Creede

I made it to Creede yesterday. I am using the Chamber of Commerce computer right now. I went through a beautiful part of the trail yesterday. My favorite conditions: high, open, windy and cool. The views were so expansive I could see two hikers a mile in front of me and one a mile behind me sometimes. I remember the open parts from 2009 so much better than the parts of the trail that go through forest. One "long green tunnel" looks a lot like the other to me, but I can remember expansive views.

Another thing I prefer about the high, open hiking is I can see my progress. The trail is marked with posts above tree line (as opposed to markers nailed to trees below tree line) and depending on the terrain the posts may be visible for a mile or more. I can see a post come into view and the pretty soon I reach it.

The only bad side to hiking above tree line is the storms. This has been a particularly rainy, stormy year, and it's not good to be above tree line when a thunderstorm hits. I will just have to be sure and start hiking early, keep an eye on the sky, and be ready to seek shelter if I see a storm building.

I should arrive in Silverton in four days. I will stay in Silverton a day, and then it will take me about five days to get to Durango. I should be in Durango no later than August 4. I plan to fly to Denver August 6. My husband Mike and son Danny will have driven out, my son Jon will be flying in that same day, and we will all meet up and go up to Estes Park, where they will then do some hiking and attempt to summit Long's Peak, a 14'er (over 14,000 feet elevation).

I have met many interesting people on the trail and in the towns. I don't have time to write about them now, but I will when I get to Durango or back to Spring field.

Progress Map

This map shows Debbie's progress based on the SPOT Personal Tracker reports. It will be updated as reports are received.

Click for a larger map, with a list of report points.

Halfway to Durango

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.

The First Week

I arrived in Denver on Tuesday evening, June 24. I had a few last minute details to take care of and some things to buy before I left, so I spent three days in Denver. It was good to have a little time to organize and re-group after the Telluride Bluegrass Festival experience.

My family members from Denver dropped me off at the trailhead of the CT (Colorado Trail) Friday, June 24 about 11:00. The CT is divided into 28 segments of varying length, the main requirement for a segment being that each segment have a trail head accessible by car or four-wheel drive. To look at a map of the CT and the segments, go to http://www.coloradotrail.org/. The first segment was in low forested foothills without much view, but I met some interesting people, like I always do. One nice man from Boulder tried to give me his pepper-spray canister when he found out what I was doing, but Boulder tends to be a hotbed of bear and mountain lion activity, which I think colored his outlook. My observations have led me to think that the closer I am to civilization the more likely I am to encounter a bear. Bears go where the food is, and that's around people. Also, Colorado has hunting season on bear, hunting which occurs in the backcountry, and that makes the backcountry bears afraid of people.

I only made about nine miles the first day before I camped. My pack was way too heavy (44 lbs.) which makes hiking tough. Unfortunately it had to be that heavy because I will have seven to eight days before I can re-supply. The first few days are the hardest because I am at the weakest I will be and my pack is at its heaviest.

The next morning I headed down the steep sides of the Platte River Canyon to start Segment 2. This segment has "The Burn," a feared and hated thireen mile stretch with no shade and no water. The views are decent, but man, was it hot! I pushed hard because I didn't want to get stuck out there without water. The thing I love about the CT, though, is that when Mother Nature abuses you, she always gives you a gift to earn your love back. The gift on the burn was the bluebirds. Someone has hiked out here and put up bluebird boxes, and I got to see the residents. Most were mountain bluebirds, but one had a rusty breast. I need to look in a bird book to see the ranges to figure out if it was a western or eastern bluebird.

Near the end of Segment 2 I met Chris and his two dogs. Newly retired, Chris had alway wanted to hike the CT but didn't have that much time off. His dogs were carrying their own food, bowls, half a gallon of water each, and their own sleeping pads. And they were happy about it!

The start of the third day was pretty unremarkable. The scenery of Segment 3 was pretty, but not spectacular. I met a few people but didn't spend much time with them. The one interesting experience that day was the llama train -- three people and seven llmas out for about 50 miles of hiking. The seven llamas were carrying a total of 280 pounds for the three people. One of the llamas had sore on its feet and the people were applying moleskin and covering it with duct tape, which is what people out here do for their sore feet.

Day three I made a big mistake which  was completely due to my overconfidence from having hiked the trail before. I wasn't studying my maps and data book like I should have been and I headed down a wrong trail in the Lost River Wilderness. By the time I realized my mistake and talked to some other hikers to figure out where I was, I decided it was better to keep going than backtrack, because I would eventually get back on the CT. My students would understand if I told them that instead of hiking side c of the right triangle I hiked sides a and b. However, the hike was a beautiful one and everything turned out OK, although it probably cost me half a day. I got back on the CT about the middle of day four and the middle of Segment 4.

