Max on the CDT

We entered Wyoming on the 20th in a cloud of mosquitoes. Even so, it was a great day. We’re in Lander WY now after 5 days hiking through the Great Basin. It wasn’t until day 4 that we saw our first tree and that was only one little area where a spring was located. We had been hiking with Hungy Joe for a few days now. He put up his mosquito netting and we all tried to take a nap to wait out the heat of the day. Unfortunately the netting didn’t stop the millions of ants crawling under us. After that we gave up on the idea of afternoon naps and just hiked in the sun all day.

The basin is home to herds of antelope and wild horses which was pretty awesome to see. Its also home to herds of cattle and millions of ticks, not so awesome. We also met a real cowboy who invited us back to his wagon for whiskey and steaks.

Good times.

Sorry, doesn’t seem as though updating the blog is coming easy on this trail. There’s just so much to do in town that its never a priority. After hiking the lower San Juans the rest of Colorado continued to kick my ass. This trail is making up for everything I managed to avoid on the other long hikes – lots of river crossings, getting hailed on more times then I care to remember, snow crossings, hiking above 10,000…….

I only have a few minutes on the library computer before they kick me off, so here are the highlights after we got out of the lower San Juans.

We decided to take the Creede route which is at lower elevations and avoids some of the snow. At the trailhead we met a Mark, who invited us to stay at his friend Tommy’s house. This has happened a few times where strangers invite us to come home with them. (we don’t always say yes) But Mark seemed like a really nice normal guy so we accepted. Ended up having a really great time. They even took us out for dinner. (I’m still dreaming of that steak) We took a drive the next day up to a yurt that Mark owns then it was back to town. Erik the Black was coming into town and we were meeting him. We were going to hang out there for the day then he was riding his bike up to Salida where I would meet back up with him to hike part of the trail together. We were only able to hike about 8 days together until we got to Leadville. Shortly after that the CDT and CT split apart again. Another friend of ours from the PCT, Parkay, came out to visit us in Leadville. We all spent the night in Leadville for the 4th of July watching the fireworks from our window.

Two days later I hiked out of Leadville and caught up to Sweep and Parkay (they had left the night before). We would have hiked a lot further that day but Parkay slowed us down.

So basically the hike in Colorado can be summed up by lots of big ass climbs, lots of mosquitoes, met lots of great people, got held up by two bull moose hiking into Grand Lake, got rained on, got hailed on, whined a lot, saw some amazing views, lost some toe nails.

I’ve owned an ice axe for 7 years. Yeah, I thought I was pretty cool just having the axe in my closet, giving the illusion of being a real adventurer or under my bed to hack up an intruder if the occasion ever arose. I had taken a 1 day course and knew in theory how to use it. That was good enough for me.

Rumor had it, send the crampons and axe to Chama. So we did. For some reason I thought this must be a mistake. The option for the Crede route (lower) and the San Juan route (higher) didn’t happen until after Pagosa Springs, 65 miles away.

Halfway through crossing one snow shoot hundreds of feet up the side of the mountain I look down at Sweep, a tiny speck below. She had decided to take the low route. I say to myself, self, Have you lost you mind. I look down at the ice axe in my hand and the crampons on my feet, thinking are these really my feet, wishing to hell they were someone else’s and I was really safely at home sitting on my sofa drinking wine and eating Goldfish. Popsicle was ahead of me so I just kept my head down and followed her footsteps. This was the longest crossing yet and once you get out there theres no turning back.

On most of the snow crossings we could see the run out. If we fell we at least knew where we were heading. Down. Sometimes way down. Sometimes way down into a river, lake, boulders, trees, ect. A few times we came to snow shoots and the snow dropped off into nothing. We couldn’t see over the edge. At times like these I would just keep saying Don’t freak, Don’t freak (my mantra for the next 30 miles) Sweep would yell back How ya doing Max? I would yell one verbal Good! then back to my silent mantra. I would also think about in cartoons where the Road Runner goes over the cliff, apparently to his death, then you look over and hes standing safely on a ledge three feet down.

So after 5 days in a paradise that turned to hell around every other corner, getting hailed on, getting snowed on, seeing a mountain lion way in the distance, seeing lots of elk, sloshing through marshy fields, glacading down slopes, seeing amazing views, looking back at passes we had just came down and hardly believing it was possible, one thing is for sure….. we’re taking the Crede route.

P.S. I’m never buying a wetsuit to hang in my closet.

Just when you think things will start to go more smoothly, the trail throws you another curve, literally. About 30 miles before the border, hiking on actual trail for once, we managed to take a wrong side trail and ended up down in this beautiful canyon. Instead of backtracking which is not our style, we just cut crosscounty back up through some other canyons, over some streams, up and over a hill, up and down another hill, around a small mountain, past a water hole, through some marshy fields, down a forest road and through a campground. After about a 4 hour detour we managed to get back on the CDT. So after all that we didn’t make it to the border that day but we did the next morning. It was a great feeling getting there. In another 5 miles we reached the pass and the road to Chama. I love town stops

MVI_1167

Its only been two days since I showered, I don’t need anohter one yet.

We only hiked 5 miles today. Thats pathetic.

Have my dinner sitting 5 inches from the socks I’ve been wearing for three days.

Pee 5 ft from Sweep and feel the need to announce to her every time I need to poo.

Stick needles under my big toenails to drain the blisters that have  formed there.