slowly and try to control my breathing so I don’t have to stop. Naturally there was a descent between them. Just before the second descent I had lunch to ensure I had some calories to burn on the next climb. The trail was very rocky. I got done about 2:15 pm. I’m near water too. I’ve been drinking lots of water afterwards. I had a big dinner with black bean salad and ramen and more water. Tomorrow I’m back in Justin’s loving care in Twin Lakes at a campground just off trail. Then the next day I hope I can maybe slack pack the first 10 miles around the lake. Then I’ve got a 3000’ climb to Hope Pass – oh my! Don’t get ahead of myself. I just have to worry about one day at a time.
Month: August 2020
Daily Log: Day 32
Meetup: Day 32 – Thursday 8/13/2020 – 1804.7 – clear, sunny, hot. I woke at 4:45 am and was on trail around 5:45 am. I climbed to Elk Ridge which was in 3.2 miles, and then I descended until 9.8 miles where I began the climb to Tennessee Pass. Although I thought it would be an easier day I found it harder than I expected. My left ankle is hurting. I just had to ignore it. At the Pass I hurriedly got a shower. Casey and her family arrived. They went to their hut and we stayed in the parking lot to give them time to settle in. Then, because it was so hot, I also washed my dirty dirty clothes and hung them on the Jeep to dry. Next I did resupply. Finally Justin packed cooking stuff and we both went to their hut for dinner and conversation. I set up my tent about 100 feet from the hut. We ate, and chatted keeping our distance. It was fun. At 8 pm I came back to my tent to do final chores and turn in for sleep. It was a very nice day. Lots of people, a social connection, along with good food.
Daily Log: Day 31
Hiking Together: Meetup: Day 31 – Wednesday 8/12/2020 – main trail 1787.9 – clear, cloudy, cold rain, cloudy, sunny. I woke at 4:45 am and was on trail at 5:50 am. It was a long climb to the pass. Then it was a long descent to Copper Mountain and Justin. I gave him a big Hug! We planned this to be a Stop and Go. I resupplied for one more day, filled water and had two Cokes. Justin hiked out with me around 11 am. Just as we were starting a monsoon rain cloud dumped 15 minutes of heavy rain. We waited under the eaves of the Police Station. When it had passed we began the climb out of here. Justin had already descended this trail yesterday having taken the ski lift to the top. He helped show me the way. At 1 pm or after about 3 miles we stopped for lunch. Afterward I continued on and he returned to the Jeep. I got to my campsite about 3:30 pm. It’s a little exposed but it’s in some trees and I hope it’s ok for tonight. Every so often the wind blows and rattles the tent. Tomorrow I’m shooting to get to Tennessee Pass which is 16 miles away. It looks doable.
Daily Log: Day 30
Day 30 – Tuesday 8/11/2920 – Silverthorne Alternative 10.1 – partially cloudy, sunny, warm. Justin and I slept overnight at a US Forest service area which was away from the trail. I woke at 5:15 am and Justin at 5:30 am. We left the campsite at 6:00 am and was back at the trailhead at 6:35 am. I slack packed the next 3 miles through Silverthorne to another trailhead on the other side of town. There I called Kathy and Katie, who was visiting, and had a nice chat with both of them. Afterwards at 8 am I headed off. Next I’ll see Justin at Copper Mountain in two days. The trail was quite flat. It came to a large waterfalls. There were day hikers there too. The trail showed I had to hand climb a steep narrow crevice. So up I went. About 10-15’ up I couldn’t find a hand hold. I was worried about falling backwards with my heavy pack on. Very carefully I found a hold and with difficulty I pull myself up. Whew! Then trail disappeared into underbrush so I scrambled through it. At last I found the actual trail. Welcome to hiking an alternate trail. From then on it would climb and then flatten, climb and flatten. At the top I could see the whole valley. As I was eating my lunch another hiker appeared who was new to section hiking. He was trying it for 8 days. He had no trail name yet. He said after my next climb it would be downhill until ten mile creek. I got to the creek at 2:45 pm. There I met a couple who were day hiking. They were from Boerne TX which is just south of Austin TX. Overall it was a good day. I was done at a reasonable time and didn’t feel like a zombie. Maybe it was because I ate my candy snack as soon as I got settled to give me some late afternoon calories. I don’t know.