I woke up Tuesday morning, the start of day five, feeling encouraged. I had recovered from my mistake, the coming day's hike was mostly level, downhill or gentle uphill, and I planned to make Kenosha Pass which is kind of a milestone. Kenosha Pass is on Highway 24 south of Denver and has a nice Forest Service campground with the luxury of latrines and an old-fashioned water pump. I would be hiking Segment 5, which has some outstanding views. At about the sixth mile of this segment I stopped to filter some water from a stream (that's how I get water, if you  didn't know) and a hiker who was stopped to rest by this stream introduced himself as Tex. When I said he must be from Texas, he said, "no, Missouri." As the conversation progressed, we discoverd we have an unusual number of things in common. I am a seventh grade math teacher named Debbie who has a middle school cross country club in the fall and coaches the track distance running program in the spring. Tex teaches at an alternative middle school and coaches high school cross country, his wife (whose name is also Debbie) teaches seventh grade math, and his daughter, who is a high school communication arts teacher, coaches middle school cross country. He is from Moberly, Missouri, and I have been trhough there many times since I used to live in Hannibal. I won't see Tex again. He is hiking slower than I am, and his wife is picking him up in Kenosha Pass.

I got to Kenosha Pass late afternoon. I camped in the forest service campground, which was relatively empty because it is Wednesday. On a weekend I might have had to talk someone in to sharing their site. I was lucky, however, that a large and friendly family was camped there with me who turned out to be true trail angels. They invited me for dinner and fed me a big, fat cheeseburger! Do you know how good that tasted after a week of freeze-dried meals? The little grandson even helped me wash my hair by pumping the pump handle while I held my head under the spigot. They invited me to come for pancakes the next morning, which I should have done, it turns out.

The next day, day six, is also the start of Segment 6, the longest one on the CT. It is 32 miles long and goes over the Continental Divide at Georgia Pass. The pass is 12.5 miles from the trailhead at Kenosha Pass, and it would be a good idea to get over the pass by one o'clock or so to avoid afternoon thunderstorms that could crop up. For this reason I got an early start and missed out on the pancake breakfast my trail angel family had invited me to.

As it turned out I didn't need to worry about afternoon thunderstorms -- the storms started about 11:00 and continued off and on all day,and they were bad ones. I got caught in the first one two or three miles down from the pass. I had wisely  put on my rain jacket and pack cover right before the first hailstone hit. Steve, a hiker I had met earlier in the day, pulled out his rain poncho and made a shelter back in the trees with it and sat out this storm, but I hiked on as soon as the hail stopped. The storm broke up, and I made for the pass. I was above tree line when I saw the second storm brewing. I had a big snow field to cross, but fortunately it had a crust, so I didn't posthole up to mid-thigh more than once or twice. The closer I got to the pass, the closer the storm got. I asked the storm to just let me get over the pass and down a little (I talk to the forces of nature a lot out here), and it did. Just as I got to the little trees right at timberline, the full force and glory hit. Hail, gale-force winds, thunder and lightning the like of which occurs nowhere else but the mountains. I snuggled as far in to a little fir tree as I could and waited out the worst of it. When the hail turned to rain and the thunder subsided to distant rumbles I started hiking again.

I had heard that this had been a year of heavy snow, but I had no idea how heavy. For at least two miles, possibly more (it seemed like ten), I was making my way in the trees over drift after drift. These drifts were three to six feet deep, with a steep slope on either side and a more rounded top, lying across the trail. Some of them I could go around, but I would run the risk of losing the trail if I went to far around. Most of the time I followed the footsteps of the previous hikers, who all seemed to have longer legs than I. Some of the time I puched through the crust, and some of the time I just had to slide down the drifts on my seat because the footsteps were too far apart. In between the drifts I could walk on a few feet of trail before the next drift.

I finally got far enough down that the drifts were no longer a major problem. That's when thunderstorm number three hit. Same as the others, only this one had more rain. The trail turned into a rushing torrent. It didn't really matter, because my shoes and socks were already soaked from the snow. I just kept hiking, and the storm subsided to a gentle rain. I reach the bottom of the descent before the trail started climbing again, found a decent campsite, and called it a day about five o'clock. Like I mentioned before, when Mother Nature abuses you badly, she usually gives you a gift to make up. I was looking for a rock to pound in my tent pegs. I found a likely-looking candidate, picked it up to examine it, and it turned out to be a beautiful crystal-filled geode. My first thought was that someone had dropped it, because I had only ever seen these in stores, but I looked around and found several other ones that were not broken open. I was able to find another piece of the open one I found, so I kept them. Just what a backpacker needs is rocks. I am going to ship them home.

