Day 50 – The Paparazzi
Day miles: 27
Trip miles: 980.2
At a little past 4AM, I awoke to two rather loud voices rounding the bend outside my tent. People were hiking at 4? I suppose it isn’t uncommon. About 10 minutes later, I heard the sound of clinking gear, voices, and then headlamps illuminated my tent.
This continued throughout the morning until I finally woke up. I realized I had camped on the super highway for day hikers summiting Mt. Elbert. There was a trailhead just down from where I camped where they all camp, or arrive, and everyone wants to get an early start up the mountain if they haven’t camped halfway up already. I should have known better. Someone even shouted “Good morning!” at my tent. How do you even know my eyes are open?
I still took my time packing up. I had a faint cell signal on my little ridge, so I managed to email Zpacks about my tent zipper issue. I made a coffee and listened to people walk by. I left camp at 7:30AM, which is fairly late for me.
I passed lots of people climbing up in their way to Elbert. One guy asked “did you make it up for sunrise?” He meant did I summit Elbert in the dark to catch the sunrise. People are funny – they just assume you’re doing what they’re doing, even though you could be doing a million other things. I could have said “no, I’m hiking the CDT,” or “no, I was just checking on some bearing trees.” But instead, I said “sure did.” It wasn’t a lie – I was up well before sunrise thanks to everyone summiting Mt. Elbert and my poor choice of camping spots.
Once I passed the Elbert trailhead, everyone vanished. Most of the rest of the day was spent on undulating terrain. I had some decent climbs, but nothing crazy. It was just kind of a consistent mix. The elevation profile was a bit lower, so it was all below tree line, with a few ridges that were exposed and had nice views.
I passed by a lot of lakes. There were signs of beaver life, but I saw no beavers. There is something about a mountain lake though that is just so romantic. I have always felt this way. I also hear the same from others, and I have often heard hikers talk about taking a swim, etc. While this idyllic vision is lovely, my actual experience with them is usually quite different!
While these kinds of lakes look beautiful, I remember in Maine on the AT literally watching leaches swim towards me as I peered into the water. Swim? No thanks! While the alpine lakes in Colorado look refreshing, it would be too cold for me to take a dip. Others might not have that issue. But here’s the other thing – I realized that when I stopped to appreciate one of the lakes I walked by, I was not alone. I could suddenly feel a million beady little eyes watching me.
Of course, if these eyes belonged to a moose and some mule deer, maybe even a beaver, that would be amazing. Oh no. These eyes belonged to my little winged friends forever in need of a platelet fix. My little vampiric blood addicts were all around, just waiting for me to stop. They were my own personal paparazzi, just waiting for a vulnerable moment they could exploit.
It’s amazing how quickly the mosquitos moved in once I stopped. From then on, I admired things mostly on the move. I don’t know what it was about today’s section of trail. It’s not like there wasn’t a lot of water, etc. on other sections. For some reason, the little buzzing pests were out in force on this one.
I was ok as long as I kept moving, so I kept moving, for the most part. I ran into a guided hiking group at one point and stopped briefly when the guide asked if I had passed two of his flock from whence I came. Indeed I had, I said. One of the hikers noticed my bag of Cheez Its tucked in the mesh back of my pack. “Hey can I have some Cheez Its,” she asked. What are you, crazy? “No,” I instantly replied. “There are many things I carry that I might let you use or have, but outside of an emergency, food is not one of them.” I’m pretty sure she was just joking to begin with. I definitely was not! My beloved Cheez Its weren’t going anywhere other than my gullet.
On my last bigger climb of the afternoon, I ran into three college-aged women who asked “Hey did you see a bear back there?” They were clearly concerned about it and said that a lady had told them she saw a bear. Trying to make them feel better, I said “Based on the people I’ve passed walking, it was probably just someone’s dog.” They thought this was funny. While a bit judgmental on my part, I had been passing the Kenneth Cole and Lululemon day hike crew for a bit then, as there was a nearby trail head.
I was in the Holy Cross wilderness, which has a lot of trails and seemed quite popular with weekend warriors. I told them that I wished I had seen a bear, that they always just run off, and that it is rare to see them in the afternoon. They seemed relieved and told me they really, really didn’t want to run into bears. I felt certain there had never been a bear in the first place, and proud that I could set them at ease, and marched on.
