Author: jeff

We woke up this morning early. Turd tossed a bagel and cream cheese to me to lighten his pack. It was a delicious start to the day.

After packing up, I started the hike. Just a few miles until we start the climb up Hope’s Pass. I got to see an elk prior to the climb. One thing I noticed this week is the change of leaves from being on the trees to the ground.

Onto the climb. A 2.5 mile 2700 foot climb. Started out really steep. It felt like climbing Moosilauke in the whites. The 2.5 mile climb took an hour and 45 minutes but we all made it. It was awesome and just felt like we had finished the trail! But we had 9 miles left to the car.

The hike down was a lot of down but not terrible. Then an easy hike around twin lakes to the parking lot. We got to Mr Ranger’s car and his car battery was dead. I flagged a guy who had jumper cables down and he jumped the car. We rode into Leadville, ate lunch, and got an Airbnb. The views from this Airbnb are awesome!

We all got a nice night’s sleep, woke up, and said bye to Firefly. We’re going to hang around Leadville and Denver today. Lilly is coming this weekend to Denver which will make for a great end of the week.

I slept terribly last night. I’m not sure why. Previous nights in tarp/tent have been fantastic and super warm. Even last night I was hot. I ended up waking up around 5 AM to go to the bathroom and actually started moving around 6. Out of camp by 6:45 to leave from South Texas Creek to 18 miles later at North Fork Clear Creek.

Today’s hike had one major up, Lake Ann’s Pass. The up was chill for the first 10 miles. We did have a 40% chance of rain today and did end up getting some rain and snow the first few miles of our hike. Thankfully, the sun cut through and we didn’t see any other rain.

The last 2.2 miles of the climb were tough. I was REALLY proud of myself. I didn’t stop once going up that 2.2. A gray cloud popped up as we were climbing the 2.2 which is kind of scary being so high above treeline. I made it to the top with Firefly already there and Mr Ranger lackadaisically walking up behind me checking his phone as I’m struggling for each step and each trekking pole placement.

Excitement came over me. I got there and just let out the biggest “Woo!” So much fun. But extremely windy. We got some video and pictures and headed down the other side with Lake Ann in view the entire way down.

We ate lunch around 1 at mile 12. 6 miles left and it was only 1. Crazy! Turd found a spot between two fallen trees and used them as a recliner. We all had felt some relief since the remainder of the hike should be easy. The hike down was so beautiful. Lots of flat too which is nice because down destroys my knees.

On our way to the creek, we walked by two cdt through hikers. Firefly and the girl looked at each other and the girl goes, “I know you!” Firefly replied, “I know you too!”

Turns out the girl’s name is Lost Keys and Turd and Firefly met her on the AT. Her husband and her are doing the CDT for their honeymoon!

After some reminiscing, we continued on.

We got to the creek and setup camp at 4. It felt so early to get into camp. Funnily, today is the first time on a backpacking trip that I’ve cooked in my pot. I usually heat water then cook in a freezer bag. I do that because when cooking in your pot, you have to wash the pot out and drink the dirty water then scrape all the excess food and eat that. Super different experience. The Knorr Side actually tasted like it should.

Tomorrow we have a pretty rough climb, Hope’s Pass. It is a 2 mile 2700 foot climb. Then an even lower descent. It’s going to be tough but we only have 14 miles left including the approach trail to the parking lot! So excited. I can’t believe I’ve been able to almost complete this trail especially with how difficult a time I had at the beginning!

Today was definitely the hardest day physically. We did 20.9 miles and ended at South Texas Creek. We did almost 4700 feet in elevation gain and ~5300 in descent. It was just constant up and down.

We started the morning with the tallest climb of the day. Bright and early. Which is good and bad because we aren’t tired for the climb but we also have cold muscles. We spent a majority of the day above tree line. Up and down on a lot of loose rock. It was not fun.

The pikas were barking at us all day. Not sure if they were yelling at us or chirping us but they sure did do that all day.

Lunch was a Thai sweet and spicy tuna on a tortilla. One of Turd’s friends, Moony, is on the CDT and today our paths crossed. Turd was so excited!

We hiked on the continental divide today. It was amazing. We had so many views and the mountains just stack on each other. I thought the east was hard, the west is considerably harder but I think I have my trail legs somewhat figured out.

We crossed a road and had 4.4 miles of mainly downhill. Killer on the knees. I didn’t stop from a break 6 miles back to our campsite. It was tiring but I was ready to relax. We’re hoping to see some wildlife in the morning but we’re a bit worried about rain overnight and into tomorrow. We have an 18 mile day crossing over Lake Anne Pass then camp under hope pass for our last day. We’re hoping to climb Mt Elbert Friday but we’ll see how timing works.

I woke up at 6. Everyone else went to the lodge to eat but I had leftovers from last night – lasagna pizza. It was just as delicious cold as it was hot. After eating, I took care of some chores and packed up.

