Day 54 – The Brexit
Day miles: 19.3
Trip miles: 1038.1
I stayed up kind of late last night trying to get caught up publishing my journals. I still managed to wake up at 6:15AM, though. I made tea at the hostel and drank it while I topped up my phone charge. It was so homey at the hostel! I could feel myself sinking into that couch, even going back to bed. For some reason, episodes of The Office were playing quietly on the television. I could see myself stretching out on the couch, maybe getting another Higgles ice cream in a warm waffle cone…. I had to leave Breckenridge. It was time to Brexit.
Zero days in towns are good, but sometimes I feel like they make me soft. I packed up my bag, put on my smelly shoes, and headed out. It was time for breakfast.
I went back to Semplice Cafe and got their avocado toast and a flat white. I figured I would also stop at Daylight Donuts. The avocado toast was quite good and I am pretty sure they made the bread there. If not, it was really good bread.
I needed to catch the 8:45AM bus back to the trailhead. I had already missed my intended 7:45 bus. I dashed down to Daylight Donuts, where there was already a line. When I got to the counter, the guy who had taken my orders last time recognized me. He leaned over to the owners and said, “Hey, this is that guy that smashed two long johns, the huevos rancheros, AND the quesadilla.” Apparently I had made an impression.
I ordered a vanilla filled long john and vanilla with sprinkles to go. I chatted briefly with a nice family after almost hitting them with my sunscreen. It became a momentary projectile while I was flinging my pack over my back. They asked about my hike and were curious if I was filming for YouTube.
I made it to the bus stop with time to spare and managed to swallow my long john just as the bus pulled up. I ate the other donut on the bus, and then realized my buddy at the donut shop had again given me some free donut holes. The Daylight Donuts crew was awesome!
I hopped out at the trailhead and walked through a community of nice cabins. It looked like peoples’ vacation homes. There are a LOT of people with money in Breckenridge. When I was at the post office yesterday waiting in line, a man struck up a conversation with the woman in front of me, who had two young kids with her. He talked about all of the land he had in Hawaii, and how he owned over 11,000 elephants through protected safari land he owned in Africa. He was also a fly fishing guide. He told her where he lived in town and to come by if she ever wanted to take the girls on a safari. That’s the kind of neighbor you might have in Breckenridge.
I climbed away from the cabins in what was going to be an all uphill day, for the most part. Colorado has definitely spoiled me, because while there were some beautiful views looking back towards Breckenridge on the way up, overall the day was sort of “filler” scenery by Colorado standards.
This section of trail was incredibly popular with mountain bikers. I spent s lot of time stepping aside for bikes. I just have had at least 60 pass me. It slowed me down a bit, but what can you do?
I ran into Straight Mike again, whom I had met just after Hope Pass and before Twin Lakes. He was sitting down and having a break with a section hiker from Eritrea, who now lived in Denver. We chatted for a bit and then I took off.
A long thundershower blew through, but it didn’t rain very hard. That said, I was coming up on a very long exposed section of trail, so I stopped just short of losing the trees at Georgia Pass. I could see storms rolling in and did not want to get caught out in them. After Georgia Pass, the CDT leaves the Colorado Trail for good and climbs up and over three or four peaks and some ridge line over 13,000 feet. After that I will have the choice of hiking the CDT to get to Gray’s peak, a 14er, or taking a high route alternate there called the Argentine Spine. I’d like to take the spine, but it all depends on the weather and when I can get there. I’ve heard the climb up Gray’s is tough.
I will get an early start tomorrow so I can get a lot of that high elevation stuff done earlier in the day. I may wait until day after tomorrow to summit Gray’s. I have heard there are mountain goats on this section. I really hope so! I would love to see one.
It seems to be clearing up as I type this, so hopefully the morning will be nice. I was grateful for my town experience and the rest, and for the delicious food I had this morning. Now it’s time for an early sleep!
Day 55 – The Cliffhanger
Day miles: 20.2
Trip miles: 1058.3
Fireworks and guns – that’s what I listened to inside my tent until about 12:30AM. There was a jeep road nearby, and I guess they all camped somewhere down from Georgia Pass. Fortunately no bullets or rockets found their way into my tent.
I got up early since I had a day full of high peaks to climb over. My tent was pretty damp from the rain that fell overnight. I got my stuff together, ate, and I was hiking by 5:30AM.
