Tag: triple crown

Start: Mirror Lake Alternate 5.6

Stop: Colorado Trail 125.7

Today’s Miles: 25.6

Total CDT miles: 869.4

I am so utterly worn out. 

I slept great, once I warmed up. I was in my leggings, down booties, beanie, and puffy.. and it still took about 30 minutes to get warm. I never got hot and never took off any of my layers. I’m shocked!

We decided last night before bed that we would get to the road to Cottonwood Pass and take it up and over the pass, down to the Colorado Trail. We realized a little too late that this is the part of the loop to Twin Lakes that Nope was taking from the Butterfly House. If we had known about the snow then, we’d have done the same from there, instead of needing to go up and over a busy road pass again, and then also adding miles to our trek. Oh well. Live and learn. 

Pebbles left about 10 minutes before me this morning, and I got to walking just after 6:30, bleary eyed and cold. They say it takes 3 weeks to form a habit and all that-I’m on round 3 of thru hiking and on day 49 of this round.. why am I still not a morning person? 

The trail was mostly up for the first part of the morning, starting off in wooded forest and opening up to gorgeous views above the tree line. Right when I was spotting my last bit of trees for the foreseeable future and planning where to go dig a hole, Pebbles appeared from behind me! I screamed and almost had a really big problem on my hands! 

He had somehow taken a wrong turn and went down the wrong path for at least a mile before he realized it. This whole time I was trying to push myself to climb faster because I knew he’d be so far ahead of me, and he was accidentally behind me! He carried on up the mountain and I snuck off into the woods to dig a hole-ultimately still being forever far behind him. 

The views at the top of the climb were gorgeous, and there was a long line of snow right at the top-I just hiked around it since the mountain was otherwise a grassy bald. On the way down, somewhere before the junction to the road for Cottonwood Pass, a girl came walking my way. I asked her about Lake Ann Pass. She said it was sketchy, but doable. After chatting a bit, I had a feeling Pebbles may want to change his mind and take the redline instead of the (snow free) Colorado Trail after talking to her. 

I was a little anxious, but resigned myself to be ok with going either way. It would be sketchy in the snow with a cornice and vertical descent, but if everyone can apparently make it, surely I can too. When I finally caught up to Pebbles, who was just packing up from his lunch, he informed me of exactly what I had expected. He decided to chance the redline. 

I sat down and started eating my lunch, and asked if he’d wait for me before crossing it, since I’m slower and I didn’t want to cross it, and potentially slide to my death alone. He said he would. He didn’t leave right away, and chatted with me awhile instead. By the time I was packing up from lunch (only 25 minutes later, if even), we were back to taking the Cottonwood Pass road walk to the Colorado Trail. 

I was instantly relieved. And then the next obstacle: he wanted to hitch to the Colorado Trailhead junction, 15 miles from here up and over Cottonwood Pass. I didn’t want to ruin my continuous footpath over something I could control. We stood at the road for a few minutes, and when no cars immediately came by, I told him I’d rather walk the 15 miles, but he could hitch and go without me. 

We both ended up walking the whole way. Instead of going in a few miles on the Colorado trail, we’re camping at the junction. We did a little Bushwhack off the road uphill right before Cottonwood Pass, and it wore me out. Then, coming downhill for roughly 10 miles, baking in the sun and walking on the asphalt-my body feels cooked. When we got close to the junction, I yelled up to him, “I’m not going up a pass tonight!” 

From the junction, the trail goes up 2500 feet to a mountain pass. I don’t care that it didn’t have snow on it-I wasn’t going to go up it at all tonight. My legs are baked and I have heat rash brewing on my back, hips, and butt. I’m tired. I told him as much when we got water from the creek that crosses right at the junction. I know I sounded snappier than I intended. 

I assumed he’d keep going, but instead he stayed at the junction with me. He seems a little irritated, but I could be projecting. I hate feeling like I’m holding him back, but I also can’t keep pretending I’m 22 and can just keep walking when I feel awful, just because he can. Yesterday was over 8 miles more than we planned, and we already made it to 25 miles today. We don’t have to keep pushing so hard when we’re technically doing just fine on time. 

Anyway. That’s today. I’m tired and burnt and exhausted. And I don’t know if I’ll be able to stick to his mileage or if he’ll want to keep waiting on me. Which is totally fair both ways. I really don’t want to hold him back and have him resent me because I can’t keep up. Ugh. Alright. That’s it. Goodnight y’all. 

Start: The Butterfly House 

Stop: Mirror Lake Alternate: 5.6

Today’s Miles: 24.6

Total CDT miles: 843.8

YALL! Today FELT like we’re really IN COLORADO! Finally! The peaks, the climbs, the snow, everything felt like I expected Colorado to feel like, and it was glorious! 

