I had a big plan for a perfect hiking morning, but was foiled by beating the breakfast place open. Instead I just got an early start to the hike, in the rain.

I climbed up through a ski hill and joined the Colorado Trail – a well signed and graded trail. Apparently I get to follow it for the next few days. The trail climbed and the rain turned to snow and sadly I couldn’t see more than glimpses of what should have been great views. The trail then dropped back down into more rain. For once I actually liked snow better (don’t tell my friends from out east!) because the rain was just super cold.

Anyways, I’ve ended up in another town, Leadville and it looks like I’m back in the wilderness for the next 4 days.

Today is the four year anniversary of finishing the PCT. The end of the CDT still seems an awful long way off… I remember being met at the end of the PCT by my family, friends and girlfriend and being really touched/surprised that they all cared enough to be there for me. At the same time, the end didn’t seem as huge a deal to me as it ought to have. Really, I was just exhausted and glad to be done. There wasn’t a big sense of accomplishment. Relief is probably a better word. Relief to be done walking, that it hadn’t started snowing, that I didn’t get hurt near the end.

So here I am with a thousand or so miles left to go. Scary.

Daily Summary
Date: Sept 15, 2011
Day 84
Daily Distance: 21.1 miles
Trip Distance: 1595.5 miles

My tent got frosted over inside and out but I got up early with Silverthorne in my sights. Chance texted me to say he was at a hotel right where the trail came into town, so I stopped by to say hi before breakfast. He told me to take a bus 15 miles down the trail and then walk back (more downhill that way). I left my pack at the hotel and headed out.

I heard from a bunch of people that it’s supposed to snow tonight, so I’m happy to end my day back in a town. The actual walk back to Silverthorne was great as it passed through two towns where I could get food! My parents called me while I walked too… Ahh civilization 🙂

It’s pouring rain at this elevation so that snow could be happening, if so tomorrow could be very umm… Interesting!

Daily Summary
Date: Sept 14, 2011
Day 83
Daily Distance: 20.7 miles
Trip Distance: 1574.4 miles

It snowed last night! Just a bit, but enough to freeze a layer on my tent and leave a dusting on the trail all morning. Winter is coming….

I added up the elevation for today and combined with yesterday my legs are toasted! There weren’t so many big peaks today, instead two big dips down to river valleys followed by big climbs back to the Divide. The views in every direction were crazy all day. Endless amazing looking ridges and mountain systems just begging to be explored.

I met some bow hunters in the evening who were pretty nice (although they didn’t offer me anything from their giant camp!). They hadn’t had any luck yet, and I haven’t seen elk in awhile, so I couldn’t help them.

Daily Summary
Date: Sept 13, 2011
Day 82
Daily Distance: 23.7 miles
Trip Distance: 1553.7 miles

We got up early, grabbed breakfast and coffee, then headed back up the gravel roads to drop me off for real. Hailey headed off to a week-long conference in Denver, while I got back to the hiking! I had to significantly loosen my pack hipbelt in order to get it on, always a good sign after a break from the trail.

I immediately climbed up to the divide, and stayed on it all day. This section was crazy climbing! I bagged some tall mountains too – Mt James (13,294ft), Parry Peak (13,391ft), and Mt Flora (13,132). Parry is the highpoint of the whole CDT! I might make a side-trip to climb something bigger, but for now that’s it!

All day it was very cold and windy, so I was glad to have my extra fleece. I had great views from Mt James, but then the clouds and fog and hail rolled in so I didn’t see much more from the next few mountains. Today was by far the hardest physical day of the trip. I calculate about 7,400 feet of elevation gain and all of it above 10,000ft (aka hard to breathe just walking to begin with).

The rewards were good though, so I’m happy. Tomorrow could be tough though, we shall see!

