Day 11 – A Near Zero Day
On day 11, I knew I would be swinging into Leadville to buy food, but I had the opportunity to get to Leadville on day 10, and decided not to do quite so many miles. So, day 11 consisted of 9 miles. Almost all of which I hiked with Zack, a self employed manager of a website called http://appalachiantrials.com/ so go check it out. Zack called a low mileage day a near zero day, ergo, Nero.
Not much to say about the nine miles in.
Camp Hale… Which I forgot to look up what it was…
Oh and
Ancient cook ovens of somesort… Yeah, need some wiki time I guess.
Day 12 – Low Mileage to Leadville
Leadville has to be one of my favorite towns in Colorado. The mountain background, the warm and welcoming hostel feels like I am a guest at someone’s house.
Day 12 is a lower mileage day, only 14.8 miles. Before departing the hostel, I weighed myself and my gear.
When I left Rangely, I weighed 216 pounds. The morning I left for day 1 of this trail, I weighed 198.8. Currently, I weigh 196.4.
My backpack weighed 40 pounds on day 1. I’ve made some adjustments and now my bag is 38.6. I have a lot of food this time and made better choices on food , i.e. no tortillas or tuna. I have a boring pallat, but that’s okay.
Live Edit: I’m sitting here watching the news and weather, what’s with the fires?? Oh and I hope Cathy wakes up so I can pay for the room and hitchhiker myself to the trailhead.
Also, I have a slight worry that I’m coming down with a cold and sinus issue… Wish me luck!
Day 12 was a nice hike through the woods. The sky held a deep and crop blue despite the haze in the air. There were sections of the forest that held a green so pure I can only describe it like this, “there is green, and then there is Irish gree
I made new friends today, which is always a plus. Calamity Jane and Mule. We joined up at camp and really enjoyed the warmth of our fire, eventually the cold kicked us out and to bed. I’m still surprised at the quick chill that rolls down the mountains every night.
Day 13 – Unlucky?
13 was unlucky, not only did I lose my bandanna, pen, floatie thingi for my pump, my phone also deleted my entire day 13 post. Not only that, but the Leadville 100 foot race started in the early morning and some runner left a pile of #2 in our camp. Unbelievable!
I heard that 780 people competed in the Leadville 100 but only 312 completed all 100 miles… Wow!
Day 13 wasn’t all bad. It became a big mileage day and I magically found Dr. Mule camping next to a beaver pond. It’s always good to have a friend to camp with.
Day 14 – Beer-o Day
This wasn’t supposed to be a near zero day, but beer after Dr. Mule and I left our beaver neighborhood behind, we treked into Twin Lakes.
Twin Lakes is a great resupply for many folks. It’s here that I met a legend of thrugh hiking, Hippie Longstockings. Our group outside the general store grew and shrank, but it was a blast having beer with so many through hikers!
So, yeah, not many miles completed here, but that’s okay. I loved every minute of it!
Day 15 – Starting the Collegiate West
This is to be the toughest day of the trip. Check out what the CT Databook says about the Collegiate West Segment 1.
Please take note of the straight up and straight down from miles ~3.6 to ~7.3. Hope Pass was rough! But, look at the pictures!
Oh yeah and then, BAM!
Goodnight everyone!
Day 16 – Beautiful Passes
From mountain meadow to Lake Ann Pass. I only traversed about 12 miles before making camp in the rain. Rain, I wasn’t expecting rain until Thursday, this could make some of my above tree line experiences similar to week one, a sprint from tree to tree.
I feel bad because I told the wrong weather forecast to Kathy and Jay, a mother son hiking combo I met at Lake Ann.
Lake Ann Pass was beautiful, but it was brutal. The sights amazing, but my legs are already fatigued.
On the way down, I met this guy . He’s like a giant squirrel!
Quite the views…
Oh, that’s a squirrel… But what was that other guy…
Anyways, rain came in once I got to Texas Creek and the thunder convinced me to find a flat spot… Which was impossible, so I slept crooked…
Oh well. Life is still good.