I ran into Shuttle again later. She was stopped by the side of the trail checking her phone (we hit a patch of service). She immediately said she had seen a bear earlier. Ohhhhhhhhh. It all suddenly it clicked for me. There had been a bear…. It wasn’t a hyperbolic day hiker making up a bear sighting out of someone’s German shepherd…. Ohhhhhhhh. I’ll never know if that group of girls ran into the bear, but if they did they will have quite the story to tell about this middle-aged, idiotic thru-hiker who drank his own koolaid.
Shuttle pushed on ahead and I stopped to get water and feed the mosquitoes. They pounced on me with a vengeance. I felt like I deserved it for the bear thing – a little self flogging, if you will. I grabbed enough water so that I could just flop down when I was ready to camp. With all the mosquitoes, I did not want to camp near any water.
I passed Shuttle, who was again checking her phone. We were approaching Tennessee Pass, the road into Leadville, and she was planning to stay there. I was skipping Leadville and going into Breckenridge, so it would just be a normal night for me.
I pushed on until a little less than a mile before the pass and road, then found a flattish spot in the pine forest to make camp. I could hear some cars, but it wasn’t bad. The mosquitoes were out, but not as bad in this spot. They were so bad earlier that I used Ben’s 100% Deet for the first time on this trip (and since my AT hike).
It took me a long time to get my tent to zip shut. Zpacks initially wanted more money to fix the zipper again, but relented after I explained that they never fixed it the first time. I am working out a deal with them where they will ship a loaner while they fix mine. It will require a bit of down trail coordination, but it is great that they will fix it and keep me propped up in the meantime.
I was grateful to have a zipper solution and for the lakes and relatively mellow hiking today, as well as not getting rained on. I went to sleep excited about tomorrow. I was going to have the chance to confront an old bully, and I couldn’t wait.
Day 51 – The Kokomo Settlement
Day miles: 33.5
Trip miles: 1013.7
The bully I referred to in yesterday’s writing was, of course, Kokomo Pass. In fairness, it was the entire stretch between Kokomo Pass and Searle Pass, including Elk Ridge.
In 2019, an additional 3 feet of snow fell in the mountains while I was in Leadville. Myself and another hiker tried to navigate this section, climbing successfully up the snow-covered Kokomo Pass in our microspikes, then losing our way navigating elk ridge. We couldn’t figure out where others had gone, so we went higher than the trail up on the true ridge where there was little snow.
We walked that ridge for miles until we got cliffed out. I won’t go into all the details (and you can read more in my 2019 recount), but we ended up walking over this snow cornice and glissading down several slopes to get down back to where we saw some hiker tracks. It was fairly intense.
So, I was excited to get another shot at this section under much more favorable circumstances, though it was not going to go gentle into that good night (to the great pleasure of Dylan Thomas). I was still due for a good old fashioned exciting smack around.
My vampire friends woke when I woke and helped me take my tent down. By “helped,” I mean they relieved me of the burdensome weight of some extra blood I had. I knew I was close enough to Breckenridge that I could either do a big day today and roll in early tomorrow, or have a lazy day tomorrow and hike less than 20 miles. Of course I was going to go for the big day.
I zipped past Tennessee Pass and the parking lot where one would hitch to Leadville, then out through a valley. I came to the famous unexploded ordinance warning sign and concrete bunkers that are the remains of Camp Hale, a WWII military training area. It is strange to see it there now, though the bunkers could be useful in a storm.
I pushed an and got to the base of the climb up to Kokomo Pass. It had been overcast all morning, and it appeared that the Grinch clouds were about to eat my roast beast. Small rain drops started to fall, so I pulled on my rain jacket and readied myself for moisture.
I climbed and climbed and it rained and rained. The climb kept me heated, but I was wet. The universe smiled on me, however, as the rain stopped right as I was leaving tree line to make the last push up to the pass. Funny how the powers that be sometimes know just how hard to push me without breaking me.
I enjoyed the sudden sunshine as my wet carcass lunged along up to the top. Right below the Kokomo Pass sign I saw a man resting. He got up when I arrived and said he was also hiking the CDT. He had a huge blue tarp and apparently had been crouching under it waiting for the rain to stop. Desperate times! I wish I could remember his trail name, but now I’m drawing a blank.