I slept ok at the Butterfly House-having my own room was essential for that, but it was stuffy, which always makes for a hot night. I opened the window at some point to get a breeze. It kinda helped. Either way, Pebbles and I were on the road by 7:30am. The gravel road out of the Butterfly House was steep and quickly went into deep forest. There were random cabins off in the distance, but it was clear that they were off grid or hunting cabins-albeit, very nice ones. 

Once the road turned to trail, we passed a cabin that had a sign saying trail magic by the creek. We were too lazy to go looking, but that cabin was on some pristine land. A stunning creek running in front of it, and then a complete bowl of mountains all around. Absolutely beautiful in every way. As was the trail as it climbed to the top of Chalk Creek Pass, with alpine lakes and huge boulders all around. Once we hit the top, we were greeted with epic views, more lakes off in the distance, and so many wildflowers! 

I was in a hiker’s heaven. Everywhere I looked was stunning! It was steep going down the back of the pass, but nothing terrible. I didnt fall, but I did come close to sliding down to my butt more than a few times! The lakes below all had fishermen at them and most of the fishermen had dogs, too. Literally a Colorado dream. After passing the second or third lake, the trail connected to a dirt road that clearly required off road vehicles to traverse. 

Then, it went a long an old railroad path for a while before turning back to trail. That was when we started to climb again and had a few patches of snow to contend with. Where we could, we went around, but the patches we did have to traverse were pretty easy and not high risk in any way. Every time I wanted to panic, I thought of the 8 billion trail runners out here running across this snow in regular sneakers. Hard to be a wimp with the potential of being shown up so easily keeps popping up. 

Pebbles and I ate lunch together in the trees off the side of the railroad path and people watched for a bit before continuing up and across that snow. The trail inevitably turned into a gravel road, and from a distance we could see a huge cornice of snow at the top of the next pass we were heading towards. We were starting to get anxious about it, not knowing how steep and what the other side looked like, when a four young guys in an old bronco came barreling past us. 

We watched as they continued up the road, switchbacking and getting ever nearer the snow. Then, they stopped! We just KNEW they were stuck and the snow was impassable and we were about to have to do something sketchy. As is the case most of the time, we were wrong. They were only stopped to play in the snow for a bit and to then keep going. We talked with them a minute, asked them about the road ahead-as we heard it was impassable by the lake. They hadn’t gone that far yet, but were planning to get to the same campground we were, so we’d probably see them there.  Cool cool.

The snow along the sides of the road was higher than our heads! It was pretty fascinating. And the entire road walk down from the pass was soggy from all the freshly melted snow. There was a marmot that tried to let me pet it, it was very curious of us and seemed sweet, but before I touched it, Pebbles said I shouldn’t because it could bite-solid point. Don’t trust the critters, no matter how cute and fluffy they are! 

As we started getting close to the lake at the bottom of the pass, the one we read flooded out the road around it, making it impossible to pass around it without getting wet, we were beginning to think our information was outdated and it would be totally fine! Those guys hadn’t come back, after all. Then we turned the corner. And our information was quite up to date. As a matter of fact, there was a Defender SUV floating up ahead in the lake. The guys we saw must have seen the SUV and decided against attempting to cross. There were water drip marks showing their multi point turn. Then I realized they were parked a little ways back in a makeshift campsite. Nice. 

We were able to scoot around the side of the lake by holding onto bushes and basically bushwhacking through ridiculous terrain to get to the other side of the lake where the road eventually emerges from the water. Pebbles stayed completely dry. My feet got wet when I miscalculated a step or 17 trillion. Whatever. We all know Grace isn’t my middle name. If I could have seen the bottom and could easily gauge how deep that water was, I would have just walked through it. I don’t trust myself not to sink to my shoulders and soak everything I own though. 

One on the other side, Pebbles and I found the campground and then walked through the whole place to find where we wanted to camp for the night. It got cold fast! I’m in all my layers at the moment. We’re set up towards the front of the campground so we can get up and out quick in the morning. There are several other campers nearby, one is a family with younger kids that were all super nice to us. We talked with them about the SUV in the lake and all got a good laugh. 

Once again, we’re cowboy camping. I swear, I’ve probably cowboy’d more than I’ve set my tent up on this trail so far, and I only did it one time on each of the other trails. Funny how things change and your comfort grows. Speaking of comfort, time to snuggle down in this quilt and get cozy! Maybe I’ll sleep good in this cold! Goodnight yall! 

