Day 60: Pass Gas

6mi

On the way to the General Store construction was dusting the road that runs along the toe of the lake and dusted me in the morning. A orange haze seemed to hover over the lake. Arrived around 8am at the store. Met Sherpa and Chaz who's hiking south on the Colorado Trail (CT) sitting outside at the table. Phones and battery packs dangled from a power strip that hung out of a cracked window for hiker-use. Sherpa beat me with a shortcut around the lake on the west side. Not too long after arriving a man named Bruce popped his head out of a cabin that bordered the Store offering us showers. Found that the cabin was a timeshare he had with two other families while munching on some granola and yogurt he offered, super nice of him.

Wire Rims showed up just before lunch and asked if we all wanted to eat at the Roadhouse Lodge later, only open for dinner 6pm. Walking back to the table after making reservations we all acknowledged the store was also a gas station. We all chortled at the since hat said "Pass Gas". Hikers Gut Punch, and two from the Wounded Warrior Project showed up in the afternoon once the sun was its hottest. We all seemed to slowly be getting tanner as the day went on.

After a filling and delectable entree of Chicken Parmesan and a Moscow Mule, Sherpa and I trotted off onto the highway with less than an hour of sunlight left.

Day 59: I'll Pass

25.4mi

Bluebird skies. Met dean, Who is doing volunteer trail maintenance with the Colorado Mountain Club. The two of us showed up at either side of a loud shooting stream, yelling at each other over the white noise trying to figure out what was the safest way to cross. I noticed a faint trail up to long jump to a rock that may or may not have been slippery. Poking it with my hiking stick I skipped quickly across. On the other side we discussed the trail conditions south of me. I realized I hadn't been associating the names of the trail with the actual locations, because cottonwood pass didn't ring a bell. Passes seem to blend into each other approaching 3/4 of the way through Colorado. Ann Lake Pass was something to mention since it covered with suncups on the north side, steep too. Something to remember.

Hope pass was the second and last pass of the day before descending to the town of Twin Lakes, CO and boy was it a steep and long up. It kind of looked like Windows XP computer wallpaper from the south side. I couldn't do my usual huff and puff to the top, took a long break at a campsite half way after going straight up. It got me. The north side of Hope luckily wasn't all white. Plus you could see the beautiful lakes sitting still in flatness below. Camped right on one of the lakes on a pebble and sand shore after walking the sunset around the long trail that made a half circle around the east side of the lakes. Sherpa plopped down not too far behind in one of the many primo camp spots on such a nice afternoon. We planned on doing a half day tomorrow hanging out at the General Store in town.

Day 58: Have a Nice Trip

27.5mi

Woke at my normal time of 5am and noticed Sherp was still dead asleep under his tarp. My rustling while stuffing my bag eventually woke him, he planned on doing two +14,000ft peaks today. I was trying to coordinate a ride from a friend to Denver so didn't join.

A few notes on today's stroll:

- Saw a sign for sensitive species habitat today in a pool surrounded by tall willow bushes. There was much chatter from invisible birds.

- Pikas where chirping everywhere today, a kind of Rabbit-gerbil hybrid who make suprisingly loud chirps for their size.

- Since snow wasn't much of an issue anymore I'm not focused as much on my foot placement. Unfortunately the trail becomes rocky in no particular pattern. I tripped noticeably more today. Didn't really help my ripping shoe situation.

- South Texas Creek Crossing was pretty sketchy today. Not necessarily deep, it's just the water was moving REALLY fast.

- Mosquitoes have arrived and seemed to all be going to my shoeless feet and ankles.

Day 57: Weekend Rush

26mi

Departed at 7 AM with taxi driver Joe from Simple Lodge/Hostel with Sherpa C then picked up Wire Rims at a motel. We started hiking by 8 o'clock. We split the $60 ride 3 ways. Rims shared a Cinnamon rolls and orange juice to supplement his mediocre continental breakfast at the motel he stayed at. Met a family with two kids that were baffled that I walked all the way from Mexico to them and then to Canada. "You two should hike a trail when you get older" I said. The eyes of the two boys lit up. Another passerby was curious if I survived off fish that I caught while hiking, which is a big no. Pretty sure they may have been high or something. Dayhikers were everywhere today, likely since trail was snow free all day.