Daily Summary
Date: Sept 12, 2011
Day 80
Daily Distance: 20 miles
Trip Distance: 1530 miles

Today we hung around our posh hotel as long as possible, not doing much but boy was it nice. We hit the road eventually and headed over to Bill’s house to spend the night there. We spent most of the day lounging, using Bill’s wifi and chatting with him and his roommate Ryan. Later we took them out for dinner at a nice steak and seafood restaurant, and Ryan told us about climbing Denali this spring. It sounded totally amazing, although quote dangerous. He got frostbite, and barely made it to the top due to altitude related issues. He also casually mentioned that a half dozen people had died on the climb this year. But all that aside, it seemed very neat. He sent me a bunch of info about the guide he went with and I read it before bed. He also showed me all his gear, which was amazing – had to be warm at -30C… Very different mindset to what I’m doing that’s for sure.

We headed out from Bill’s pretty early so I could get back to the trail and do a few miles without a pack. We drove up some gravel roads and found the trail, then I walked for about 4 hours while Hailes went to a lake near the end and read. Worked out nicely minus some confusion about where we were meeting!

We checked into another motel and I got some last minute chores done… And watched some football, hockey, tv, and part of a movie :).

Daily Summary
Date: Sept 10-11, 2011
Day 78-79
Daily Distance: 12 miles
Trip Distance: 1510 miles

More days off with Hailey!

We drove to Boulder, going through Berthoud Pass – where I will be hiking to on the trail once I get hiking again. It looked stunning, can’t wait. I’ve heard there’s some snow up there too after all the rain at lower elevations. Boulder was very nice, although we made the mistake of trying to walk somewhere – turned out to be way too far for me 🙂 Walking is no fun if it’s not on the trail for some reason. Maybe it’s the flip-flops. We went to some great stores – a Montbell outlet, my favourite Japanese gear brand. I bought some mitts and a fleece to combat the upcoming cold… which is funny because I usually disdain fleece, preferring insulated coats (synthetic or down). For the conditions around here though, fleece makes sense! If it’s raining or snowing, insulated jackets will get wet and become mostly useless. Fleece is just as effective wet as dry, so the added weight should be worthwhile.

Hailey did some shopping of her own as we walked the streets, and then we headed towards Denver to a hotel we had picked randomly off the internet. It turned out to be VERY upscale (but reasonably priced, go figure). We went to the pool and hottub, then met up with Bill, an internet friend who has been holding my winter hiking gear for me. He took us to a great brewpub in downtown Denver, then to a burlesque show! Pretty random, but we had a great time, laughed hard at the show, and then got back to our hotel by midnight.

Daily Summary
Date: Sept 9, 2011
Day 77
Daily Distance: 0 miles
Trip Distance: 1498 miles

Now in Grand Lake, Hailey’s arrival coming quickly, I had to figure out how to use the next couple days productively – i.e. could I hike out of town and still be somewhere useful when she arrived. The answer turned out to be “somewhat”. I couldn’t really get to the next town, but there were some roads that came near the trail high in the mountains. I talked to a ranger and ruled out some of them (a rental car wasn’t going to cut it on some of the roads). Complicating my decision was that I knew Chance’s parents were coming into town, and could probably drive and pick us up on some shorter day-hikes. In the end, the fact that it was still pouring rain made me decide not to do anything, just hang around town for the day and eat.

I finally met Gadget, a hiker who has been out in front of everyone the whole trip, and been posting sometimes useful info to his internet journal about trail conditions. He’s an older guy who used to work for Microsoft, so we had lots to talk about. We had lunch and then ran into Chance and Lucky Joe coming in from the trail (cold and wet). Chance said his parents were delayed, so that killed any possibility of doing hiking that day. Instead, we all went over to the cabin his parents had rented and Chance made us a big dinner later in the evening when his parents showed up. Kevin and Piper also rolled into town in time for a late dinner.