We talked for a bit and helped each other take pictures with the pass sign. I normally don’t do this, but given my history with this one, I decided to get photographic evidence of me settling the score.
I hiked on and followed the trail around, over, and along Elk Ridge. It was so interesting to see where the trail actually went, and then to remember the wacky path we created in the snow of 2019. If you want to read more about that 2019 experience, you can here: https://unfetteredfootsteps.com/wrong-choice-in-kokomo/. I tried to recreate some of the photos for comparison purposes.
As I neared Searle Pass, I could see Grinch clouds waiting on the other side. Small drops of rain began to fall. The rain increased as I descended, so I cut off some switchbacks and booked it straight down towards tree line.
As soon as I got to the trees, I saw an elk staring back at me. It didn’t run; rather, it just looked at me like “what are you doing here???” I walked just around the bend and stumbled on two Colorado Trail hikers huddled under a huge fir tree. It was a good rain stopper! They were waiting to see if the storm would pass before hiking the 5+ exposed miles up and over both passes.
I was wet, but I was not cold. Rather than wear my sun hoodie today, she. I saw it was going to rain, I switched to my light Smartwool base layer shirt. I reasoned that the wet sun hoodie was just wicking away heat, whereas wool is pretty good at wicking away moisture while preserving heat. Just by switching layers I was so much warmer! Voila- it seems like no matter how many miles I hike, I am always learning and adapting.
I doggedly kept going down the muddy, wet trail. I felt somewhat vindicated, not having let the two passes get the better of me. Of course, it was a whole different year and very different conditions, but still – I felt good.
Now I only had one thing on my mind- the convenience store and something warm and hot at Copper Mountain Ski Resort. The CDT drops down through this ski area and the shops are visible from the trail. I knew I could get some overpriced delicious goodies there, and it was all I could think about.
The rain picked up as I navigated the grounds. I took a few wrong turns, which was frustrating. There are multiple ski resort trails and roads that weave together and I wasn’t paying enough attention to my map app, mostly because it was raining and hard to use the touch screen on my phone through a wet plastic bag.
Eventually I got there though. I beelined for the convenience store and met two Colorado Trail hikers outside. I went in, bought two microwave burritos, a pack of Hostess cupcakes, a Reese’s big cup, a bag of Cheetos, and a Dr. Pepper. I stood by the microwave and systematically downed the burritos like an animal. It felt great to have hot food in my belly.
I went back outside and another CDT hiker from south London named Cream had arrived. I told the three hikers that I was going to go to the Starbucks to get something hot to drink and warm up. Cream promptly informed me that she had just come from there and they closed at 4PM, which had just passed.
We all decided to head to the Tavern around the corner. The staff their were really cool and served us coffee and tea. They didn’t mind that we were wet and just hanging out, and didn’t care if I ate my bag of snacks there (which I did).
After an hour and a half or so, and at least four cups of coffee, we all headed out. The CTers headed south, and Cream and I headed north. The rain was very light at this point, and stopped completely soon after I got out of the ski area. Cream was going to camp before an upcoming exposed climb known as 10-mile ridge. I, however, was not. The weather seemed to be lifting and I had my eye on the prize – an easy walk into Breckenridge tomorrow. I’d also had a LOT of sugar and caffeine, so I was a wired hiking machine! I blew past Cream and climbed like a banshee.
The views from the exposed ridge were beautiful. The sky was still stormy, but somehow that just added to it. It rained a bit at the top, and I passed another CDT hiker who introduced himself as Blackout. I’m sure there’s a good story behind that name, but it was cold and windy, so I kept going at a quick pace.
Once I got over the ridge, the wind stopped (more accurately, it was blocked). I went over one more saddle, and then down into a valley. The sun had gone down, but I still had plenty of light to see by, so I kept going. I saw a bunch of tents near the base of the saddle – probably CT hikers staging to climb the ridge in the morning. I kept going.
I hiked until about 9:15PM and settled on a spot about 5 miles from the road into Breckenridge. It was perfect. I could see the lights of the town Frisco in the distance. It wasn’t raining, but I definitely wanted to get in my tent and go to bed. Instead of cooking dinner, I ate a few bars, got myself organized for tomorrow, and passed out.