The next day I was worn out. I thought it would be a fairly easy day, hiking about thirteen miles into Breckenridge for a rest day. The elevation profile in my data book showed about three miles of climbing and the rest downhill. Not so. After the three miles of climbing, it was about six miles of a mix of climbing and descending, and only the last two miles were downhill all the way. Fornutately there is a shuttle stop right by the trail head, so when I got there, dirty and tired, I was able to catch a shuttle ride the four miles into Breckenridge.

On the shuttle I asked about good places for through-hikers to stay, and  people recommended the Fireside Inn. When I got to the inn, I asked the owner if they had laundry facilities. He said,"oh, we'll do your laundry." When I told him that everything I had needed to be washed, including the clothes I had on, he said, in his lovely British accent, "we have spare clothes." He even offered to put up a clothesline for me to dry my sleeping bag and tent. Turns out this place caters to through hikers, even though we come in filthy with pine needles falling out of everything. The place is adorable, filled with antiques, historical photos, documents and artifacts relating to the owner's and his family's long military history. The building is old and the floors aren't level, but it is charming. It has private rooms, a suite, and dorm-style bunking, and I was pleasantly surprised at the price. It also comes with a fantastic breakfast.

Saturday morning (today) I went down to the post office to pick up my box I had mailed myself, and it wasn't there. No big loss, I will just have to buy my freeze-dried meals here, but it was annoying. I am spending the day re-supplying, posting this blog, checking e-mail, calling people, and resting. I may stay another rest day tomorrow. I found out when I got here yesterday that the next segment, Segment 7, is essentially impassable due to heavy snow. The owner here said only one hiker has made it through, and I bet that hiker was bigger and stronger than me. Lucky for me I can ride the free Summit County shuttle over to Copper Mountain, which is where Segment 7 ends and Segment 8 begins. Since I won't be hiking that day, I can afford to take one more rest day here and not get off schedule. My body may need a little more rest after Thursday.

Oh, by the way, Steve, who was waiting out the storm last time I saw him, came in this morning. He actually ended up camping right up by the divide Thursday night and said he almost froze. He said ice was all over his bivy sack.

My next chance to post will be when I get to Twin Lakes, a cute little town a mile off the trail with a gourmet restaurant that people drive from Aspen for. I will probably get there Wednesday or Thursday. I won't be able to upload any pictures until I get home.

Telluride Bluegrass Festival

I had a whole summer's worth of fun in four days at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival last week Telluride is a little village tucked away in an incredibly beautiful mountain box canyon with two waterfalls at the end of the canyon. The normal population of the town is 2300, but during the festival at least 11,500 people are added to that. If you would like to read more about it, here is the link: http://www.bluegrass.com/telluride/. I especially enjoyed Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Mumford and Sons, Emmylou Harris, and Robert Plant and his Band of Joy.

I camped at the high school, which was the family-friendly, extended quiet hours non-alcohol site. It was mostly families with children, retired couples, and middle-aged women in pairs or alone. I made many new friends, both at the campground and at the festival. I have e-mail addresses and intend to stay in touch. I even have a ride from Denver next year if I want one, and a contact with Frontier Airlines for standby fights out of Branson. Everyone I met was happy, friendly, and having a great time. Lots of tie-dye and dreadlocks, but also retired couples, young families, couples and even a few solos like me. I met a nurse from Lincoln, Nebraska, who thought I was brave to come alone, but I thought she was brave because she came with her two daughters.

I had a few challenges getting out of Telluride, however. Sunday night, when I was standing by the fence watching Robert Plant and his band, my water bottle, chair and bag disappeared. I had left these things at various places on the festival grounds all through the festival and no one touched them, but it was still careless of me not to have worn my little belt pack with the important things in it when I went up to watch the band. The important things I lost were: a credit card, my driver's license, cell phone, and the keys to the car my friend in Durango had so kindly let my borrow. Complicating the situation was the fact that I had broken camp that morning and my tent, sleeping bag, clothing, cash, other credit cards and bank card were locked in the trunk of a car I had no key for.