The next morning Chance made us breakfast and then his mom drove us out to the trail south of town. Chance’s dad hiked with us and we walked back to town by mid-afternoon. The trail actually turned out to be pretty horrible – it was on a ridge above a big lake and totally swamped with blown-down trees. There were large parts where it was impossible to even find the trail under all the trees, so I got lost a fair bit. My legs got totally scratched up hoping over the trees, and then I jammed a big toe later, so that nail is going to come off eventually. After that the trail levelled out and we were able to get moving. Even without my big pack on I can only go so fast, and the hike dragged a bit as it wound through forest. The views out over the lake improved at the end though and it was great to walk back into town and go directly to a restaurant 🙂

I checked into a motel and waited for Hailey to show up, which she did right around dark. We were both really tired and were asleep by 9:30pm.

Daily Summary
Date: Sept 7-8, 2011
Day 75-76
Daily Distance: 13.5 miles
Trip Distance: 1498 miles

Well, staying on top of a big mountain was pretty, but at 4am a storm rolled in so I had to move into the hut… which turned out to be leaky, although only in parts (the other parts were covered in broken glass and mouse shit…mmm). I’d heard from people that have hiked the Appalachian Trail that the hut was actually very nice, so I guess your standards get to be quite low after that trail (if you don’t know – the AT has huts every 10-15 miles, so people tend to sleep in them every night while doing a thru-hike of that trail).

I was up with the sun, or so I assumed, because clouds were closing in on all sides. I hoofed it down the mountain as the rain picked up. Very cold that up that high. Unfortunately, there’s no trail down the mountain so I came out on some random road. I didn’t want to stop to figure out exactly where I was or where I was supposed to be going, as I would have frozen. Instead I just aimed downhill and ended up going far out of my way but oh well, stayed warm-ish.

It stayed really cold and rainy all morning, and my hands were suffering even in two pairs of gloves. Eventually I stopped for lunch and setup my tent to try to warm up. That turned into a 2 hour nap which finally warmed up my hands. After that, I moved as fast as I could to stay warm as it kept raining. I went over a pass from which I could have stayed high, but there wasn’t much point as it was totally fogged in. I took a lower alternative but it didn’t really go where I expected, so I ended up road walking into Grand Lake (my next resupply point).

Somewhere in there I broke one of my poles again, so I’m probably going to give up on these super light ones and get my old ones back. Too much money wasted on them considering my older Leki poles made it through the whole PCT without issue.

Daily Summary
Date: Sept 6, 2011
Day 74
Daily Distance: 30.4 miles
Trip Distance: 1484.5 miles

So much climbing today, but it was just spread out enough that I didn’t feel totally destroyed. Nothing big happened really, just steady walking. We were on the divide most of the day with lots of views to the upcoming Rocky Mountain National Park.

After dinner I decided to try to camp on top of Parkview Mountain (12,300ft). I had to walk til dark, but I had a nice target to aim for – a little hut right on the summit. I’ve decided not to sleep in it but I guess if the weather turns in the night I’ll scurry in.

Daily Summary
Date: Sept 5, 2011
Day 73
Daily Distance: 26.9 miles
Trip Distance: 1454.1 miles

Never even used a blanket last night, just fell asleep fully clothed on the floor (mostly sober too!). We packed up in the morning and Lucky Joe bought the whole crew breakfast. Then we all went our separate ways. I went back to a great Italian/French sandwich shop and had them make me a “chef’s choice” sandwich to go. They were quite entertained by getting to make me something interesting. One of the other chefs was telling me to come back again so he could make me one too!

Then I caught the bus to the edge of town and waited awhile for a hitch up to the trail…. Which was just the side of the highway for 13 miles. Oh well! Got back into the trees to camp, and I’m back with Lucky Joe and Chance due to them getting a bit lost earlier.

I listened to a lot of podcasts today in order to get through the boring road hiking, I’m particularly enjoying Kermode and Mayo’s Film Reviews for BBC5. In some ways it’s silly because I rarely have heard or seen anything about the movies they are talking about, but it still makes for entertaining listening

Daily Summary
Date: Sept 4, 2011
Day 72
Daily Distance: 19 miles
Trip Distance: 1427.2 miles