Daily Log: Day 29
Meetup: Day 29 – Monday 8/10/2020 – Silverthorne Alternative 24.1 (NOBO) – clear, sunny, hot. I woke at 4:45 am and was on trail at 5:38 am. I climbed up a canyon and then climbed further. The alternative trail tends to disappear. By using Guthooks app, your eyes and luck most of the times you can find the trail again. But it is tiring and hard. This happened over and over today. In addition there were at least two big climbs and two big descents. All of them wore me out. I got to Justin around 4:15 pm. Over ten hiking hours is much much too long. I was a marching zombie. At the end seeing Justin was wonderful. It took me having some soda, dinner and rest for me to get back to normal. My feet were throbbing. I took an Advil tonight to help them. In my opinion by not having the alternate’s elevation in the app is awful. I can’t plan how to expend my energy. Justin made a delightful Indian dish for dinner. He also glued the tips of my hiking shoes to hold them together. I’m ready to slack-pack through Silverthorne tomorrow.
Justin’s BLOG Post “Wyoming Colorado Interstitial”
Justin’s BLOG Post “Wyoming Colorado Interstitial“
Daily Log: Day 28
Day 28 – Sunday 8/9/2020 – from main trail 1704.3 and start of Silverthorne Alternative 44.7 (NOBO) to Silverthorne Alternative 39.6 (NOBO) – clear, sunny, windy above tree line, hot below. I didn’t sleep well, because I had a hard time getting to sleep. I woke several time during the night. Twice to pee. The full moon almost gone. It is dark now in the mornings. I got up at 4:30 am and was on trail about 5:30 am. After packing up my tent in the trees I went to the Jeep for breakfast. I crossed the road and started climbing. Today I had two major climbs and a bunch of smaller ones. Just slowly I got them done. I met Greg and Laura who are section hikers. They had heard about me and how I was being support by Justin. It was the trail gossip. They told me that all they had to do was get to James Wilderness Preserve sign in 11 miles and THEY WILL COMPLETE THE ENTIRE CDT. I said a big congratulations to them. This is a very significant and emotional achievement. At Silverthorne alternative cut-off I ate lunch around 12:30 pm. It took me 7 hours to do about 12 miles. The alternative started with a long downhill road walk in the noon day heat and then became a trail. Slowly it climbed up the valley. Almost at my day’s end I met three hikers camping NOBO. One was called Magic Pack. He had a map and I asked about the elevation because Guthooks was clueless. They told me that tomorrow would be two high climbs. Finally at 3:00 pm I was happy to be done hiking for the day. It had been a long one.
Daily Log: Day 27
Meetup: Zero: Day 27 – Saturday 8/8/2020 – ZERO DAY – 1692.5 – clear, partially cloudy, sunny, hot. I woke late, but I didn’t have to hike today so it was OK. My tent site was in some trees about 0.1 miles above the pass. I packed up and was at the Jeep in the Berthoud Pass parking lot at 6:30 am. Justin was already awake. We had breakfast and drove to Second Creek. There we waited for Casey, Kyle, and Tam to arrive. They got there around 9:30 am for a 1 mile hike with an elevation gain of 800’. Little Tam, 5, was a trooper and climbed it with only one scraped knee. At the top even through there was a closed hut, there was a picnic table here so we sat and talked and ate snacks. The wind was gusty and we had to hold things down. After a while we hiked down and said our goodbyes. We might see them again at Tennessee Pass. They’ve rented a hut. After our hike Justin suggested we drive down into Winter Park CO. In town we had BBQ lunch. Then as a treat we stopped at Safeway grocery store and I bought and devoured a pint of Caramel Core ice cream. Having exposed me to enough COVID-19 we left town after getting gas and me downloading some audio books and podcasts. Back at the pass parking lot we sat, talked and watch the other people at the Pass. It looked like some of them were having a wedding there today. The backdrop of the Rocky Mountains is spectacular. Justin cooked breakfast tacos for dinner. Yum! My ZERO DAY was fun. Now I’ve got to go back to the trail tomorrow where I’ll be taking the Silverthorne alternative instead of the more difficult Grays-Torrey Peaks.