The morning was beautiful. I ran into a Colorado Trail hiker almost immediately. At Georgia Pass, the CDT branches off from the Colorado Trail. He was the last CT hiker I would see. It’s kind of fun seeing them at this stage because they are only about 100 miles into their hikes. We chatted for a minute or two, then both walked in opposite directions.
Of course, the minute the CDT leaves the well-groomed Colorado Trail, it turns onto a decrepit dirt road. But hey, I kind of like its unpolished and raw exterior. The minute I climbed up that road, I was above tree line. I stayed that way until the end of my hiking day.
Between Georgia Pass and the climb to get to Mt. Edwards and Grays Peak, the trail is completely exposed until the descent right before the climb to Mt. Edwards. I was really glad that I stopped at Georgia Pass last night – I wouldn’t have wanted to endure a thunderstorm high up on an exposed summit.
The views today were absolutely incredible, as was the hiking. I had beautiful weather. The storms didn’t start building until around 3:30PM. It was windy on the ridges, but not too windy.
I climbed so many peaks and ridges today I can’t remember them all. There was Glacier Peak, Whale Peak, Geneva Peak, Sullivans Mountain, etc. several of the peaks and some of the ridge walking were over 13,000 feet. Also, there were many sections where there was no trail. I just had to keep walking in the general direction for the ridge. I loved it!
Some of the climbs were brutal – just straight up, no trail. I liked that too though. It really just felt like I was walking around on a mountain range, connecting the dots to make my way down the range.
On my way up Glacier Peak I saw a pair of ptarmigans. They came very close to me. At first I thought the male was clucking at me, but I realized he was doing a little courting dance for the female. He shook his back feathers and hopped about, following her around. She seemed bored. They were mostly brown now, but still had some white in their feathers that would probably transition out soon.
I was really hoping to see mountain goats today. I’ve heard they are around in this section, but I had no luck. They are probably highest on my “want to see” animal list for this hike.
As I was engaged in the relentless, straight up climb to Geneva Peak, I saw some backcountry skiers start shredding the snow on the backside of it. They cut back and forth on it expertly – it was very steep!
The ridge walk after Geneva Peak narrowed to where it felt like I was walking on the very edge of the mountain. I then descended over a bunch of boulders and loose rock. It all just made me feel so alive, to be out there on my own doing this.
The climbs and the ridge wore me out way more than I expected. At about 12:30 I reached a decision point – the junction for the Argentine Spine alternate. The Argentine Spine essentially continues to follow the ridge all the way to Mt. Edwards and Grays Peak. If you take that route, you never go down back to tree line until after Grays.
I really wanted to take the Argentine Spine initially because I knew the views would be amazing and it seemed like a cool way to connect the peaks. I didn’t take it though. It was early afternoon and I could see storms building in the sky. I was also very tired, and thinking it would be unlikely that I would enjoy summiting Grays today. It’s 14,254 feet high and not a place I wanted to be in a storm, or when I couldn’t appreciate it. It’s the tallest peak directly on the CDT.
I had also heard that the climbing between Edwards and Grays involved lots of rocks and was challenging. So, I took the regular CDT. This was not without great drama however.
On the FarOut map app there was a waypoint just up ahead that said “dangerous traverse, best to take an alternate route.” There was another one right after that warning of a dangerous snow cornice. I knew I was going to have to navigate these challenges. The comments in FarOut were not positive, including people turning back from the traverse and hiking a road into town, essentially yellow-blazing around it by hitching a ride farther down the trail.
The traverse in question occurred where the trail left a dirt jeep road. At first I thought the problem was getting around a big snow cornice that was right where the trail peeled off. Then I realized that the trail seemed to snake just behind the cornice, so I followed it. Once I got around the cornice, I realized the problem wasn’t snow after all; the problem was that there was no real trail. It was just a craggy cliff full of loose rock that went straight down.
There were a series of ledges, none of which looked great, and then there was a seam in the rock ahead where water was coming down – that was incredibly steep. I took my time and looked around. I was going to have to climb down this thing, hand over hand, free solo style. Ugh!
I have a history with climbing and heights and it is not good. At the same time, I knew I had no choice but to find a way down. It could be done – I had to figure it out. I started to make my way forward, grabbing rocks as handholds as I inched my feet along. Sometimes I had to make bigger moves, but I considered these carefully.
I decided the best way down was to zigzag a bit, each time getting lower. I turned back from some positions I took if I realized the next move was not viable. There were several very uncomfortable clutch moves. Doing this climb with a pack made it very difficult as I always had weight hanging off my back, challenging my balance.
