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.

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.

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.

MVI_1167

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.

Climbed Mt. Taylor. Piece of cake :p Postholed down the north side. Climbed the steep jeep road to the radio towers. We saw our first rain here. We scrambled to set up our tents on the jeep road before the rain came. My tent poles had broke so it was taking me longer to get mine set up. Luckly the rain never got bad and we probably could have hiked on to a better spot.

The trail north of Grants has been awesome. Ther’s actually a trail. Lots of walking on top of mesas with great views. After the climb down from one of them, I forget the name, we were planning on finding the water source, tanking up and hiking on…until we heard this call "do you want a beer", again "do you want a beer" I say to Sweep, is she talking to us? I obviously wasnt thinking straight because there was no one else for 50 miles that she could have been talking to. So again, long story short, we met a great group of people and ended up not hiking any more that day. We instead sat around the fire and talked and ate and drank and had a great time. We camped out in this big open area with mountains and mesas in the distance and a sky full of stars.

Walked on a lot of roads

Saw a cow sitting under a tree with its head cut off, dead of course.

Camped in the No Camping picnic area by the Narrows. They didn’t mean US.

Walked the Rim Trail by the Narrows outside of Grants, very nice.

Bushwacked down to the road after the Rim Trail since they made it a dead end trail. So we made our own trail down to the road. There’s no backtracking in thru-hiking.

More road walking

Climbed under the barbed wire fence and camped out about 8 miles outside of grants. Got poked by cactus.

More road walking.

Stayed at the Best Western. Jaccuzi, internet, bar, resturant, nice room except the airconditioner wasnt working too good. Called Popsicle and Buckeye and told them where we where and they turned around and came back into town. Made bunches of phone calls to replace all my gear thats been breaking.

Got packed up, 20 minutes before checkout we decided to stay another night. Sat in jaccuzi, ordered one of everything off the bar menu and sat in our room and pigged out.

Hiked 5 miles out of Grants, got turned around (a.k.a lost), ran low on water, Sweep witnessed Crabby Max, hitched back into town and stayed another night.

As I lay in my bed on my second day in Quemado I get a call from Sweep. "Get dressed, we’re about 5 minutes away"
Popsicle, Buckeye and Sweep were able to borrow a jeep in Pie Town and decided to take a drive to rescue me. There isn’t cell phone service in Pie Town so they couldn’t call me so they werent sure I would go back with them since I had already paid for my room. I’m like HELL YEAH I’ll go back to Pie Town. I didnt realize when I past through that The Toaster House was a place that hikers could stay. I had heard that we could hang on the front porch and send resupply boxes there but I didnt know we could do showers and laundry and sleep inside and hang on this awesome front porch and eat anything that was in the fridge. Awe man!!!! Oh well, I was glad to be there. So glad we took the next day off.
Everything in the house is supposed to be up for grabs (at least thats our understanding of how places like this work) So on our day off what would be better then a little Mexican fiesta. We had chips and salsa and we had discovered the makings for margaritas sitting in the corner woo hoo. A while later as I was in the shower, Sweep yells in, "where did the margarita stuff go?" Long story short…..we had been cut off. I’m not sure what happened but I think when Nina stopped by she took it with her. We were far from getting out of control but I’m sure this was for our own good. :/