CDT mile 2278.8, miles hiked 30
Spooky trees and cold air make it feel like Halloween
It was damp and cold when we woke, even though we are cowboy camping 10′ apart neither of us wanted to get out of bed. I hit the snooze button on my watch a few times, yes you read that right my watch us a snooze bar, and then rolled over, lit the stove and made us coffee. We enjoyed our hot beverage as we packed up, both of us wore all of our clothes and in a flash, we started up the path. We had 30 miles to get to town and we agreed if we couldn’t make the road by 7 we would wait to go in the next day.
We made good time, one benefit of the cold is we hike faster to stay warm. The trail took us up a decent climb so by the time the sun was starting to change night into day we were stripping off the heavy layers and just wore our thermals and light wind shirts for the first part of the early morning.
A unique rocky top mountain
The sun came up and light up the forest so at 8 AM we laid in the sun’s rays basking in the warmth. By the time we got moving the clouds were back and we had to get moving to get warm. The trail was nice, the terrain stuck to the divide and we never had any major climbs.
We had plenty of cell signal once we hit the road so we had some fun online posting pictures on Instagram and the like. Tatu-Jo had a field day with me being a sponsored hiker and our humor was probably lost on some but the comments we got from friends helped the miles go by quick. At one point we were joking around so much we missed our turn to the trail.
Trail signage
Tatu-Jo and I decided we would bushwhack back up to the trail instead of backtracking. Soon I found myself walking uphill through blowdown hell. I swear the state of the forest in this country is really sad. We worked our way up, over, under and around the various blowdowns until we rejoined the trail.
Finally, at 10 til 6 we passed through a gate that was 1 mile from McDonald Pass. We sat down for a final snack and slug of water and then powered out the last mile to make the highway and get to town. After about 15 minutes a guy in a Highlander picked us up and gave us a ride to town. He even took the time to drop us at our hotel.
As the tired hikers we were, we dropped out packs in the room and went for food. We passed a Thai restaurant and the smell of fresh curry drew us in. We sat down to a great meal of soup, satay, and curry. Then walked up the street to get some ice cream.
When I got back to our hotel I finally got to talk to home. Unfortunately, it was not a great call. Suzy informed me that tomorrow is her last day at work, the company is not doing well so they are laying people off and she was in this round. After calming her down and assuring her things would be alright, we talked about the nuts and bolts of the next few weeks and my return. I told her to take a few weeks and enjoy the end of summer, do her artwork and enjoy some rest.
I know that things will work out in the end, one thing the tail teaches you is that no matter how hard, how bad or how what the heck moment you are dealing with is, at the end of the day it all works out. Now I just need to avoid getting eaten by a Grizzly Bear between here and the border and life will be good in the end.