The others returned and we were out on the trail at 7:45. We had a 1.93 mile hike up a road to the trail. It’s funny, on the AT, you’d never find me doing such long side miles. Long side miles are apparently common on the PCT. Terrain calmed down once we hit the trail. We have a total of 17 miles today including that road walk… or so we thought.

I worried for Jason as he hasn’t been out here to hike with us but he has been a true trooper and I’m just so impressed.

We had more amazing views. Alpine lakes. And we were around tree line all day so we had a lot of long distant views. Not a terrible morning. Ups and downs as expected. We grabbed some water on an alpine lake and debated on jumping in again. We decided against it though the day was a lot hotter than yesterday.

We ate lunch next to a mountain road where some UTVs/ATVs were going by. Lemon pepper tuna on a tortilla. Classic.

We continued our hike and passed by some trail magic. People left some beers! Good magic but I’ve stopped drinking. It worked out perfectly because everyone else in the group got a beer. Down the trail we met the people who left the beer and they offered to take the trash! Super nice people with a sweet pup.

Next we had a brutal climb that just kept going up. So much up and not switchback easy up, straight up. Oof. We thought just over the next pass would be the end of it. Nope. One more pass. But then we had 1.5 miles to camp. The views were still just spectacular.

That 17 miles turned into 18.5. Don’t know how we didn’t do the math right. But we ended at South Chalk Creek.

Dinner was a Thai Curry dehydrated meal. I just can’t ramen bomb anymore. Now I’m in the tent Lab rat is letting me borrow. My first time in a tent while backpacking. This one is really nice.

20 miles tomorrow. Gonna start really really hard. Lots of switchbacks up but over miles… lots of miles of up.

We started the day with a homemade breakfast with pancakes, sausages, and eggs. It was delicious. We tossed blueberries and chocolate chips in the pancakes.

Two new hikers, Lab Rat and her boyfriend, Jason, joined us. Lab Rat hiked with Mr Ranger on the PCT this year and Turd met her as well. She and her boyfriend are moving to Montana. Both are super fun. It turns out that Jason knows a guy that Lilly and I hosted for couchsurfing while we were living in Arkansas. Small world.

We hitched up to Monarch’s Pass to hike a little over ten miles to Boss Lake trailhead. Just 15 miles into the west side of the loop and I already understand the reason everyone chooses to hike the west alternate route for the CT and follow the CDT.

Our driver today was Kyle. Same guy who picked us up two days ago. He owns the local snow mobile guided tour shop.

Hiking today was fantastic. My legs are getting under me. My quads still need Tylenol and Advil but still feeling better.

The mountains are just amazing. They’re so humbling. We crossed the continental divide today. We passed by some ski slopes today but couldn’t hop on the lift because they smartly had it setup so you couldn’t reach the seats.

We crossed a few alpine lakes today and decided to get into Hunt Lake. It was so cold. It started to sleet right as we got out. Jason said it was like being pelted by dippin dots which is the best explanation ever. But it was also just perfect timing for us to jump in freezing cold water, have to dry off, and then get sleeted on.

We finished the day with a downhill climb. We got out of the sleet and chilled at the hostel until the restaurant at the lodge opened. We went there and I had Lasagna pizza. The lodge has really good pizza.

We ended the night chilling, showered, and had some music on. Now off to bed!

We zeroed today which is so nice for my leg to try to heal even a small bit. We hitchhiked into Salida, grabbed food at a little bakery, and shopped.

Britt is the name of the lady who picked us up and she was so sweet. We were planning to grab a crockpot and she said if we couldn’t find one to have the hostel owner reach out to her and they would let us borrow theirs. So sweet and shows the small rural hospitality of these mountain towns.

I also shipped my tarp home. Great design and good execution, the seams didn’t rip with all the tension I put on it, just needed more seam sealing I guess and scotch guard. Need to test it at home.

We hitched to the Walmart which put us closer to the edge of town where it was more likely that we would get a hitch to Monarch. The guys name was Paul and he told us about walking away from a car wreck getting hit by a bus at 60 mph. Said that the police asked how many were dead in the car and he said he was the only one in and without a scratch. Zany.

He was super right about the hitch. We got one in 10 minutes. The guy had an AT sticker on his car. Hiked it in 2013 and just moved out here after. It was a neat connection. His name was Papa Smurf.

We then chilled around the house while Turd put together enchiladas for dinner tonight. Once done, we headed up to the rally races. This specific race is the 3rd oldest Motorsport race in the country. It’s pretty cool. Up there we met some locals who gave us a breakdown of the time trial. It was pretty cool but not really my scene.

We played 5 games of Gravitas and Firefly did some cleaning around the hostel. I’m trying to stretch my quads to prepare for this upcoming week.

We’re trying to finish on Thursday and try to catch a sunrise at Mount Elbert which is the highest point in Colorado on Friday.