Daily Log: Day 26
Meetup: Day 26 – Friday 8/7/2020 – 1692.5 – clear, windy, sunny, cool. I woke at 4:45 am and was on trail at 5:38 am. I descended until a stream. It was on a saddle. Then I began the first climb towards the Mount Flora summit. The trail was very rocky. At one point the rock trail disappeared because, I think, an avalanche had recently happened. Slowly I crossed the disruption and found the trail again on the other side. There were lots of switch backs. Up and up I climbed. I kept my breathing controlled. No 25-counts. It leveled out for a while. Next the second climb began. I was now again above tree line. The trail still had a lot of rocks. It’s amazing how you can easily tell where the trail is going in a rock jumble. The hand of man is so obvious. At one point I did get off trail and using Guthooks I carefully found my way across a jumble of rocks and back to the trail. Up and up I climbed. Over a ridge and I was again on a somewhat flatter trail. One more climb, the hardest one yet, was coming up. I met two section hikers and we chatted briefly. They were doing a 75 mile section. They said you must be Tartan we met your son. I said I was and I was in a hurry to get to him so continued on. I began the last climb and there he was. Oh such a wonderful feeling. The wind was calmer here. We were on the lee-side of the mountain. I sat and had a snack. He brought me a Squirt soda. It tasted so good. After the snack we climbed in earnest and soon we were at the top of Mount Flora. There were other day hikers in groups sitting here and there. The wind was blasting. Many of the day hikers had move down off the peak to get out of the wind. We headed down in the buffeting wind. Mile after mile passed. Several groups were coming up and we moved off trail to let them go by and give them COVID-19 social-distancing space. We could see the tiny cars down on the highway and in the parking lot. Finally we got down to the lot. It was just 12:15 pm. All I wanted to do was to sit, drink another Squirt, and take my shoes off. Justin made a great lunch with fresh cooked chicken, chicken-flavored rice and a PackIt Gourmet spicy corn chowder. Yum! Then we turned to planning the next leg. I’ve decided to do the Silverthorne alternative. Less height, less miles and less difficulty. The only problem is we can’t find the elevation diagram. We’ll need to adjust our meetup points too. Tomorrow is my first ZERO DAY. Casey, Kyle and Tam are coming for a small hike. It should be fun.
Daily Log: Day 25
Day 25 – Thursday 8/6/2020 – 1683.1 – cloudy, some sun, afternoon monsoon sprinkles and hail, clearing at dinner. I went to bed at 7 pm so I woke at 3 am. I thought about starting in the dark but I didn’t. I got up at 4:15 am (a little early), packed up and was on trail about 5 am. I started to climb immediately and the MIO Energy helped. I tried to do regular cadence breathing, that is, no counting. It took me 2 hours to get to top. I was above tree line. Then it was cairn or pole to another one for miles. There was a sloped drop off on the right and a sheer cliff on the left. The trail was about 10-20 feet from the sheer edge. I had great views. However, there was no where to camp. It was too exposed. The wind was gusting and blowing constantly. So I began ascend James Peak, a thirteener. At first the trail rose gently. On the side the trail drop off was quite steep. It went down down down. Then the trail got steeper and steeper. I had to start counting 25s. It took me 1 1/2 hours of slowly climbing to get to the top. There I chugged some water and had a Payday candy bar. Nearby were threatening monsoon clouds. I could see for miles and miles. Then I began to descend. The steep descent hurt the bottom of my feet. I stopped to fill all my water bottles, because the tent site is dry. While there it lightly hailed and rained on me. After getting water I had to go slow. It was about 4 pm when I got to my tent site. The ground was rocky and surprisingly it took 45 minutes to finally anchor my tent. I have cell service and I sent Justin a message that today’s hike was very hard and I’m exhausted. My feet tingle. I did 17 miles in 11 hours. Wow oh wow!