I got to a point where trying to climb while holding my trekking poles was too difficult. I needed my arms to fully support me as I shifted or swing around rocks. I tossed my poles down to the ledge I knew I had to get to. If I could just get there, the rest would be a bit easier.
Finally, after some hair raising moments, I made it down to the ledge. One of the factors that made the climb so tough was that many of the rocks were not stable. They would dislodge, or even just break off under any weight. But, after quite some time, I managed to get down to the ledge.
I was now about halfway down. The rest was a steep slope full of loose scree and rock. I spent a lot of time sliding and grabbing onto things to try to control this. It took a long time to get down, and I scraped myself up a bit, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the rock climbing.
When I finally got to the bottom, I was exhausted. I was also pretty elated – O had done it! That was definitely the sketchiest thing on trail so far, and it didn’t kill me! There is something very satisfying about pushing through a difficulty like that, especially alone. I’ll be just fine though and happier if I don’t have to do that again. I think they really do need to figure something out there. Someone is going to get seriously hurt, or worse, there eventually if it just stays that way.
Once that was done, I descended into a valley and back down to tree line. I grabbed 4 liters of water from a stream. The water closer to where I would camp was tainted with mining waste, so I needed to carry some with me.
I took a slight detour down a road where an old mine had been abandoned. There was a lot of old machinery laying about, and the actual mine shaft was there inside an old dilapidated building. It had been cemented off, but the building was left in a shambles. Whoever owned that mine made no effort to clean up or restore the land once they had finished. They just abandoned it all.
The tainted creek was clear in color, or more like a chalky white. There didn’t seem to be a single living thing in the stream – no aquatic life, algae, etc. I walked by it wondering where the continuing pollutants were coming from. I could see electrical poles, which presumably were set up for the mining operation. Maybe it was on the other side of the mountain now.
I continued and started the climb up to Mt. Edwards, figuring I would camp in the last patch of trees before complete exposure. This did not work out as planned. The only spots in the trees were severely slanted, so I ended up camping on some flat ground in a completely exposed area. I have a semi-circle of mountain ridge behind me (the end of the Argentine Spine), and then my front is pretty exposed to whatever comes up the valley.
I decided the weather didn’t seem that bad. There were blue skies when I set my tent up. Since then, a thunderstorm rolled through. Fortunately the wind didn’t get too bad. I’m hoping the wind calms and it will just be a quiet night, but we shall see. It is still raining off and on and there are dark clouds floating around.
I think it should be nice in the morning. My plan is to again get up early and tackle the tall peaks before afternoon thunderstorms kick in. I was so grateful today for the amazing hiking and views, and I loved the challenge of just having to huff it straight up those peaks! Most of all, I’m glad I made it through that traverse safely and also proud of myself for just getting it done. Tomorrow is another day – time to sleep unless the wind blows my tent to pieces…. Hopefully not!
Day 56 – The Big Kahuna
Day miles: 17.9
Trip miles: 1076.2
Last night a thunderstorm hung over the valley for a while in a very dark cloud. The thunder and rain never got that bad though, and with the breeze I had from the exposed location I was in, I didn’t have too much condensation in my tent.
I woke up early, but it was cold so I didn’t get hiking until 5:45AM. At around 4:30 I saw some head lamps on, heading up the trail to Grays Peak. I made coffee and had breakfast and when I warmed up a bit, I headed out.
The morning was gorgeous. I had a view of Grays from my campsite. Grays is 14,278 feet high. Torreys is 14,267 feet and the top of it was just poking out behind Grays as I started the initial climb to get up to the ridge at Argentine Pass.
As I walked along, huffing and puffing, I heard a slight commotion in the rocks. Loose rocks and scree covered the side of the mountain. I looked up and there was a herd of 4 or 5 mountain goats standing right off the trail staring at me! I couldn’t believe it and quickly took some photos. They were so agile and had no issues navigating loose rocks on an incredibly steep hill. They were all also in the process of shedding their winter coats, as large chunks of their hair hung off of them. They were amazing creatures.
As I headed north I saw them get back on trail and start following me up. When I got to the ridge line at Argentine Pass, I ran into CDT hiker Tiempo, whom I had met briefly in Breckenridge. He was with two female hikers: Almost (from New Zealand), and I can’t remember the other person’s name. I pointed out the goats and we all watched as they marched up to the pass and began looking around for food.
After that it was time to get down to business. The CDT takes the ridge from Argentine Pass all the way over to Grays Peak. When I say the ridge, I mean the spine of the mountain – the highest point. It was probably the coolest section of trail I have ever hiked.