We walked through the nearly snowless Monarch Mountain ski resort, a peculiar sight. Pulled away by lunch time from the other two trying to get at least 25 miles in on this shorter day, usually I've packed up and on trail by 5:30am. Being Sunday it seemed like everyone was emerging from the woods from the trails branching out from Hancock Trailhead. "Normies" I said to myself jokingly. The trail following the trailhead was formerly an old section of railroad called the Sawmill Curve, apparently only the best engineers were sent on this route for being so dangerous. Both Sherpa and I trucked 26mi just before a long up.

Day 56: 2D 2 Do

Everything is flat. I woke to coffee already made and sat in the recliner and be an playing records while looking at the opening times for the post office, grocery, and outfitter while chatting with some fellas who were about to catch a shuttle to go mountain biking for the day. I was to ship home my ice axe and a few unnecessary clothing items home, pick up some Aqua Mira chemical water treatment to replace my defunct/frozen Sawyer Squeeze water filter, and resupply from the Safeway not far away.

Wire Rims stopped by early to drop some free food off. I ended up not having to buy no more than 1.5 days of food for the next, potentially 7-8 day section to the town of Breckenridge, CO. Shortly after I talked with my good friend Chris from art school for the first time .

Salida is rad town. It had a massive "S" outlined with bright white lights at night that flipped to a big red heart every 10 seconds or so. Street performers, dressed in what looked to be tin foil, wheeled around a boom box in a shopping cart while making sidewalkers feel awkward as they walked to their destinations.

I leave early from the hostel tomorrow morning in a taxi that I'm splitting with Sherpa C and Wire Rims at 7am.

Day 55: Salida

Had a hard hitch to Salida after Rims and I made it to the "Food & Gift Shop" at Monarch Pass where the plan was to hitch east to the Town of Salida for resupply. It took us about an hour and a half to finally coax a

driver off of highway 50 to cram us and our bags into a VW wagon that stopped for us. The couple was from the town of Crested Butte, CO where they owned ran a jerky company. Longest hitch yet, 23 miles.

We split, and I ended up staying at the Simple Hostel in town. On arrival I was greeted with no vacancy, but was able to pay $10 to sleep on the floor, initially. After Rims and I had some tasty Hawaiian pizza at the Moonlight pizzeria/brewery I was greeted with a note on my belonging from the hostels host named Mel saying that a bunk opened up downstairs. I slept the best I have in awhile.

Day 54: Grizzly Harmonica

28mi

Descending further down in altitude the temperature gave me a nice chill. I noticed something odd with how the morning sun began illuminating everything. Once the sun peeked over the ridge it looked strangely familiar, like a sun screened by the smoke of a distance forest fire similar to the sunrises I started my days with in Washington on the PCT in 2015. The sun glows a dim deep red-orange, and casts everything in a strange eerie light.

As trail rose to another bald peak listening to music I caught movement up ahead from beneath the brim of my hat, a bear, a grizzly? It was a ways away and was already walking away by the time I realized what it was, unfortunately it was walking right in the direction of the trail which curved to the left. I stopped and watched the fur ball rock from side to side into the woods I was about to kick through. I thought this would be the perfect time to practice my harmonica to let the bear know I wasn't sneaking up on it. Coming around a particularly thick chunk of forest the bear was staring 30 yards away at me. I stepped back calmly, the bear turned and disappeared. Whew, was NOT expecting to experience this down this far. I expected grizzly country to start mid Wyoming.

My day ended with Wire Rims startling me while resting at the last water source of the day by popping out of the woods from behind after not seeing him all day after walking 28 miles. Of course I was listening to the Dave Brubeck Quartet. HOLY MOLEY. The wilderness is not some place for people to be jumping out of places unannounced, especially after seeing a grizzly earlier.

Day 53: Water We Doing?