Start: HWY 50 

Stop: The Butterfly House

Today’s Miles: 12.6

Total CDT miles: 819.2

I slept GOD AWFUL last night, thanks to the mosquitos. I even sprayed some bug spray around myself, but it didn’t seem to help at all. I would fall asleep bundled up in my quilt, wake up from being hot-take it all off-and then get attacked. Rinse and repeat. I saw the time tick by, 22:28, 00:42, 01:20, 04:13. Ugh. 

Pebbles was up early, by 5:20, and packing up. He wakes up so much better than I do. I rolled over and decided I’d get a move on when my alarm went off. I woke up at 6 and started packing, unsure how far ahead of me he was. I was hiking by 6:15 and a mile up the highway there was a spring I got water from. The water came out of a pipe and into a big barrel, the whole area covered in graffiti. I filtered it, and it tasted fine.

The road was 7 miles total from where we camped straight up to Monarch Pass. Wouldn’t you know that with just over a mile to go, I had to sneak off into the woods and dig a cat hole. Squatting while looking out onto unsuspecting drivers was somewhat entertaining.. as I was praying I was out of their line of sight-even if they weren’t out of mine. I had to time everything by the cars shooting by. Fun stuff. My hot pink sun hoody definitely doesn’t help me trying to hide, either. 

Back on the road, squeezing tight to the sharp rocks to give the drivers the most space possible, Pebbles told me he was at the top and planned to wait for me there. Neither of us bought anything from the restaurant there, as it was a bit overpriced. By 9am I was heading the 5.6 miles downhill, all the way to The Butterfly House, the hostel we’re staying at tonight. 

I made it just before 11am, and Pebbles was ramped up and ready to go apparently. I had to take my shower, start my laundry, you know-the normal chores. It was still early in the day, I wasn’t sure why he was so rushed to get to the town of Salida. I mean, I know I wanted a meal in town-but that never seems to be his motivation. 

He patiently waited for my clothes to be put in the dryer, talking to another hiker named Nope. Once the clothes were in, we said our goodbyes to Nope, who let me put my pack in the private room he used, so I could claim it, and we set off towards the main highway to hitch into town. I had on loaner clothes, this odd patterned dress and a pair of shorts, plus my puffy. Im sure I was a sight to be seen. Obviously the passersby agreed, because no one stopped until Pebbles was in front of me. I think my praying hands helped, but whatever.. haha, I know I looked crazy. 

We caught a ride with a guy from Florida who has been living here for 4 years, working as a fishing guide. He and his cute black lab, Gretchen, were very cool. He definitely has the laid back outdoorsy type written all over him. We talked the whole way down to Salida, with Gretchen in Pebble’s lap in the front seat, soaking up all of his puppy pets. 

We resupplied at a Safeway grocery store, walked over to an outfitter for Pebbles to exchange socks and for me to get a couple of dehydrated meals and a new headband to try out. Then, I walked to a pizza place while Pebbles walked to the main road to hitch back to the Butterfly House. This town’s historic downtown is so cute, I couldn’t pass up eating and hanging out a little longer.

At the Moonlight Pizza and Brew Pub, I ordered a glass of red wine, a Caprese salad, and a speciality pizza with steak, jalapeños, and feta.. and ranch. Everything was delicious! I took my time and enjoyed myself by people watching and trying to not scarf down my food. Right after I ordered, I text the people from the Butterfly House to see about a shuttle, but when I got no response after eating and paying, I prepared myself to walk to the main road and start trying to hitch back. 

I walked down pretty grid streets lined with houses, no two the same. Each one had its own complete personality. I loved it. When I got to the main road, I stuck my thumb out and started to hope. I knew it would be kinda tough, with me not looking like a CDT hiker, but like a weird lady with an odd fashion sense instead. Less than 5 minutes of trying, I got a text back from the Butterfly House folks telling me they were on their way!

I told them I’d be at the gas station 2 streets up, since I needed to get cash from an ATM and I wanted a drink.. and some shade. The sun out here is almost as brutal as it was near the Mexican border! Josh, his dog, Earnie, and PEBBLES, picked me up in a white short school bus about 30 minutes later! Pebbles had gotten a hitch halfway back to the hostel, but had no luck from there, so Josh picked him up on the way to get me! How funny!

We sang songs with Josh and Earnie, his howls hysterical.. apparently he sings better to a different artist, but we enjoyed what we got. Back at the house, we talked with Josh and Shane-the guy who owns the Butterfly House. They were a lot of fun. Eventually, I snuck back to my room to lay down and charge my phone (at a whopping 17%) while they chatted in the living room. 

Its almost 6:15pm now, Pebbles is cooking his meal in the kitchen (it smells so delicious, he’s a great cook), and I’m debating on chugging a ton of water because I can’t seem to quench my thirst. I need to reorganize and pack up some, maybe it’ll be an early night-and a good night of sleep! After last night, I need it!

Sweet dreams yall!