I think this might have been my highest mileage day on trail yet. I was grateful for the breaks in the weather, for the food and warmth of Copper Mountain, and for the views all around today. I fell asleep excited to see Breck.
Day 52 – The Breakfasts
Day miles: 5.1
Trip miles: 1018.8
I woke up just past 3AM and couldn’t get back to sleep. I tossed and turned and finally got up and made a coffee. I went back over my list of hiker chores for town, then got to hiking.
There is a free bus on the road to Breckenridge that stops by the trail, so getting into town was easy. It came once an hour, 45 minutes after. I missed the 6:45 bus, but the 7:45 came right on time and whisked me into town.
My first impressions of Breck were that it was a nice, cute town that was full of money. People were making money and spending money here, and if you wanted to live here you better be one of the people making money.
The town was well set up with bike lanes connecting it to the other nearby mountain towns, and gondolas leading down from the slopes. I beelined for a place called Daylight Donuts where I wanted to eat breakfast. There are a LOT of places to eat in Breckenridge, but I had done a bit of research in advance.
Daylight Donuts is a cross between a donut shop and a diner. I ordered coffee, huevos rancheros, and a vanilla cream-filled long John (a long donut, kind of like an eclair). I polished that off and then ordered a quesadilla and another long John. Yeah, I ate two breakfasts. It didn’t go unnoticed either. One of the guys that worked there saw me preparing to leave and asked, “Hey, do you want some donut holes to go man? They’re like energy poppers.” Just like that I left with a bag of donut holes strapped to my pack.
I was full, but I had walking and errands to do. I walked down the road to the UPS store and mailed my popped Thermarest back to Backcountry.com. It was nice to not carry that weight anymore. I then wandered to a few outfitters until I found a fuel canister. Now I needed to pick up a box and find a place to stay.
Gillian mailed a box to me at a place called Fireside Inn. I knew they accepted boxes but I had not been successful in contacting them about a room. It all ended up working out – they had a bed in one of the bunk rooms for me.
I threw my pack down and then went back to the bus stop to catch the same free bus to the nearby town of Frisco so that I could go to the Walmart there. I needed to resupply, and I also wanted to mail two boxes of food to different stops in Wyoming.
I finished my shopping, hopped back on the bus and got myself organized at the hostel. I donned loaner clothes and showered, handing my laundry to them to be cleaned. They do one load of laundry for hikers.
I talked with a cyclist who was in the bunk next to me – he was an older-than-me gentleman from the Netherlands. I also chatted with a couple from Scotland who were hiking the Colorado Trail.
Later I went to a place called Eric’s Downstairs and ate dinner. I ate a side salad (Caesar) and a 16 inch arugula and prosciutto pizza with a garlic wheat crust. It was delicious! I ate all but two pieces, which was a LOT of food. I heard people around me whispering. “That guy’s eating that whole pizza himself.” Damn straight! One guy, who I think was drunk, then offered me $5 if I finished the last two pieces. I wanted to save those for tomorrow though, so I declined. If he had offered $20, I would have done it.
It was a good day and I got a lot of my chores done. I even stopped at the public library for an errand that isn’t worth writing about. In looking forward to finishing chores and resting tomorrow!
Day 53 – The Zero
Day miles: 0
Trip miles: 1018.8
I’m going to keep this short so I can get some rest. Today I finished my chores and ate! I dried out my wet gear and treated my clothing and gear with permethrin. My vampire friends won’t like that…
I made it to the post office and shipped my resupply boxes to Wyoming. I shipped home my microspikes and my old rain jacket that wasn’t really doing its job anymore. Gillian shipped me a new one that I had for a while. It’s going to feel good to have something that doesn’t wet out after 5 minutes of rain.
I ate a breakfast burrito and for lunch had my leftover pizza. I spent a lot of time catching up on my journal and just listening to music in the common room at Fireside Inn – it has a very homey common area.
Later I went to Higgles ice cream where they make fresh, warm waffle cones. The ice cream was amazing! I went to dinner with another hiker from the Inn and had a delicious hamburger, truffle fries, and shake at Flip Side. There wasn’t a shortage of good food in Breck!
Tomorrow I hike north. I have some big peaks coming up, including the 14er and highest on-trail mountain Grays Peak. I really enjoyed having a rest day and the time to get organized and catch up on a few things.
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