Day 17 – Crummy Day
What a crummy day! The trail is poorly marked, camping spots exist, just further down the trail… I fell into Texas Creek (waist deep) Oh and rain…
I know I should expect the rain, but it always starts out with hope of sun.
Then the trail keeps going. Cottonwood pass has changed from the 5th edition Colorado Trail Databook. I follow the marked trail and yet, the databook is absolutely wrong. Luckily I have a GPS app on my phone with the trail on it, but that app doesn’t tell me where the camping spots are. In the databook, I only needed to go about 12 miles to a camping spot, but I was nowhere near that trail… So I kept hiking… And hiking. It starts to rain, sleet, and drizzle, but I kept hiking, there had to be something soon… Right?? Ha! Heck no! I hiked well into the next segment because I was above tree line for the last 15 miles!
I wound up getting water and finding as flat, rock free spot as I could. Sadly it was lumpy, has elk leftovers, and I setup in the ridiculous rain. At 12,200-ish feet.
Then it rain and stormed all night… ALL night.
Day 18 – My Resolve is Tested
Okay, D18 is August 27. I am sore from the longer than expected days, fatigued due to the rain and cold, and to top it off, I get rain delayed all morning just to open my tent flap to wind, rain and yes, I’m in a cloud.
Overnight, I believe God to be testing the strength of my tent and my ability to sleep through it all… I was warm (I opened up two hand-warmers) just, wet… Everything was wet to some degree. So I packed up in the sleet and the wind because staying still isn’t what I wanted to do. I took no pictures of the misery, I hiked over the pass at 12,800 ft and I was getting depressed.
I was blessed with some sunlight, but I decided to bail and head into St. Elmo for somewhere dry and warm.
I ran into a very interesting man who I instantly connected with. Lee is a Messianic Jew. This means he is of Jewish belief that combines Jesus as the messiah. I wrote down 11 scriptures and 5 book titles that I need to read before hitching a ride to the Mt. Princeton hot springs for a bed.
OH AND GET THIS
So I flag down a car to see if I can snag a ride, the first car is full, but the second one had room. The three other passengers and I start talking about this and that. (I kind of like talking about myself, sorry all).
Turns out, I’m riding with DeAndre Yedlin’s grandparents and great uncle! I was so ecstatic and overwhelmed to be randomly riding with folks related to such a great player! I really hope they look up my website and read this! Oh and if there are spare tickets, let me know via email at John@bumblingabout.com
Thanks for the ride and recuperating my Collegiate West hike! Optimism is again at full!!!
Day 19 – The End of the Collegiate West
The final segment of the Collegiate West wasn’t too bad. I believe my willingness to take out my camera has gone down though. I am definitely taking less pictures than before.
I am still doing an amazing job of hitchhiking on the “tough hitch” roads of Colorado. I got to the trailhead and started pumping out the miles by pretty early in the day.
While still staring down rain, this segment’s attraction is the collapsed Alpine Tunnel.
This crazy tunnel was 1,800+ feet long, but the winters were tough on the workers and there were all sorts of danger, take a moment and read this next picture!
As far as mileage goes, I can’t say I know scat how far I went, but the slope was a gentle downhill following the old railway.
Oh, and I discovered the spy for the Yellow-bellied marmot cause…
Side note, turns out that marmots have their own dialects as this breed sounds different from the marmots of Washington state.
Side side note, I hope I’m spelling marmot correctly…
Day 20 – At a Low
Waking up on day 19 was rough. Moral was low, energy low, and willpower to get out of my sleeping bag at an all-time low. The little saddle I hiked over by Hancock Lake was low in elevation (kind of low at 11,701) and yet it seemed like one of the tougher days of the trail. I needed an emotional boost.
I hobbled down the trail at a slower pace than my other days and I was able to sneak up on a deer.
I needed a town run again, even this lake didn’t boost moral.
Salida, here I come!