29.5mi

I spent much of today chatting with Rims. Topics ranged from talking about important functions of the body while at altitude, such as having a low hypoxic drive coupled with having a heart of large volume, something typical of world class athletes, nutrition . The Pandolf equation, essentially a way of calculating energy expenditure while walking/hiking at various grades. Also, RPE- Rating of Perceived Exertion, CPK- process capability, EOPT- forget the acronym. On another string of conversation, Rims shared thoughts recent books he read; Hillary Cash, I'm fit for Command,

Building a Democracy, The Rise of the black flag, Road to Surfdom. Naturally the conversation shifted to the healthcare system.

Amidst talking and walking we crossed paths with a fella named Andre, he was training to attempt to set the record of the Colorado trail. We all explained what the snow conditions were like in trail south, and hypothesized whether or not snow would be gone by the time he starting gun sounded in two weeks. He seemed very optimistic, he likely has to average over 50mi a day in order to succeed.

In conversation and out of contact with our GPS' we walked a total of about a mile the wrong way on dirt roads after we missed junctions, distracted by ourselves. Later in the day the same thing happened with water sources. Luckily I spotted a Creek on the topo map that we were to pass by and luckily tracked the pesky liquid down. The lack of water down at lower altitudes caught both of us off guard after not having to worry about finding it with the snow melting everywhere at around 11,000ft.

Day 52: Goodbye San Juans?

21.1mi

Caught a ride with Lucky and Wire Rims out of Lake City to Spring Creek Pass to continue on to Salida, CO. I didn't sleep the greatest last night for some reason. We had to crawl through Luckys truck to get into our seats. Found that Lucky does custom woodworking in the area, I understand he and some others were contracted to make a barn that was to, "Look like is was made by a bunch of drunk miners." He argued that it'd be easier to make if they were in fact loaded. We did learn a little about how to simulate the reclaimed wood look

Bluebird skyes today. The first half of today after leaving the pass was a lot of steep up & down but after mile 20 things are going to be pretty downhill tomorrow, all day.

I walked solo all day but met back up with Wire Rims to camp for the night. He does 5,000 calories a day, compared to my 4,000. I hope to try and not lose as much weight as I have on my past trips.

Day 51: Zero Day, and Zero Snowshoes

"Lucky is the salt of the earth," said a random man in front of the coffee shop here in Lake City, CO. At this point I have not met this guy. First order of business today was to mail my snowshoes home, because looking at the elevation for the next section to Salida we rarely get above 12,000-12,500ft where the snow tends to be in big fields. It'll be nice not having the awkward weight on my pack.

Travis dropped into the coffee shop for one last stop before heading home to a Albuquerque before his race. I showed him my repair of my shoes with poly thread and shoe goo, not cosmetic by any means, purely functional re. I know they are going to explode again within the first day or two, no doubt. I was gifted a small jar of Skippy peanut butter before he split.

Lucky did finally make an appearance around dinner, found out that he was from Dublin Ireland, and such a genuinely nice human. Decided to leave at 6:30a via a shuttle that lucky provides.

Day 50: Two Huskys in a Trunk

Found that Jim & Tracy are both ultra runners, they fed me a breakfast flavored mountain house. I was grateful.

Got a ride from another ultra runner named Travis McWhorter, who happened to be sponsored by the shoe company "Altra". His Subaru was broken into the other week, so now he has to start his Subaru with a flathead screwdriver. We both happened to be wearing the same Lone Peak 2.5 shoes, he would have given me a pair to replace had I worn size 10.5's. He's running in the Western States 100, a 100 mile race that I saw last year around this time with a friend. He had two poofy husky dogs in his trunk. He said he was decompressing before his big race on June 24th.

I said good luck, and settled into the Ravens Rest Hostel, which, was locked and seemingly closed. However after calling the owner, named Lucky, told me there was a key to my right in the larger Weber grill. I had the whole place to myself, a strange feeling. Later I had good company from hikers Sherpa C & Big Sauce. We repaired our torn shoes and horfed down gratuitous amounts of calories. This hostel had got to be one of cleanest I've been in.

