August 17

21.2 miles

I slept in a half an hour later than I had wanted to. Sunrise was unspectacular, but luckily, no storms had come through overnight, for which I was very thankful!

I wiped as much of the condensation off my tent as I could, packed up my things and headed off. There were some ducks swimming in an alpine pond, but they flew off before I was able to get a picture of them. I wound my way through the open landscape, up and down hills.

I saw yellow marmots playing on the rocks (the kind that Mel had talked about, but which I hadn’t seen until now). I followed the path around a red, shale rock and onto some switchbacks (which were completely unnecessary-they only lengthened the distance we had to travel).
As afternoon approached, I still had another 5 miles of exposed trail to traverse, above treeline. Dark clouds were already hovering and rain threatened. I hiked as quickly as I could, but I was hungry and needed food. I found a flat rock to sit on and eat some lunch while the wind picked up. Rain began falling with three exposed miles still to hike.

As I came into a meadow region, I saw a horse near a canvas tent. I wondered who was living out here. The horse seemed curious about me and walked towards me, but ended up staying in its territory. I saw a second horse tied to the canvas tent.

The rain became heavier and then turned to hail. On and on I hiked, watching the dark clouds. I felt lucky to notice the sign showing the split for the CDT and CT. The path I was following continued more naturally in the direction of the CDT, while the CT turned a sharp right and headed uphill (not the best direction to be headed in a storm!). I was still quite a ways from the forest.

I made it to the top of the hill, and saw the turn-off for Elk Creek. Before heading down this path, however, I happened to look down into the valley on the other side and heard the “baa-ing” sound of 2,400 sheep, grazing in the meadows! What an incredible sound and sight! I looked on in astonishment! Just as with the moose, I had nearly missed the opportunity to see these animals!

I headed down the switchbacks of the Elk Creek path, which took me a long time because I kept stopping to take pictures. It was so beautiful!

There were flowers by the creek and I could see an old, abandoned wooden shack up ahead. More marmots were playing in the rocks.

Then, I descended the most slippery, steep, dangerous, and slow-going part of the trail that I had encountered yet!

After the treacherous part, the trail followed the path of a beautiful, flowing stream. I noticed the vibrant green color of the moss contrasting with the red rock in part of the stream. The rain continued on and off throughout the afternoon.
After traversing 40 consecutive miles of tundra above treeline, I was happy to finally be back within the safety of the pine trees! The soft pine needles felt welcoming to my feet, and the branches of the trees allowed me occasional respite from the rain.
Just as I was thinking that I hadn’t seen a single ranger on my entire hike, I came upon two of them talking to two girl hikers! Before leaving Boston, I had read about one guy’s encounter with a ranger at the start of his hike, who had sent him back because he had brought an alcohol stove with him. One of the girls asked a ranger if it was okay to sleep with their food in their tent. “Gasp!” he responded. They seemed uninterested in me, so I continued on.
I was feeling very tired, but was trying to get as close to the river as possible because I needed to get to Silverton as early as possible to pick up my maildrop at the post office before they closed for the weekend. My legs were tired and my mind was numb.

I passed by some campsites with lamas, then ran into a man who was headed the opposite way as me, and who wanted to chat for a bit. He told me there were two hikers right in front of me. (I had wondered if I would catch Derek and Amanda, whose parents gave me a ride into Lake City, and now I knew I had). I reached a green pond with some ducks swimming, then walked by more pines, and saw two young hikers huddled under a tree. I asked if their names were Derek and Amanda and they said yes. They were also tired and planned to spend the night there. They decided to end their hike in Silverton. I asked them to thank their parents for me and continued my way down the hill with the rain still starting and stopping.

I met another group of hikers coming toward me. They asked me if I knew the guy camping at the train tracks. I still had a couple miles to go and it took all of my energy. Finally, I reached the train tracks at 6:30 and saw a tent where I would have liked to camp at the edge of the woods. Instead, I found a spot by the tracks in the grass, set up my tent, changed into my warm clothes, and made a pot of thai noodles, which I ate inside my tent. I cleaned up my pot, brushed my teeth, and settled in for what would be my most eventful night on the trail…

August 16

18.3 miles

A day of indescribable beauty, amazing animal encounters, and of course, the ever-present fatigue!