Sometimes, I could see down the mountain on both sides, where the ridge was very thin. It was very rocky and, at times, required a bit of hands on maneuvering to get around or down rock outcrops. I’m not great with heights, but I was somehow ok with this. Walking the thin ridge of a mountain is an incredible experience.
I took tons of photos and it took quite a bit of time to get to the base of Grays ridge. Route finding was part of it – sometimes the ridge walk would end in a rock formation that created a cliff and I would have to go down and around. When I got to Grays, all that was left to do was to go straight up.
There were day hikers at the summit. You can drive to a reasonably close parking area and walk a different trail up. No one seemed to flinch when I suddenly appeared up from the other side of the mountain. A nice man helped me to take a summit photo with a cardboard sign that was sitting there at the summit. It really felt like I earned that peak!
There was a rock bivy (a semicircle of stones placed on top of each other, meant to act as a shallow wind break) at the summit, so I sat in the other side of it, had a snack, and enjoyed the fantastic views. They were utterly breathtaking, not that I had any left to take – it was a 14er after all.
I stood up to drink some water and walk around, but as soon as I turned around I saw that there was a huge mountain coat right behind me in the rock bivy! It was just staring at me. There were a few other people around, but it really wasn’t afraid of anyone. It out its front legs on the rocks just as I snapped a picture (see picture at the beginning of this day’s entry). Thanks for the goat pose, Goat! It then walked over and proceeded to scratch its head on a sign that said “stay on the trail.” It was only about 8 feet from me. After it had scratched to its satisfaction, it decided to take a rest on a snow cornice just beside the beginning of the ridge trail to Torreys Peak, the 14er next to Grays.
This goat was amazing. It didn’t care if it was on a cornice, although at this point it was probably more of a snow bank than cornice. It had absolutely no trouble navigating snow, rock, etc. Seeing this goat up close will be one of the major memories of this hike, kind of like the cave dwelling I stumbled on in the desert.
The other three CDTers arrived about 45 minutes after me, and I showed them my goat picture before heading down the trail to Torreys. Torreys is not on the CDT, but you can connect to it via the ridge from Grays. I left my pack at the trail junction where I would pick up the CDT on my way down, then scrambled up to the Torreys summit. It only took about 15-20 minutes to get up. From the top I could see all the way to Lake Granby farther north, where I would be in about 5 days.
The views were stunning, but storm clouds were building, so I scrambled back down. I got back to where myself and the other three CDTers had left our packs. I reorganized mine a bit, looked up, and there was the goat again! It was right in front just staring at me. I feel like that goat had some strange curiosity about me, though I am not sure why. I stayed until it walked away off down a snow bank, just in case it decided to chew on the others’ packs. Sweaty gear can be a nice salt lick for animals….
As I made my way down the CDT away from the 14ers, I once again ran into goats. This time two of them stood in the trail in front of me. I got about 4 feet away, and when they didn’t move I tried talking with them. I finally just had to slowly move forward, and they hopped just off the trail onto a boulder and let me pass.
The sky continued to get darker, and then a bolt of lightning cracked down in the distance. It began to sprinkle, and I knew a soak was coming, so I showed my camera and got on my rain gear.
I had a long stretch of downhill, after which I would climb up over 13,000 feet again and walk a ridge for a while. I really wanted to clear that ridge today, but the weather continued to worsen. By the time I got to the last forest before the trail would take me above tree line, it was steadily raining and I was pretty sure I did not want to be above tree line for 8 miles in this weather.
I hiked on though, as the rain started to lighten and the sky brightened up a tad. I delayed my decision until the last possible little group of trees, but thick fog and the darkening sky made me call it quits for the day.
The mountains in Colorado demand a lot of respect. My agenda is not on their radar. I had hoped to camp about 6 miles from Berthoud Pass, the road where I will hitch to Winter Park to resupply. Instead, I’m 16 miles of climbing away. But that’s Colorado – I am just learning how to accept and work with it. It was a good decision too, because it has been raining fairly hard most of the evening!
Today was just incredible. Wonderful vistas, exciting and rewarding hiking, the mountain goats, all made for a day to remember. I’m excited to see the mountains tomorrow and also to check out Winter Park. I will most likely stay in town tomorrow evening, then hike out the next day. After that will be Grand Lake and Rocky Mountain National Park, and then my last stop in Colorado – Steamboat Springs. The miles are starting to add up!
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