Day 49: Yurt Karma

Took a cross country route that went along the Continental Divide which hovered around 13,000 for 5 miles. Probably the hardest I sucked air on this trail so far since it was a bit of cross country uphill. The divide provided views worth the effort.

Stayed in a Colorado Trail Yurt (a much fancier version of an Appalachian Trail lean-to) on a bunk. I met Jim & Tracy there who were playing rummy when I barged in in a daze. Apparently it would have been closed if they weren't there. It was padlocked. They both met while working for Dell. Jim a sales representative, Tracy a lawyer. They both run ultras, Tracy paced people for western states races a couple times. Jim is actually from Grand Rapids, MI just like me. What's with all these people from Michigan? They fed me a Mountain House lasagna for dinner. I said trail magic, he said good karma. They had two dogs staying in the yurt who were searching for mice, Izzy & Darby, mutts I guess but cute. The sunset tonight was one to remember.

Day 48: Colorado Trail

17.6mi

It feels like I've already spent so much time in he mountains. The New Mexican deserts didn't seem so time-dense, must be because of the lack of foot focus I needed down there.

I slipped on suncups ungracefully and had the feeling that someone saw me and looked around, I laughed. How can I be vain out in the middle of nowhere smelling like boiled shoe?

Ants crawling on me at lunchtime, wouldn't be surprised if I ingested a couple. I was plucking the little dudes off me after I began hiking again.

I connected with the Colorado Trail at the top of a climb, which plateaued at above tree line for several miles. Different scenery than what I'm accustomed, it was almost like a tundra.

Ended my day at the foundation of an old log cabin, without hesitation I slept amongst the rubble to get out of the wind at 12,300ft.

Day 47: Bear Aware

21mi

It's tough following the trail today since nearly every time the trail emerges from the snow it had a small stream flowing through it, you were helplessly forced into the wet muddy trail by thick tall bushes. Down in a valley where the trail was especially muddy I noticed what looked to be barefoot human prints. I was like, "Th-hell?" Upon closer inspection they looked to be black bear prints. It was funny to see them in conjunction with trail runner footprints

Long downhill, long uphill today, but lots of trail in the second half. Met hiker Navi hiking southbound from Silverton, CO for a complicated reason. I told him to hit the Knife Edge early.

Had another campfire drying session at night.

Day 46: Butter Knife Edge

Likely the most picturesque morning yet, the 5 miles before knifes Edge were captivating with its rolling treeless hills and perfect trail. I should have gotten to the "Knife Edge" a little earlier feeling how the snow felt after sinking my ice axe shaft into the butter-like snow, while my feet firmly planted on the last bit of steep rock before. A good thing about snow is that footsteps preserve well even after a few thaw and melt cycles. It's funny because it also preserves the falls and slips that other hikers made in the past, I saw them as one of those, "Floor is Wet" signs you might see in a grocery. Since today was a lot of wet steep ground my right shoe blew out on its side, bummer.

Caught up with Recalc again, had lunch. Chatted a bit about Michigan. Camped near him at the end of the day near a cluster of lakes fearing that there wasn't going to be any snowless spots anytime soon around the upcoming bend.

Day 45: You can Go Your Own away

Woke up to the song "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac playing from Gofar's tent parked on the other side of the bush from mine. It was a sad farewell, lightened The coldest morning yet. Brutally windy all morning and I think my filter froze, making it useless for the next section, luckily the water found around here is all newly melted snow filtered through the alpine vegetation making it very clean.

Met hiker "Recalculating", a 42 year old from Grand Haven, MI, He was the footsteps I've been following in the snow for 3/4 of the day. Ran into him at taking lunch. He reminded me of what is called the "Knife Edge", one of the more well known sketchy traverses in the San Juan's, which I'll run into tomorrow.

Put in 18 miles today, with about a 50/50 trail to snow ratio. My feet were soaked by the end. It wasn't so squishy that I was post-holing, but it was enough to make me feel like I was walking through molasses. I built a fire pit out of snow on the side of a drift, the snow seemed to help reflect the heat back onto me. Sitting in my sleeping quilt like a wet burrito I couldn't help but think of all the dead trees around me, dead from beetle kill, might fall on me in the middle of the night.