My day started with an uphill climb, beginning in the forest, and then opening out into the exposed tundra of the Continental Divide. The beauty was overwhelming! I could see red-striped mountains to my right and amazing views in every direction. And no one else was out here! It was unbelievable! This, right, here, is exactly why I had come out here to hike!

I stopped often in wonderment and took many pictures. There was a steep climb ahead and at one point, I saw that there was a small side path to the peak of the mountain I was climbing (the Colorado Trail wound around the mountain). I decided to check it out. (I would much rather climb extra distances for views than to get water…). I carefully made my way down, and continued on a winding path around different peaks.

Eventually, I headed down to the dirt road, walking along the embankment above the wide gravelly path to avoid slipping in this steep descent, and reached the end of segment 22. I was tired! The road continued uphill, and around a hairpin. I was moving very slowly. A car headed toward me and the driver seemed strangely proud that he slowed down to avoid hitting me. (Ummm…thanks?)
Once I made my way back onto the trail, a pack of ATV riders with masked helmets covering their faces rode past me. It was a bit eerie. When the CT turned off this path to the right, I was happy to be alone and in peace again. I came out to another expansive landscape, where the trail led under a rim.

It was time for lunch and I looked for a soft patch of grass to sit on, but it was all a bit scraggly. I had wanted to reach the next water source so I would only have to stop once to collect water and eat, but it wasn’t appearing! So, I just sat down and ate. As I continued on, I saw a wooden stick with a CT marker on it with an upright black animal holding onto it!

The animal remained perfectly still as I walked towards it and I couldn’t figure out if it was real or not! Was this a stuffed animal, or maybe wooden? Did someone place it here as a joke? I yelled out to it, “What are you?” afraid that it might move towards me suddenly. It remained perfectly still! I took my camera out of my pocket and took a picture. Suddenly, it dove under the rocks! Holy cow! That was a bit creepy!

A little ways ahead, a squeaky marmot stood on its hind legs, blowing out whistles. I took a video of him.
My guidebook had said that there would be 1,500 feet of climbing for this day, but as I continued to climb, and could see that there was even more ahead, I couldn’t believe how wrong it was! I had already climbed more than that in the first half of the day! This was psychologically hard to adjust to. I was extremely tired and my head was stuck in mileage calculations. How far had I hiked so far and how many miles did I have remaining? I pressed on and on, always looking at the next climb up ahead.

For some reason, I looked back into the valley and was stunned to see a pair of moose!

I had walked right passed them and hadn’t seen them because I was so stuck in my head, thinking about how much work I still had ahead of me! I walked back down the trail to get a better view. What an incredible sight! One of them galloped into the swampy bushes and became completely hidden from view. I called to the other one and he looked up at me. I was so glad that I decided to look back at that moment!
I made my way around more interesting sculptural rock outcrops as I climbed to the next saddle.


After this pass, it began to rain and then hail, but it didn’t last long. Slowly, I made my way down toward a pond.

It was gorgeous! Part of me wanted to stop and camp there, but another part of me knew I had to keep moving. Every mile that I didn’t hike today would only mean additional miles for the next day and day after. Dark clouds were also hovering.

I took a short snack break and moved on. I headed toward the next saddle, putting away mile after mile.

As I continued through another rocky part, I found more playful marmots. I stood and watched them play with each other. They weren’t at all afraid of me.

As I continued on, another marmot ran down the trail toward me. Alarmed, I yelled, “What are you doing?” at it and it dove into a rock cairn.

I came out to another open grassy section and climbed up, looking for the intersection with a camping spot 300 feet off the trail. I arrived at 6pm, and had to figure out which way to turn. I made my way down through some bushes and into a little area my guidebook described as a “meadow”. The ground was very lumpy, had big dirt holes all around, and the grass was very thick. It was definitely not ideal for setting up a tent, but I had no choice.

I was at an elevation of 12,500 feet, in completely exposed terrain, all alone. I set up my tent, put on my warm layers, and set my stove up outside of my tent. I couldn’t see the flame and slightly burnt my fingers for the first time on this trip. I hoped it would not storm tonight! I got out of the tent several times to take pictures of the setting sun behind the rocks and nestled my body into the dirt divets.

It was cold, but not as freezing as I thought it would be at this high of an elevation. I felt a bit on edge in the surroundings I was in, all alone, but remained very calm and stoic, gathering my internal strength. Surprisingly, I ended up getting one of my most restful nights of sleep on the trail.