Start: County Road EE38
Stop: Highway 50
Today’s Miles: 26
Total CDT miles: 806.6
Pebbles and I didn’t wake up until 6:30. It was chilly this morning and I didn’t want to get out of my quilt. Either way, we were packed and hiking by 7am. Once the sun popped out, so did our umbrellas. It got hot so quick! I stopped for a bathroom break and didn’t see Pebbles again until I caught up to him filtering water. Naturally, he was gone again before I finished getting my water, thankfully I was happily being distracted by my audiobook, so I didn’t mind trying to play catch up all day.
Just before lunch, the dirt road finally hit trail again. I decided to go across a field to see Solider’s Rock, a memorial, and then cut across the rest of the field to reconnect to the trail. Doing that put me ahead of Pebbles, so I stopped for lunch to wait for him. He had stopped for lunch too, so he just kept moving when he caught up to me, so waiting for him had been pointless. I had to pack up my lunch stuff and by then, he was gone again. Slightly frustrating.
The trail itself was gorgeous though. Wildflowers everywhere, snow capped mountains in the distance, open scenery that moved into deep woods with aspen groves and pine trees. The trail went mostly down hill for miles and miles until eventually hitting a dirt road that takes you into town. There was a creek that I followed the majority of the way, so I always had water, and some wet feet too.
I even got turned around at one point, because we weren’t staying on the redline to get into town and the road to take us over to Monarch Pass tomorrow. I swear, I wish I understood Gaia a little better-it’s the app Pebbles uses when we don’t use Farout. Apparently it has WAY better trail routing abilities, I just need a crash course or something. Pebbles did tell me the way to go though, so my mishap was all on me.
Thankfully, the dirt road, Pebbles was waiting for me! I was quite relieved to have physical proof I went the right way-or that we both went the wrong way but were together again! Haha! We decided to walk into the Trading Post restaurant in the tiny town of Sargents, Colorado. I ordered a Philly cheesesteak with hand cut potato chips, Pebbles got nachos. Mine was superb, the nachos were very basic and very overpriced for what he got. We ordered dessert, and that made up for the crap nachos. The wine made everything better in my opinion.
Around 8pm, we hiked out of town, walking along a 2 lane highway until we reached an abandoned campground. We walked through, picked a campsite that didn’t look like it could be seen from the road, and set up our sleep stuff. We’re going to Cowboy incase we have to pack up quick and move. I sure hope we don’t though.
It’s already after 9pm and pitch black out here. Hopefully that means I’ll sleep good! Plus there’s a little white noise from the cars going by on the highway.. that always seems to help.. or really hurt! We get laundry and showers tomorrow when we make it to the Butterfly House, a hostel at Monarch Pass. I can’t wait!
Goodnight yall!