When I discovered my things were missing, I searched all around the area with no luck. I walked the mile back to the campground to see if perhaps friends had brought my things back for me, but that hadn't happened. When I was at the campground, a guardian angel in the form of Brent, a festival volunteer, took me under his wings. He walked all the way back to the festival grounds with me, took me into the warming hut where the lost and found was located, went out on the grounds with me and helped me search again, offered me clothing, food, cell phone use, and contacted a locksmith for me so I could get into the car and drive it back to Durango. While I was at the warming hut another volunteer, Sandy, found me a place to sleep, gave me a toothbrush and food, and tried to give me some money but I wouldn't take it. Sandy also found me a pair of reading glasses in the lost and found, without which I would have had a much harder time making all the phone calls and writing down the information I needed to write to straighten out this mess. I slept a few hours, then started making calls early Monday morning. I had to reschedule my flight, put a hold on my credit card, call people who were expecting me, and call my cell phone provider. About 12:30 the locksmith came with a set of keys for me and I headed down to Durango.

All the while I kept thinkng that in such a beautiful place with such wonderful music and kind, helpful people, no one would have intentionally stolen my things. Why would anyone even have wanted my old beat-up waterbottle and my chair which would have been wet and muddy from the rain that had started about 4:00 Sunday afternoon? My hope was that someone in a group had gathered things up to leave and inadvertently picked up my things too.

When I got a new cell phone in Durango and was able to access my voice mail, there was a message from my credit card company that someone had called them to report that he had found my bag in a pile of tarps. I have a name and phone number and am waiting to hear back. I am hoping to have him mail the important things to me on the trail.

I plan to start my hike some time tomorrow. My first town will be Breckenridge, which I hope to reach in 7-8 days. I will be able to get to a computer there for sure, so I will update then. There is a lot of snow still up in the higher elevations, so I'm not in a big hurry to cross over Georgia Pass yet.

Packing

I've added a few pictures of the preparation process. My plane leaves Branson today at about 3 p.m., so Idon't have time to write much, I'm glad I have a little time before I start my hike. I probably won't start sooner than June 22, which will give me time to get things I forgot, and time to get over this cold I came down with Sunday.

Time to Panic

Friday, June 10 was my father-in-law's 90th birthday. Since he lives here in Springfield, preparation duties fell to my husband Mike and me. I started cleaning my house the Sunday after school got out on Friday, June 3 and cleaned until the guests started arriving on Friday, June 10. I also had to shop and prepare for the birthday party on June 10: order the cake, buy the candy and mints, make the punch, decorate and so on. It is now Sunday, June 12, the last guests have left and I have about 48 hours to get ready to catch my plane to go out to Colorado. I am washing sheets and towels now, and I also have to clip my two dogs before I go.

Fortunately I have all my equipment more-or-less together, since I brought it all to school with me one day to show the kids while I gave them a talk and slide show on the Colorado Trail. The biggest job I have at this point is to prepare my drop boxes. I will mail myself a box addressed "Debbie Good, General Delivery, Town, Zip Code" to each of the towns I will go in to as I hike. These boxes will contain food, maybe fresh socks, and any other items I am particular about and may not be able to buy in the towns. I don't need to have them all mailed (my husband can mail them after I leave) but I need to have them ready.

To know how many drop boxes to ship and what to put in them, I had to come up with a projected rough-guess itinerary. Based on how fast I moved in 2008 and 2009, I am planning to average between 13 and 15 miles per day, slower early in the hike and faster as I gain fitness. I studied the map, calculated distances and decided which towns to go in to and how may days apart they will be, and that tells me how much of what food to put in my box. My experience from the previous hikes is that I am usually wrong and put in too much food, but that's better than not enough.

Here is my rough-guess itinerary:

Denver - Breckenridge         105.1 miles              8 days
To Twin Lakes                       71.3                      6 days
To Salida                               76.7 miles              6 days
To Creede                             105 miles               7 days
To Silverton                           53.3 miles              4 days
To Durango                           74 miles                 5 days

This itinerary is on the conservative side and I will probably move faster than this, but I need to be prepared for these distances. On the previous hikes I spent two nights and one full day in the towns, but if I want to speed up I can just spend one night in town and head out the next morning.

So far the fundraising is going well. I have checks totalling $180 and verbal or written pledges for another $100 or so.  I have passed out a lot of flyers, so I hope things will trickle in throughout the summer. Tomorrow I will post some pictures of my equipment and supplies and explain what I use it for. I am not sure how to post pictures once I get out on the trail, since I will be using hotel or coffeehouse computers, but I'm going to try.