We finished the enchiladas and they turned out delicious. I could only eat one which is unfortunate but still delicious.

We ended up chilling and going to bed.

We decided to slack pack 14 miles today from junction 50 to junction 50 at monarch pass.

We grabbed breakfast at the lodge at the local hotel and hitched to the trailhead. We were happy to hike with light packs because we had a 9 mile climb of 3000 feet. The first 7 miles were okay with low grade and some higher grade sporadically through the miles. The last 2 were brutal. Near straight up for the last half mile.

We reached the top to complete the Collegiate Loop East portion and hopped on the CDT.

As we climbed elevation, it started to snow on us. It was really pretty. Then we kept getting higher and colder. We reached 12,548 in elevation today. The clouds rolled in and out during our last 5 miles making for some amazing scenes when they rolled out.

We ended the day of hiking with a hitch from a guy originally from South Africa, moved to America after high school, and went to college in Denver. He worked for ten years and decided to sell everything and live on a sailboat in the Caribbean. Now he’s remodeling an ambulance for van dwelling. Really interesting guy!

We chilled the rest of the day and ate late. The town has a car race of some sort tomorrow and we are zeroing so it should make for an interesting and fun day! We also learned of a game called Gravitas from the owner of the hostel. It’s a simple rock stacking game but so much fun!

I woke up this morning to hardcore rain again. My tarp became saturated so it was like the tarp wasn’t there. Cold water everywhere.

I laid back down to assess and realized that the longer I’m exposed, the wetter my gear gets wet that needs to dry. Think sleeping bag, pad, dry clothes, etc. I woke up and just started confirming dryness then packed everything away in my dry bag.

Around 6 the rain started to clear up so I got and prepared food. We decided because of my issue and the forecast, we would hike to Hwy 50 and stay at a hostel. That meant a 20.9 mile day. This is tough because I’m already in so much pain but it’s what needed to happen.

I’ve been trying to hike without headphones because I kind of regret how little I didn’t hike in silence on the AT but I needed to get into a groove.

It’s pretty amazing. We started later than earlier days and we did more miles and finished by 4:15. Nearly 21 miles in 9 hours with quite a few elevation gains.

We arrived at the hostel and it’s so cool. Free beer. Free food. Free housing with an emphasis on a donation.

We ate at a hotel across the street. So good after eating so many ramen bombs. Back at the hostel and in bed.

It stormed on us from 9 until 11 and been on and off for 2 hours. I’m using a homemade tarp setup that I just love. Unfortunately, the seams saturated really early and my entire ground cloth and gear started getting wet.

It wasn’t just rain. Ice. Snow. It was crazy. After I mitigated as much as I could by moving things to drier ground if I could find any, I realized my quilt and pad might be a lost cause. Earplugs weren’t helping this storm so instead of listening and worried, I put music on. Damage would be done. Might as well try to sleep.

But. Everything dries quickly out here. I woke up to go to the bathroom at 1 and might ground cloth was starting to dry already and my quilt didn’t look terrible. The pad is a different story but I’m hoping it has time to dry tomorrow.

Last night while it was storming, I just thought, “Where do I get off the trail?” “Where are my outs?” “This might be enough to scare me off the trail.”

When I woke up, I thought, “This has been the hardest hiking I’ve done. If I quit when hiking was difficult, I’d be off on day one. If I quit when I was in so much pain I could barely go 100 yards, I would have quit on day 2. Am I going to let some cold, wet rain scare me?” I stayed warm all night. So the rain was just scary to me. That’s all.

There’s a phrase on the Appalachian Trail, never quit on a bad day. That’s what I’m deciding today. Not to quit. And it sent a rush of joy down my body that I’m strong enough for this.

I woke up this morning at 2 and stayed up until 3:30ish. Tossed and turned a bit. Finally checked on what we needed to do to realistically complete this trail by Friday next week.

So far we’ve had a lot of elevation gains on the East which is supposed to be easier than the west but it’s just super tough for me. The hardest hiking I’ve experienced.

I woke up at 5 and started cooking breakfast. I’m normally last to be ready for the day so just being up I figured why not get moving.

We started on the trail at 7. It was an easy 10 miles to Princeton Hot Springs where we had resupply boxes shipped to us. While walking down the road, a mountain storm came blasting through. It was insanely fast. We tossed our rain gear on and trenched to the resort to grab lunch. Burger, fries, and a DP. It was really good!

We got our boxes, resupplied, and waited for storms to pass. We hiked 2.5 miles to Bootleg Campground at Chalk Creek. We did a total of 13.2 miles. Shorter day than previous ones but still a good time. We were expecting more rain but it never came so we spent the evening chatting and joking around.

I think my legs are getting better and I think I’ve acclimated well to the elevation. Higher highs on the west though, so we’ll see. If rain is really nasty, we may have to stop. Hypothermia is real and scary.