I arrived in Salida, CO, yesterday afternoon, nineteen days after I left Denver. I am a little over half way. According to my data book, I have come about 250 miles and have about 235 miles left. The remaining miles will be higher, colder and more remote, but will have less of the daily climbing and descending and less hiking in the "long green tunnel," as people refer to hiking in the forest.
I am at a computer in a coffee shop right now and although they aren't charging me for use, I don't want to take the time to journal with daily entries the time since I left Breckenridge. I will try to add that later, maybe after I come home, but for now I am just going to hit the highlights.
I skipped Segment 7 because of heavy snow as I was advised to by the owner of the inn where I stayed. Segment 7 goes from Breckenridge to Copper Mountain over the Ten Mile Range and is about 12,500 feet elevation at its highest. Since both towns are serviced by the free Summit County Shuttle I rode a bus instead of taking a hike. I later talked to two young men who came through later than I did, both of whom attempted and failed to get through, so I guess I did the right thing. Then on Segment 8 I went about eight miles into it and turned back because of snow. I was able to catch a ride to the start of Segment 9 with Dave, the trail adopter for Segment 8. I t was starting to seem more like the Amazing Race than a hike.
I finished Segment 9 on Tuesday, July 5 and it was tough! The trail was buried under deep snow for at least a half a mile and I was glad I had a map and compass and knew how to use them. There were footprints, but the people who left them were as confused as I was so they weren't all that helpful. After I finished I decided I probably could have made it through Segment 8, but I wasn't sorry I turned back.
The scenery in the first half is a lot of long green tunnel with some beautiful meadows and the occasional incredible vista. Some of the best views in the first half are in the segments I missed because of the snow. Trail conditions vary from soft pine needle paths to rocks and boulders. A lot of the trail is sloppy and muddy because of all the runoff from heavy snow.
After Breckenridge my next stop was in the little village of Twin Lakes. I was very disappointed that the restaurant I had eaten at in 2008 was closed, and I was almost shut out of staying at the lodge I had stayed at in '08 also. When I told the owner I would even pay for a couch to sleep on, he decided to rent me a little house for the price of a room in the lodge as long as I didn't use the kitchen. It even had a washer and dryer!
One of my favorite things about hiking the CT is the people I meet. After I got cleaned up and washed my clothes, I walked over to the little general store/post office to get my box and buy some food. I saw three scruffy looking characters with backpacks sitting on the store steps pouring over topo maps, and I knew they had to be through-hikers. Turns out they were through-hiking the Continental Divide Trail, which runs from Mexico to Canada and is almost 3000 miles long. Two were young men in their twenties who are "trail bums" in that they long-distance hike somewhere during the warm part of the year and then work a menial job during the winter to earn money to hike again next season. The third hikers was a retired aeronautical engineer from California who has already hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. I offered them the second bedroom in my house (the proprietor would charge $75 per person) but only the retiree took up my offer. I don't think the other two had the money for it, so they hiked on up into the "death cloud" as they called it, a brewing thunderstorm up on the mountain.
Speaking of weather, I don;t remember weather like this from the previous time I hiked the CT. Mornings have sometimes been completely overcast, afternoons and evenings and sometimes into the night have been rainy, and one night we even had a thunderstorm in the middle of the night. The pattern broke just yesterday, when it didn't rain all day.
Now that I am Salida I have a long to-do list. I have a hair appointment for tomorrow morning, I have to go to the bank, post office and grocery store, and I am picking up m new ultra-light tent tomorrow that I ordered. I had been using what is called a "bivy sack", which I had used on my previous hike, but it wasn't working with my new down bag. I had used a synthetic sleeping bag before, and because synthetic fibers don't retain moisture the way down does, I hadn't noticed the condensation problem on the inside of my bivy sack. I'm sure all the rain made it worse, but I was sleeping in a damp sleeping bag every night. The tent should fix that.
I plan to leave Salida tomorrow afternoon, or I may stay one more night. I stayed last night at a hostel, but the didn't have room for me tonight, so I am at the Woodland Motel. The Woodland won't have room for me tomorrow night, so if I stay another night I will go back to the hostel. It's hard to make reservations when you hike, since you never really know when you will arrive. I met some interesting people in the hostel also, which I will blog about later.
No comments:
Post a Comment