Day 44: Onwards 2 Creede

Woke early around 5:30a after staying up 'till nearly 1:00a, Nick somehow was already chipper and ready to go at 7:30a like we agreed upon. Wings, due to a limited budget decided to drop off the trail and do some solo travel, he talked of doing a bike tour of sorts around home in Kentucky. First he said he was going to hitchhike all the way back out east. He didn't want to get 3/4 of the way through the trail and have to quit due to money.

Rode with Nick and Gofar to Wolf Creek Pass. Nick drove up a dirt road partially covered with snow that cut the initial climb out of the pass. It was bouncy as hell. Loading out I forgot my trekking pole back at the house. Pissed for a moment, then Nick and I scooted back for its retrieval.

Gofar waited for me and we cruised out to where the Creede Cutoff intersected the trail. This was where Gofar and I were to split in the morning. I go the long way he goes the short way. I am pretty confident that I can do the 105mi solo to Spring Creek Pass, where I'd hitch into Lake City, CO.

Day 43: The Bike & Firepit Stories

Went to get groceries on Chrissy's bike she offered to us, but soon found that the Walmart was a 3 mile uphill highway road. I ran over a piece of un-barbed wire that instantly lodged in the spokes of my rear tire, I stopped for awhile to unravel it. At the mart I bought food and charcoal for grill for the guys back at the yard. Reluctantly my FRONT tire went flat 3/4 of the way down that damn hill with my backpack full of groceries.

Back at the yard I sorted through 8ish days of food for the next section to Lake City. What I brought back to cook were ribeye stakes, corn, and avocado. Wings and Gofar were pleasantly surprised.

For second dinner we all walked down the back roads while Chrissy searched for asparagus and other wild edibles, we bought ice cream from a "Malt Shoppe" down the street. Once back at the yard Nick lit a fire with gasoline with a big WHOOF. He told stories around the fire late into the night along the lines of his life, cosmology, Indian Ideologies, and the duality of all things (yin-yang).

Day 42: Pagosa Serendipity

Cut down from the mountain to the Wolf Creek Ski Resort to hitch from highway 160, got a hitch instantly from a man with rafting equipment in the trunk of his truck. Who was surprisingly 70, he said this is what happens when you stay active and healthy. Barely hearing him over the wind Wings said a quote by Napoleon (the hiker), "If you have one foot in yesterday and the other in tomorrow, you're pissing all over today." My ears popped as we dropped lower into town.

Almost as soon as we got off from the hitch we asked the first person we saw were a good place for breakfast was, her name was Chrissy, she lead us to the bakery, which lead to us getting an offer to camp in her yard, which we gratefully accepted. Once we were plopped down and acquainted with her husband Nick. A man with stories, he made his whole life seem serendipitous.

Wings and I went to the Riff Raff brewery while gofar made a phone call, Wings & I both finished the same day on the AT, with a photo of us right next to each other at the end, far out man.

We later met with Gofar & Wire-rims. Rims is a 63 year old hiking the CDT, who's done a number of risky mountaineering expeditions and succeeded, K2 & Everest to name a few. I could t help but drill him on his experiences and what he was doing with food for this section. Inspirational guy, he'll be doing the San Juan's solo too, hope to be like him one day.

"If the shoe fits, shut the fuck up and walk it off.", another good quote from Napoleon.

Day 41: Shortcut or Longcut?

We've been taking turns with who navigates out here. Gofar had a great idea for a shortcut along a forest road to avoid some steep sketchy wooded traversing. The roadwalk was a quick downhill to a ranger cabin, unfortunately I think we lost time to the bushwhack all the way back up to a wooded ridge. We also didn't realize that there wasn't a water source anywhere close to where we reconnected with the trail. Luckily we found a stream while scanning downhill from where the trail was.

We camped at the very last spot we could that wasn't above the tree line. We camped where we could, in the trail, which also happened to be the first spot with cell reception (also known as "G's") in days.